User reviews

A lot of people don't find The Cocoanuts to be as entertaining as some of the later Marx Brothers films. Maybe not, but it definitely comes close. Personally, I thought this was the Marx Brothers' fifth best film. It's not that it's bad, because it great, but it's just not as good as some of the others, that's all.

As several other people have said, it really doesn't stand up technically as well as most of the others, but that has nothing to do with the quality of the script, which is just great. I truly believe that if I had seen this in 1929, I would have been as hooked on the Marxes as I am now.

There are many great bits in this movie, including the first scene between Groucho and Chico, the Auction, the connected bedroom thing, and the first time we ever see Groucho do his thing with Margaret Dumont. But the only scene in this movie to make my personal Ten Best Marx Scenes is the Why-A-Duck routine. Genius, it's just pure genius. That's my only word for it.

Harpo really doesn't have a lot of good stuff in this movie. He's great in what he doesn't have, but he really shines in Monkey Business and Duck Soup. Those are his two best performances, if you ask me. If you are looking for classic Harpo, I'd suggest watching either of those. Also, Zeppo, obviously, has nothing to do. But then, what did you expect?

This movie has a few actually rather unfunny spots in it, but you can blame that on the fact that this is the brothers' first movie, and they are still getting used to the camera. But it has a lot more comedy than non-comedy and is still a whole lot better than most of the "comedies" that are coming out nowadays.

This may sound a little strange, but if you have never seen a Marx Brothers movie, I suggest watching this one first. It's a lot more enjoyable if you aren't expecting it to be equal to Duck Soup or Animal Crackers. Because it's not. But, as I can not stress enough, it is still worth checkout, and better than than anything they did post-A Night at the Opera.

Well, it's the Marx Brothers best movie of the 20's, anyway.

8/10

The creative talents of George S. Kaufman, Irving Berlin, and the Brothers Marx went into the production of the Broadway musical The Cocoanuts which ran for 216 shows in the 1925-1926 season. Of the talent involved it was the Marx Brothers who came out the winners.

George S. Kaufman was one of the great wits of the last century, but so were the Marx Brothers. They ad-libbed and eliminated much of Kaufman's well turned prose and things were pretty tense between him and the brothers on Broadway. He also did not like a certain song that Berlin wanted to use in The Cocoanuts and Berlin took it from the show after Kaufman ragged on him. The song was Always. The Cocoanuts was the first book musical that Irving Berlin ever wrote, he did mostly reviews before The Cocoanuts. It also is the only one without a single hit song from it.

But as a Marx Brothers comedy it made the Brothers reputations. The plot such as it is concerns the boom in Florida real estate in which a lot of people got wealthy and a lot lost their shirts, though not quite in the way Basil Ruysdael does when Harpo and Chico take it off his back while he's trying to frisk them in his duties as the house detective.

The Cocoanuts was shot at the Paramount Astoria studio in Queens and used a lot of Broadway performers in the roles. Besides the Brothers, only Margaret Dumont and Basil Ruysdael came over from the Broadway cast. But Oscar Shaw and Mary Eaton had well established reputations on Broadway. Kay Francis is in the cast as the bad girl and she certainly went on to a substantial Hollywood career.

The main thing The Cocoanuts has going for it besides the Marx Brothers is the fact it is a filmed record of a Twenties era Broadway musical. Paramount made very few concessions in adapting The Cocoanuts to the screen. What we see is filmed play. Historic, but I fear not as entertaining as the later work of the Marx Brothers.

The Marx Brothers first motion picture and Paramount's first "all talking, all singing, all dancing" musical will delight fans of the Marx Brothers, musicals and early cinema alike. While dated and somewhat stagey, after all it *was* basically a filmed version of their hit Broadway show, it holds up better than many films of its day. Kaufman and Ryskind, who also wrote the stage show, wrote the screenplay with an eye to making the Marx Brothers wit appear spontaneous and natural. I remember how shocked I was when I first realized the boys were using a script!

The movie is laced with classics of Marxian comedy. The famous "Why a duck?" scene with Groucho and Chico (remember - it's pronounced Chick-o, not Cheek-o, because he was such a womanizer), Groucho answering the telephone at the hotel's front desk (Ice water? Ice water? Peel some onions. That'll make your eyes water.) and Harpo shaking hands with the house detective while all of the hotel silverware falls out of his coat pockets.

Margaret Dumont is priceless as the clueless matron. She claimed in later years it wasn't an act; she really had no idea what the brothers were doing. Regardless, she is the ideal foil for the boys as they tear into "polite" society.

Take a look at The Cocoanuts. You'll see the wellspring from which all that Marx madness flows.

Jon Brian Waugh

A brilliant film debut by the Marx Brothers in this 1929 musical comedy (from Broadway) about land speculation in Florida, jewel thieves, and well the Marx Brothers. In their first film, all the familiar schtick and word play are already in place with Groucho, Chico, and Harpo all excellent.

As usual there is also a romantic young couple--Mary Eaton and Oscar Shaw--and bad guys--Kay Francis and Cyril Ring. Also making her film debut at age 40 is the wonderful and imperious Margaret Dumont. Basil Ruysdael plays the house detective. Zeppo Marx plays the desk clerk.

A blah ballad is sung to death, but The Monkey Doodle-Doo song is terrific and well sung and danced by Eaton (a Broadway star) and chorus. Oddly staged productions number with chorus in monkey suits and tourists milling about in the background. But Eaton is quite good, considering the early sound equipment. And she has great legs.

Francis is fun in her second film (she made five in 1929) but teamed with the unappealing Ring. Shaw is OK but seems too old to be playing the juvenile lead.

But while Dumont, Francis, and Eaton are fun, it's the 3 brothers who dominate the film. Several classic bits, including the viaduct gag, Chico's great piano solo, Harpo getting to steal a few scenes, and of course Groucho riding roughshod over everyone. What a treat! While Kay Francis went on to major stardom in the 30s, Mary Eaton made one disastrous film after this hit, Flo Ziegfeld's Glorifying the American Girl. That ended her starring career in Hollywood.

The more I watch the Marx Brothers the more I appreciate Chico, who was always my least favorite of the 3. Now I notice his perfect comic timing and I just love his piano solos.

Contrary to popular belief, Cocoanuts was not the first Marx Brothers movie. That honor belongs to Humorisk, a silent film which no longer exists. It was greeted with such hostility that one master reel was burned, and the other deteriorated in a producer's closet. It is difficult to imagine Chico and Groucho in a silent film, and while one might envision Harpo as the ultimate silent comedian, his whistling and horn-honking formed an essential part of his act.

By 1929, however, sound was here to stay, and many silent comics suddenly found themselves out of work. In fact, the only two comedians to successfully make the transition from silent to sound were Laurel and Hardy (Chaplin didn't make his first sound movie until 1940, and was never comfortable with sound). Comedy teams like Stan and Ollie and the Marx Brothers needed dialog; even Harpo communicated with his brothers using broad gestures and the aforementioned honks and whistles.

The biggest story of 1929 (besides the stock market crash) was the Florida land boom. Mr. Hammer (Groucho) is the manager of a struggling hotel, trying to lure customers so that he can sell them Florida lots. Of course, Astoria, Long Island, where this movie was filmed, is not exactly the Sunshine State, and the opening tribute to "sunny Florida" shows us some sand poured on a sound stage to simulate a beach and a painted backdrop of palm trees and coconut. Groucho pursues the rich Mrs. Potter (Margaret Dumont), whose daughter Polly (Mary Eaton) is in love with Bob Adams (Oscar Shaw). Also interested in Polly (or rather, her mother's money) is Harvey Yates (Cyril Ring). Together with his parter Penelope (Kay Francis), they decide to steal Mrs. Potter's expensive necklace and blame it on Bob, easing the way for Yates to marry Polly.

The highlight of the film is the famous "Why a duck?" routine. It's Chico versus the English language, and guess who wins? When Groucho tells Chico that there's going to be an auction, he replies: "I come from Italy on the Atlantic Auction." When Groucho talks about levees, Chico thinks that's the Jewish neighborhood. When he asks him what a radius is, Chico responds that it's WJZ, at that time a popular New York radio station. And when it comes to the word "viaduct" he is totally lost.

Groucho: "Here's a little peninsula and here is a viaduct leading over to the mainland."

Chico: "OK, why a duck? Waya no chicken?" Having been told by Groucho to keep the bidding high during the auction, Chico, in a very funny scene, takes over the whole show, refusing to let anyone else in on the action.

As far as the music is concerned, it is difficult to imagine Irving Berlin writing such drivel as "When My Dreams Come True" and "Monkey Doodle-Do." The former is sung in a duet between Mary Eaton and Oscar Shaw (whom Groucho described as "strictly no-talent"). Indeed it's hard to determine which is worse-Shaw's acting or his singing.

There was a song written for "Cocoanuts," however, that was rejected because it made the show too long. It became one of Berlin's greatest hits. The song was "Always."

The print quality varies from good to fair. It appears that Universal spliced together scenes from several different prints to make one entire movie.

Entertaining, but not much of a movie. This first effort from the Marx Brothers seems more like a variety show than a narrative film. The brothers, themselves, are hilarious, especially when playing off each other, but they are forced to share the screen with too many other attractions. There is the singing, romantic lead, his girl, the villainess, her cohort, the surly old cop (who also sings) and even a chorus line of dancing girls thrown in for apparently no other reason than to have dancing girls in the film. The story is flimsy and the supporting cast is awful, but that is to be expected. On the upside, the movie is incredibly funny, and that, of course, is its only real aim. Groucho, Harpo and Chico make the film fly whenever they are given the chance. It just seems like the filmmakers didn't quite yet know what to do with them.

It's been suggested by more than one intelligent film critic that the Golden Age of movie comedies ended with the arrival of sound. Probably the earliest definitive refutation of that is this 1929 film introducing motion-picture audiences to the Marx Brothers.

The great Florida land boom has yet to hit the swampy resort town of Coconut Beach, where hotel owner Mr. Hammer (Groucho) and his assistant (Zeppo) deal with a paucity of paying guests and a platoon of bellhops who haven't been paid in weeks. Hammer manages to placate them ("You wanna be wage slaves? And what makes wage slaves? Wages!") but finds two new arrivals (Chico and Harpo) less easy to sucker while he tries to marry into the wealthy arms of the widow Mrs. Potter (Margaret Dumont).

It may be the Marxes' least revered film from their Zeppo period, but this, the earliest surviving comedy of theirs, provides more than quaint curio appeal or historic interest. It's a nice transfer of their stage act, using one of their successful Broadway plays with nifty direction by Robert Florey and Joseph Santley. While hobbled by early sound technology, there are plenty of neat camera tricks and a less static composition than on offer in the next, more heralded, Marx Brothers film, "Animal Crackers," with overhead shots and cutaways. And the antic wordplay, especially from Groucho, is so fast and dense it provides fresh laughs even after five or six screenings.

I even like the singing and dancing, especially an opening number, shot on a soundstage in Queens, N.Y. but dressed to resemble either Florida or a Haircut 100 video. The "let-us-entertain-you" spirit on ample evidence here evokes a fast-fading pre-Depression giddiness where flappers with wide hips and small chests bat eyes at derby-wearing men glad for the attention.

The Brothers themselves don't really need the help, their craft honed to perfection on stage that they clearly know where the laughs are. Groucho and Chico perform one of their classic routines, the "Viaduct/Why A Duck" number, while Harpo does some prime gurning and props his knee upon every passing dame (and some guys).

Groucho takes a look at Chico and Harpo's lone suitcase when they check in.

"That bag's empty!"

"We fill it up before we leave," answers Chico.

The most glaring weakness of "Cocoanuts" is a lamer-than-usual romantic subplot. Allan Jones and Kitty Carlisle slowed things down in "Night At The Opera," but at least they could sing, unlike Mary Eaton and Oscar Shaw, whose caterwauling here may attract dogs to your doorstep from a mile away. Irving Berlin's score is amazing…for its inanity. Though "Monkey-Doodle-Doo" isn't quite as bad as its title, it sounds like "Blue Skies" compared to "When My Dreams Come True" a lifeless ballad reprised five (!) times in the picture, including twice by Harpo (once each on oboe and harp).

Dumont is not yet the presence she became in later Marx films, but Kay Francis offers an attractive foil to the Boys as a designing woman who bites off more than she can chew trying to make a stooge of Harpo. Audiences may start off thinking Basil Ruysdael is just another straight man playing a suspicious cop, but the joke's on us, as we discover by the end.

Speaking of straight men, this may be Zeppo's finest film, if you go along with those who argue he was the master of minimalist comedy, serving up subtle metahumor in the face of his brothers' hi-jinks by literally doing nothing on screen. Not until "Night At The Opera," in which he set a new standard by not appearing at all, would Zeppo be quite this masterful again.

Unless the legendary "HUMORISK" ever shows up, COCONUTS will have the honor of being the first Marx Brother comedy. It is set in Florida, during the 1920s land boom down there (by the time the show opened in 1928, a hurricane had destroyed the land boom). Groucho runs a seedy hotel, where Mrs. Potter and her daughter Polly (Margaret Dumont and Mary Eaton) are residing. So is Polly's boy friend, the architect Bob Adams (Oscar Shaw), as well as black sheep socialite Harvey Yates (Cyril Ring) and Penelope (Kay Francis). Yates needs money, and is trying to marry Polly. Penelope is willing to assist him, as she wants to steal Mrs. Potter's jewelry. Mrs. Potter is favorable to Yates because he is one of "the Boston Yates", but Polly favors Bob - who is still struggling to get any backers for his architectural ideas. Because he is not making money (or from money) Mrs. Potter dislikes his attentions to Polly.

Groucho's Mr. Hammer (and his assistant Jamison - Zeppo) are hoping to sell various lots of real estate to their hotel guests at an auction. Then two new guests arrive: Chico and Harpo. Groucho notices their luggage is empty. "That's okay," says Chico, "It will be full when we leave." Naturally the arrival of Chico and Harpo excites the suspicions of the local sheriff, Hennesy (Basil Ruysdaal).

It is impossible to sensibly discuss the humor of the Marx Brothers, in this their first sound film and one of their zaniest. Just a few choice moments:

Groucho and Chico (as a plant) at the auction, where Chico knows he has to raise the bids. Unfortunately he does not realize when to stop doing so, so that when Hammer frantically tries to stop him from preventing someone with money from buying a lot, Chico keeps ignoring. "I go higher...higher...I have plenty of numbers left!", he says.

Groucho, Chico, and Harpo playing musical rooms with Dumont and Kay Francis, on the night of the jewel robbery. And Francis discovering that her "come-on" line, "Has anyone ever told you you look like the Prince of Wales?", is being used by everyone else.

Even a slightly sad moment is memorable. When Bob is arrested at one point, a tearful Mary Eaton watches this - Harpo walks over to her and hands her a flower. She embraces the silent brother, who just looks perplexed about what else to do.

It is constantly brought up that Eaton and Shaw are drags on the film. Actually Ms Eaton was quite lively when given a chance, and Shaw is game in one of the routines with Groucho and Harpo. Kay Francis would later show a comic flair in movies too, but here she is relatively subdued as far as comedy is concerned (until her last shot with Cyril Ring). Ring is a non-entity. Ruysdaal has one really glorious moment (when he demands his shirt - he can't be happy without his shirt!). And of course, Margaret Dumont got her first chance to show what an asset she was to the Marx Brothers in seven films.

For a musical comedy the surviving songs, mostly by Irving Berlin (one is by Victor Herbert!) are passable only. "When My Dream Comes True" can linger in the memory, but it is not grade-A Berlin. Sadly, Irving composed "Always" for the show, but George Kaufman showed his contempt for the tune and and angry Berlin took it back. A case of pearls before swine there.

I've been told it's the first musical comedy to have been made. God only knows what that makes The Jazz Singer then - heavyweight drama, I suppose.

The first problem you're going to have if you want to see it is actually seeing it. The film has been very hard to find on DVD. A copy is now available on the recently released version of the UK box set of their early films but as yet has not been released on it's own. I believe this situation varies elsewhere in the world.

The second problem you'll have if you want to see it is actually seeing it. Beware cheap copies from distant lands. The film has fallen into disrepair due to neglect. This has meant that some copies of the film are almost totally unwatchable. I remember being given a copy of the film that was released in Australia where parts of the picture had been almost completely washed away while the soundtrack could barely be heard of the crackles of the tape.

Still, if you do find a good copy it is well worth watching. The filming is very static and the acting wooden in comparison to their later movies. However, given that this was their first release and based upon their second successful Broadway run, I think that can be forgiven.

The characters are already clearly drawn out and some of the sketches are as funny as anything they did later on in their career. The 'Why a Duck' sketch can rate along side the 'tootsie-frootsie' sketch as one of the best sketches between Groucho and Chico.

The music is forgettable, the plot wafer thin, but you'll laugh out loud more than the majority of the films you'll ever see.

A wonderful slice of early movie history. Talkies still in infancy. Basically a broadway play put on film. There's so much to enjoy and study. The fashion is still 20's flapper, and look at those hips and thighs, amazing. Check out the jokes, they probably were funny back then. A rich 'time machine' tapestry to appreciate. Don't try to compare but view it on its own uniqueness. Corny and wonderful.

The first Marx Brothers film is not one of the best. Comic material of about 30 minutes' worth is padded by gratuitous musical numbers until it fits into a prolonged 90-minute format. And the two romantic leads, Mary Eaton (whose incomprehensible "Monkey Doodle-Doo" piece should've been cut out altogether) and especially Oscar Shaw, are AWFUL! Even Margaret Dumont is worse than usual. However, the reports on the film's staginess are rather exaggerated; I've seen 50's and 60's comedies that were just as stagy ("The Seven Year Itch" is one that comes to mind). Groucho does have a few funny one-liners ("Sorry gentlemen but we seem to have no vacancies. We have plenty of rooms though!"). And Harpo really does make a very strong impression; far from being the good-natured, buffoonish clown that he became in some of the team's later films, here he's wily, amoral, and even a little mean-spirited (though with one tender moment), always coming out on top in every situation, always too fast for the others (including his brothers!) to follow. He's an extraordinary creation, making the picture worthy of a second viewing just to see him again. (**1/2)

What else can I say about the Marx brothers that hasn't been said bu hundreds (thousands? Or as they might say in this movie, "lots") of other critics over the decades? They knew comic timing and how to play off one another. That is, of course, Groucho-Harpo-Chico (Zeppo is there, sometimes, though always the straight man, which is fine, three is enough) - in this first movie, The Cocoanuts, I can criticize it for having a simplistic plot around a stolen necklace, or around Groucho's plan for the 'lots' of lands he's trying to bid off as the owner of a fledgling hotel - because when they go full 'Marx' in their way, it's enough justification for sound to be introduced into cinema. They were pure delight and could be replaced in the dictionary under 'irreverent.'

And interestingly enough this is the first sound musical comedy - I think Jazz Singer was before, but that's a drama - so you get Irvin Berlin music along with the bits. This actually didn't get any 'hit' songs (according to trivia, "Always" was recorded but rejected for the film), but no matter: we get musical numbers here that involve lots of dancing girls. Why? Well, they were in the stage version of The Cocoanuts, so why not not translate it over onto film? Why not also have Harpo play the harp (hence his name, right), or Chico playing piano? It's time to show off what SOUND can do when put to pictures for the public! Oh, and those three brothers are going to make you crap your pants with laughter.

I think that you either go for the Marx brothers sensibility or you don't. If you do, then The Cocoanuts provides enough brilliant sequences and bits to not simply justify it's existence or look past using clichéd words like 'creaky' or 'stagey'. It's great fun to see this movie in what works so well - the "Why-A-Duck" dialog with Groucho trying to show the blueprints to Chico, which shows off how down to the nano-second that the two of them had the timing down to line and reactions, the scene where the brothers keep going in and out and through and around those two adjoining hotel rooms, those precious minutes between Groucho and Margaret Dumont, such an essential team that a lot of screwball comedy of the 30's comes out of their work together - that those scenes without the three brothers (i.e. the "When My Dreams Come True" number) are alright in the full picture.

Of course they would go on to greater and more ambitious pictures, and of course the moments when the film quality changes are jarring (the current print on DVD is assembled from scattered fragments as an original negative is now lost). But I don't think I even need to make any excuses for this movie: it's the beginning of the Marx style, full of 'don't-give-a-damn antics and double (maybe triple) entendres and Harpo doing things like just being Harpo on screen. I can't help but laugh every time I see him, even in a semi-serious moment (offering a lolipop to a girl who's in tears), and it's pure, early-cinema entertainment at its finest.

And how about that over-head shot for the dance number!

The Marx Bros' first movie is an early talkie that suffers from the limitations of the time in which it was made. The sound is full of hisses, the camera-work is static, and the production has a very stagy quality about it. Really it's more of a filmed stage play than a movie. The parts where the Marxes aren't the focus, especially the lame romantic stuff and the forgettable musical numbers, are tough to sit through. But when the Marxes are on screen, they're lots of fun. They perfected these parts on stage so it should come as no surprise they seem more relaxed in their roles than many of the other actors in the movie, who are very stiff. In addition to being the first film for the Marx Bros, this is also the film debut of Kay Francis. She does nothing in this to make an impression. Margaret Dumont gets her first big screen role here, which is fitting considering she's best remembered today for her movies with the Marxes. In the opening minutes, pay close attention and you'll notice Barton MacLane as a beefy guy on the beach with an amorous woman draped on his arm. It's a fun movie despite its problems. See it for the Bros and keep your finger on the FF button for when they aren't around. Their 'viaduct' routine is a classic.

This film is well below the standards for most Marx Brothers movies, but I guess this was their first proper feature film. As far as plot goes, it's hard to summarise. There's lots of weird subplots and threads that are just kind of jumped between randomly; it's all very random, even by their standards.

It definitely feels like they're still working out how best to sustain their comedic energy for a while movie. I say that because the humour's there and so are the character traits, and there are sporadic scenes that are quite funny. But there are just far fewer funny scenes than there are in their later films.

I guess it wasn't so much that they needed to work out how to be funny; more just working out what worked most in practice. I feel like they take what worked here and use that kind of stuff more in their later films, and those ones made in the 1930s are all the stronger for it.

The Cocoanuts is interesting to watch in the context of the Marx Brothers' other movies, but I can't say it holds up as a great comedy, and is only funny here and there.

(Also, this movie had 7777 ratings on IMDb, and I just made it 7778, so for that I apologise).

"The Coconuts", being the Marx Brothers' first film, is bound to be a little creaky. This does not mean you should miss it, however! Groucho delivers some of his most scathing one-liners, Harpo provides a perfect blend of devilry and sympathy, and Chico struts like a peacock. Even the fabulous Margaret Dumont gets in on the action, telling her warbling daughter to "stop singing on the beach at all hours" after one truly atrocious song. What brings this film down is bad editing and the godawful songs--Mary Eaton singing "Do the Monkey Doodle Do"--say WHAT!?!? The dancing is,as Groucho states, "A little entertainment--very little." And Harpo's harp solo was really just pasted in there. Stay away from the fast-forward button, though--the songs are just as laughable as the jokes(for all the wrong reasons, of course), as is Kay Francis's drag queen-esque performance. And don't miss the show-stopper "I want my shirt!" My sister and I were rolling on the ground laughing. The love couple is truly nauseating, but a touching moment is provided when the childlike Harpo comforts a heartbroken Mary Eaton. Full of vaudevillian jokes and biting one-liners, this is definitely a film no Marx Brothers fan should miss!

"The Cocoanuts" was released in 1929, only two years after sound was introduced to the movies. Not surprisingly, it's a little crude technically, but I find that to be part of its charm. Like most Marx Brothers films, the plot isn't particularly important. It plays second-fiddle to their hilarious hi-jinks, and there are plenty of them to savor. The musical numbers can be a bit tedious, but they're worth sitting through while we wait for Groucho, Harpo, and Chico to take center stage. Oh, yeah, Zeppo's in this one, too, but who really expects much from him?

One of the delights of "The Cocoanuts" is the presence of a pre-stardom Kay Francis who would soon sign with Warner Bros. and become one of their highest paid stars. Sadly, her reign as the queen of Warners was short-lived, and she is rather obscure today, but she was not only a great actress, but an absolute babe! Having seen her in this, I now look forward to seeing more of her films.

Brian W. Fairbanks

The main culprit for this being a poor Marx Brothers film is time. While the brothers are quite funny at times, the film itself really suffers from lousy sound due to its being made at the very beginning of the talking picture era. This was true of MANY films from 1927-1929, so it is in no way a slam against the Marxes that this occurs. Secondly, unlike all their later films, this was filmed inside an old film studio on the East Coast and it REALLY REALLY looks like a stage production. In particular, the backgrounds are obvious paintings. It also lacks the energy and incidental music to give the story life.

So who would enjoy this film--especially since it has a ton of terrible songs and production numbers? Well, despite this, film buffs will be thrilled to see it because it's the earliest available footage of the Marxes (though they supposedly made a film appearance before this and it was lost). Also, fans of the Marxes will find enough to entertain them to make it worth watching. Most others, though, will not be particularly impressed and should try other Marx Brothers films FIRST so as not to be scared away by the cheapness and slowness of this film. A curio more than a classic.

By the way, this is Kay Francis' first film. After this role, she went on to great stardom in the 1930s--particularly in the Pre-Code days from 1930-1934.

This first Marx Brothers film is quite funny sporadically, as long as you focus on the antics of Groucho, Harpo and Chico and don't let the very dated singing and poor production values get in your way.

Being one of the very earliest sound films, there are less than stellar production values and some very old fashioned and grating musical numbers to intrude during the course of THE COCOANUTS. But fortunately, any time the Marx Brothers grace the screen, it's well worth the wait and they are always entertaining... and after all, aren't they the main reason we're watching?

***/****

It's strange to see the archaic musical numbers punctuating the mayhem of the Marx Brothers, but in 1929 musicals were still all the rage in Hollywood. At the time this film was being made, the Marx Brothers and Margaret Dumont were being shuffled between the big street where they were starring in "Animal Crackers" and Paramount's New York studios that weren't even soundproofed yet.

You know, Irving Thalberg was wrong about the Marx Brothers. When he picked them up at MGM in 1935 he said "The problem with you guys is you never help anybody", but in this film the Marx Brothers - well Harpo and Chico anyways - end up helping a couple that are in love, played by Mary Eaton (Polly) and Oscar Shaw (Bob), who were probably picked for these roles for their musical rather than their acting talents. Polly's mom, played by the imperious and hilarious Margaret Dumont (Mrs. Potter), wants Polly to marry Yates (Cyril Ring), who actually is after Polly's money. That plan isn't working too well so Penelope (Kay Francis) comes up with a way to get money by stealing Mrs. Potter's necklace, and frame someone else.

One of the great questions I was left with was, why would Penelope help Yates? She could have just stolen the necklace and kept it for herself and left him out of it completely. After all, she took all of the risk! Their connection is never explained and neither is her generosity. It's a strange role for Kay, because one thing Kay never was in her films was a doormat.

But back to the Marx brothers. Some people complain about the lack of a plot, but you simply can't lock the Marx brothers into one. You need to let them run free to do their series of one liners of which Groucho is a master, allow Chico to be the character, and allow Harpo to be the menace. Note he doesn't chase women in this film because the camera still cannot move in 1929. And then there is Margaret Dumont. Would Groucho ever be so funny as when he is verbally harassing this society matron (she really was one folks!). She always told people she never got the jokes, but she had to keep up the front. Half the fun is that everything seems to go right past her. She looks like she THINKS she's being insulted, but with her breeding she simply can't quite make sense out of her being made the joke - and THAT is the plausible illusion that makes the act.

I mentioned earlier that the music was archaic, but Paramount manages to come up with a kaleidoscopic aerial shot of a dance number before Busby Berkeley ever does. As for Mary Eaton, 1929 is pretty much the beginning and the end of her film career. Not being able to take the end of her fame as one of the Seven Little Eatons and then a Zeigfeld girl, she died of alcoholism at only age 47. As for the Marx Brothers? This film had two directors and they were wise to pretty much let the brothers wing it. They made four more films for Paramount, the last being the political satire classic "Duck Soup" in 1933. Mary Eaton's time in the limelight was over because her time was past, as for the Marx Brothers, their films were not huge financial successes in their era, mainly because they were ahead of their time by decades.

This first film is a little awkward, but that is mainly because of the sound film era being new. Try to enjoy it in that light and I think you'll like it as much as I do.

THE COCOANUTS (Paramount, 1929), directed by Robert Florey, introduces the Four Marx Brothers to the talking screen, in which they reprized their roles from their 1925 stage success. Set in a 600-room hotel in Florida, Groucho (the one with the thick eyebrows and mustache), plays Mr. Hammer, the hotel manager; Chico (the one with the Italian accent), and Harpo (the one with the curly wig who acts but doesn't speak), play partners and hotel guests who enter with an empty suitcase with the intentions of filling it up upon their departure; and Zeppo, the straight man, as Hammer's registered desk clerk who is given little to do. Also staying at the Hotel de Cocoanut are Polly Potter (Mary Eaton), the "only paying guest at the hotel," Mrs. Potter (Margaret Dumont), Polly's snobbish widowed mother of high society; Bob Adams (Oscar Shaw), a young architect in love with Polly; and Harvey Yates (Cyril Ring) and Penelopie (Kay Francis), as a couple of thieves who plot to steal Mrs. Potter's jewels. With the introduction of the players, the story line involving hotel jewel thieves is basically the whole plot, but the main attraction that takes up most of the footage are the comedy routines supplied by the Marxes, either together or separately.

THE COCOANUTS predates the kind of comedies the Marx Brothers were to make at MGM (1935-1941): The simple story line, gags, romantic subplot and musical interludes either by the Marxes or their supporting players. With an Irving Berlin score heard for the only time in a Marx comedy, the musical program includes: "Florida By The Sea" (danced by girls at the beach/sung by off-screen singers); "The Bellhops" (dance number performed by bell-girls); "When My Dreams Come True" (sung by Oscar Shaw and Mary Eaton); "When My Dreams Come True" (harp solo by Harpo); "Monkey Doodle-Do" (sung and danced by Mary Eaton); instrumental dance number introduced with overhead camera shot ala Busby Berkeley; "When My Dreams Come True" (sung by Eaton); "The Toreador Song from CARMEN" (sung by Basil Ruysdael to the words of "I Want My Shirt"); "Gypsy Love Song" (piano solo by Chico Marx); and "When My Dreams Come True" (reprise/finale with Mary Eaton).

THE COCOANUTS consists of many comedy routines too numerous to mention, but the highlights are scenes involving Groucho and his foil, Margaret Dumont; the "Why a Duck" and auction sequence involving Groucho and Chico; the split screen sequence involving rooms of Penelopie and Mrs. Potter, as Harpo, Chico and Groucho go door to door, hiding under Penelopie's bed, with Hennessy (Basil Ruysdael), the hotel detective, keeping his watchful eye on the three zanies. With all this commotion, Penelopie succeeds in breaking away and stealing Mrs. Potter's jewels, with the hope that these men will be blamed.

In spite of its age and primitive stage origins, THE COCOANUTS is still a very funny movie. Available on video cassette by MCA Home Video in the 1990s, and later on DVD, it's definitely a must have for any Marx Brothers fan, especially since this is the movie that started it all. After years of being shown on local television, it was later presented on American Movie Classics from December 1991 to November 1992, and presented on Turner Classic Movies, where it made its debut on December 2001. Overlooking some of the faults from its early sound technology, such distortion and echoes in the sound, this introduction to the "Ides of Marx" is truly recommended. And look fast for Barton MacLane (famous movie tough guy of numerous Warner Brothers movies) seen briefly and recognizable as a standing lifeguard cuddled by a bathing suit flapper. (***)

During the Florida land boom, the Marx brothers run a hotel, auction off some land, thwart a jewel robbery, and generally act like themselves.

The plot is almost beside the point, and the story and setting are little more than an excuse for the brothers to run amok. The film is notable for its musical "production numbers", including techniques which were soon to become standard, such as overhead shots of dancing girls imitating the patterns of a kaleidoscope.

For being their first feature film, the Marx brothers were off to a good start. This is not their best film and often isn't mentioned alongside "Animal Crackers" or "Duck Soup", but there is plenty to like here. Groucho's cracks are pretty funny, the song about losing a shirt is hilarious... and some may appreciate the "Why a duck?" scene (though I didn't think it was that great).

Being a fan of very, very early talkies I have watched some absolutely terrible, gob-smackingly dreadful pictures. This is nowhere near as bad as some..... but it's still pretty awful.

It just doesn't feel like the sort of Marx Brothers film we're used to: that's because it's not. It's essentially their 1925 stage play turned into a film. In 1929 however not all filmmakers knew how to adapt a play into a talking picture, including, quite evidently Florey and Santley whom in this, their first attempt, were pretty clueless. As Harpo said in his book, Robert Florey loved the stage play so much he thought that just setting a camera up in front of the stage was all that was needed.

What also makes this awful is the acting. Margaret Dumont deliberately hams it up for comic effect but Oscar Shaw and Mary Eaton are naturally terrible. Award for worst acting predictably goes to Hollywood's best worst actress, Kay Francis. Whereas most actors in 1929, if they survived, rapidly improved, wonderful Kay Francis stayed just as bad as she was in this for years to come. Wooden, lifeless and void of acting ability yes but that's what made her so endearing.

The play had singing and dancing and also a plot. That all seems superfluous in an early Max Brothers picture where a plot is usually just a contrivance to link a parade of non-stop gags. If you like the Marx Brothers however you'll still find this funny - genuinely funny - but the non comedy inserts do interrupt the flow somewhat. What is very interesting however is that this gives a good insight in to as a what theatre audiences in the mid twenties we're going out to see.

In Florida, the owner of the bankrupted Cocoanuts Hotel, Mr. Hammer (Groucho Marx), is trying to sell real estates around the area. He runs the hotel with Jamison (Zeppo Marx) and they have only two guests, the wealthy Mrs. Potter (Margaret Dumont) and her daughter Polly (Mary Eaton), that are paying the bills. The gold digger Harvey Yates (Cyril Ring) plots to marry Polly, but she is in love with the architect Bob Adams (Oscar Shaw) that has a project ready for the area and depends on investors to be succeeded. When the smalltime thieves Harpo (Harpo Marx) and Chico (Chico Marx) arrive at the hotel, Harvey's lover Penelope (Kay Francis) plots a scheme to steal a US 100,000.00 necklace from Mrs. Potter and use Harpo and Chico as scapegoats. But things go wrong and the hotel becomes a mess.

"The Cocoanuts" is a too dated and unfunny comedy by The Marx Brothers. This feature is the debut of The Marx Brothers and only a few gags work (some of them are too long, like the pun with "viaduct" and "why a duck"). Chico Marx playing piano is the best scene in this movie and makes it worth seeing. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "No Hotel da Fuzarca" ("In the Hotel of the Mess")