Comwayon
A Disappointing Continuation
Bluebell Alcock
Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies
Bumpy Chip
It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.
robert-temple-1
'I was going to thrash them within an inch of their lives, but I didn't have a tape measure.' (Groucho) This is another hilarious Marx Brothers picture, starring the three, not the four, brothers. It followed AT THE CIRCUS of the previous year (1939). Both films were directed by Edward Buzzell and written by Irving Brecher. It is interesting that Buzzell directed one Thin Man film (SONG OF THE THIN MAN, 1947), and Brecher wrote another (SHADOW OF THE THIN MAN, 1941, his next film after this Marx Brothers one). Brecher is best known however for writing the famous film MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS (1944). In this film, the Marx Brothers truly go wild. They destroy an entire train, a saloon, various rooms, and cause utter mayhem. But then they are in 'the Wild West', aren't they? There are plenty of gags, as usual. At one point, two engine drivers of a train are tied up and gagged by the Marx Brothers. Groucho goes up to one of them, removes the gag from his mouth and then puts it back, and says to the camera: 'This is the best gag in the whole film.' Sitting in a stagecoach with a woman and a baby, Groucho says 'We need to get to the bottom of this,' and touches the baby's bottom. The stage coach is going over many bumps, so the woman complains that she doesn't like the jerks in the coach. On cue, Harpo and Chico get up, open the door and are about to jump out, when Groucho says: 'Not you two,' and pulls them back to their seats. The film opens with a lengthy stand-up confrontation between the three brothers in a railway station. Harpo, wishing to steal money from Groucho's pocket but unable to get his hand into it, produces some scissors and cuts away the side of Groucho's trousers, snips open the bottom of his pocket, and takes the money. Groucho drolly comments: 'It getting rather cool in here,' as we see his bare leg. There is one gag after another. Harpo gets to play the harmonica and then a harp disguised as an Indian weaving frame (an Indian chief in full feather headdress accompanies him on a flute), and Chico plays the piano in a saloon, adding a new touch by knocking on the wood of the piano for some rhythm at one point, and grabbing an apple from Harpo's hands which he was just about to eat, rubbing it along the keyboard to produce some more music. Groucho strums on a guitar and seems to know how to play it. He also sings wonderfully dotty nonsense. But most of the action is riotous anarchy, wanton destruction, and hilarious and outrageous insults to stern and threatening crooks, tomfoolery, and chaos. But as we now know from modern science, chaos conceals hidden structure. If only the kind of humour practiced by the Marx Brothers could still be done today. But no one seems to have a sense of humour anymore. Those of us who still know how to laugh, however, can always watch the Marx Brothers, and escape the horrors of the news. When the apostles of political correctness, and the thought monitors, start destroying film comedies in the interest of 'keeping us safe', let us hope that Groucho, Harpo and Chico find some way to outwit them. Wouldn't it be nice if we could find a way for all the stern and humourless people to laugh themselves to death? What if we tied the men who pulled the man off the plane the other day into chairs and forced them to watch this film? Or are such people entirely impervious to jokes? In life, I hold to the view that the only thing that is not a joke is the people who cannot get a joke, and who have never laughed in their lives. As a certain president might say in a tweet: 'Sad.'
mike48128
I hadn't seen this one in a decade, and I forgot how great the ending was! Yes, it has the usual devices: Snappy dialogues, bad musical numbers, piano and harp solos, and tons of terrific satire, making fun of every "Western Movie" you have ever seen, drama or comedy. It especially "thumbs its nose" at the "big duel" so common it's a cliché. What sets it apart is the 12-minute-long but well-produced "climax chase ending" to sign over the deed to the barren "Gold Mine" which the railroad needs to buy for "the right of way" through it. Of course the Marx Bros. make the "pistol-packing" villains look like bumbling idiots. Harpo dumps all the wood in the trains' tinder box, then discovers that the train must continue to its destination after all. The "bad guys" are racing alongside the train in a horse-drawn buckboard. He totally "cannibalizes" the entire wooden-structure of the speeding steam locomotive, including all the cars, freight and luggage on board. Yes, this has been done before and since. (Remember the riverboat in "Around to World in 80 days, in 1955?) However, never has it been more effective and funnier than here, over 15 years earlier!
SanteeFats
Okay not all of the Marx Brothers movies were really funny. This is not true, in my opinion, for this movie. The scene at the train station when the three are trying to buy tickets west is classic. Then they all get out west and of course it is one joke after another. The scene in the Indian camp is probably considered to be non-politically correct today, especially since all the Indians are obviously white and speak gibberish. I don't care any more. It has some funny lines and the music is great. If you can not take a joke don't watch, again my opinion. These brothers were sooo musically talented it still surprises me when I watch their movies. Anyway a pretty good film and of course the good guys, gal too, win in the end.
jldmp1
These Marx Bros. features aren't 'movies' in the sense that we understand them today.The idea was to entertain us with the customary skits, fill in the interstices with the peripheral dramatic plot, and provide a platform for Groucho's banter, and for Harpo and Chico's considerable musical talents.To that end, we have an entire scene set in an Indian camp engineered to have Harpo 'discover' a harp (the weaving loom), and captivate the two audiences: the 'indians', and us, the viewers. While he doesn't fail to amaze, it doesn't supersede "A Night at the Opera". But Chico acquits the whole scheme with his piano rags in the saloon - watch how his hands become 'characters'.Also of note is the slapstick 'train chase', constructed in a manner that did Keaton proud, and filmed as a homage to the silent era.
