Groucho Marx films on TCM: ‘Summer Under the Stars’ schedule includes early and later comedies
Groucho Marx is Turner Classic Movies’ “Summer Under the Stars” star on Aug. 14.
Following the early talkie The Cocoanuts (1929), notable for featuring future Warner Bros. star Kay Francis, is Animal Crackers (1930), featuring Lillian Roth – who, for a while, ended up as an alcoholic in Los Angeles’ Skid Row. (Susan Hayward played her in I’ll Cry Tomorrow.)
Next are Monkey Business (1931) and Horse Feathers (1932), both featuring another tragic leading woman, Thelma Todd. Well known for her comedies with the likes of Patsy Kelly and ZaSu Pitts, Todd, at age 29, was found dead under mysterious circumstances in December 1934. To this day, no one knows whether Todd’s death was the result of foul play, accident, or suicide.
Duck Soup (1933)
Directed by Leo McCarey – future Oscar winner for The Awful Truth (1937) and Going My Way (1944) – Duck Soup is a political satire starring Groucho Marx as a con artist who becomes the dictator of the bankrupt state of Freedonia. But the one who effortlessly walks away with every one of her scenes is, as always, Margaret Dumont.
Groucho Marx with Margaret Dumont in At the Circus: J. Cheever Loophole woos Mrs. Suzanna Dukesbury.
MGM double bill: A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races
This evening, TCM will show the two comedies the Marx Brothers – minus Zeppo Marx – did for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, both under the direction of Sam Wood: Best Picture Academy Award-nominated A Night at the Opera (1935) and A Day at the Races (1937).
The former remains the best-known Marx Brothers film – deservedly so. Purists, however, have complained that the Marxist (Marxian?) comedy is diluted in A Night the Opera, as the MGM release features plenty of scenes and musical numbers with lovebirds Kitty Carlisle and Allan Jones (in place of Ben-Hur star Ramon Novarro).
As for A Day at the Races, it doesn’t do justice to its title – i.e., it’s not an equally prestigious or popular daylight/equine version of A Night at the Opera. Maureen O’Sullivan, Jane in the Tarzan movies of the 1930s, was cast as Allan Jones’ love interest, but to no avail.
The Story of Mankind (1957)
The remaining three Marx Brothers were reunited in The Story of Mankind. That was their first movie together since David Miller’s flop burlesque Love Happy (1949), best remembered for featuring a Marilyn Monroe walk-on.
As for The Story of Mankind, it stars veteran Ronald Colman (in his final role) as the Spirit of Man and Vincent Price as The Devil, both fighting for the hearts and minds of humankind. An seemingly pointless endeavor.
Skidoo
Groucho Marx’s final film appearance was in Otto Preminger’s 1968 comedy Skidoo, in which – long before George Burns, Graham Chapman, Alanis Morrisette, Morgan Freeman, and Rob Zombie – he played God.
Groucho Marx movies: TCM schedule (PT)
3:00 AM SUNDAY NIGHT AT THE TROCADERO (1937)
Short featuring Reginald Denny introducing singing and dancing acts.
Director: George Sidney.
Cast: Peter Lind Hayes, Dick Foran, John Howard, Margot Grahame, Chester Morris, Robert Benchley, Sally Blane, Norman Foster, Groucho Marx, Frank Morgan, Bert Wheeler, Eric Blore, June Collyer, Stuart Erwin, Toby Wing, Russell Gleason, Glenda Farrell, Frank McHugh, Benny Rubin, Marge Champion, Arthur Lake.
20m3:30 AM DOUBLE DYNAMITE (1951)
Director: Irving Cummings.
Cast: Jane Russell, Groucho Marx, Frank Sinatra, Don McGuire, Howard Freeman, Nestor Paiva, Frank Orth.
80m5:00 AM A GIRL IN EVERY PORT (1952)
Director: Chester Erskine.
Cast: Groucho Marx, Marie Wilson, William Bendix.
87m6:30 AM ROOM SERVICE (1938)
Director: William A. Seiter.
Cast: Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, Lucille Ball, Ann Miller, Frank Albertson, Donald MacBride, Charles Halton.
78m8:00 AM AT THE CIRCUS (1939)
Director: Edward Buzzell.
Cast: Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, Kenny Baker, Florence Rice, Eve Arden, Margaret Dumont, Nat Pendleton, Fritz Feld, James Burke.
87m9:30 AM GO WEST (1940)
Director: Edward Buzzell.
Cast: Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, John Carroll, Diana Lewis, Walter Woolf King, Robert Barrat, June MacCloy.
80m11:00 AM THE BIG STORE (1941)
Director: Charles Riesner.
Cast: Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, Tony Martin, Virginia Grey, Margaret Dumont, Douglass Dumbrille, William Tannen, Marion Martin, Virginia O’Brien.
83m12:30 PM THE DICK CAVETT SHOW: GROUCHO MARX (1969)
Dick Cavett interviews Groucho Marx on June 13, 1969.
51m1:30 PM THE COCOANUTS (1929)
Directors: Robert Florey & Joseph Santley.
Cast: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Zeppo Marx, Oscar Shaw, Mary Eaton, Kay Francis, Margaret Dumont, Basil Ruysdael, Barton MacLane.
93m3:15 PM ANIMAL CRACKERS (1930)
Director: Victor Heerman.
Cast: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Zeppo Marx, Lillian Roth, Margaret Dumont, Hal Thompson.
97m5:00 PM MONKEY BUSINESS (1931)
Director: Norman Z. McLeod.
Cast: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Zeppo Marx, Rockliffe Fellowes, Harry Woods, Thelma Todd, Ruth Hall, Tom Kennedy, Cecil Cunningham.
78m6:30 PM HORSE FEATHERS (1932)
Director: Norman McLeod.
Cast: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Zeppo Marx, Thelma Todd, David Landau, Nat Pendleton.
67m7:45 PM DUCK SOUP (1933)
Director: Leo McCarey.
Cast: Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, Zeppo Marx, Margaret Dumont, Raquel Torres, Louis Calhern, Charles Middleton, Edgar Kennedy, Edward Arnold, Louise Closser Hale, Maude Turner Gordon, Dennis O’Keefe.
69m9:00 PM A NIGHT AT THE OPERA (1935)
Director: Sam Wood.
Cast: Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, Kitty Carlisle, Allan Jones, Walter Woolf King, Sig Ruman, Margaret Dumont.
96m11:00 PM A DAY AT THE RACES (1937)
Director: Sam Wood.
Cast: Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, Allan Jones, Maureen O’Sullivan, Margaret Dumont, Douglass Dumbrille, Esther Muir.
105m1:00 AM THE STORY OF MANKIND (1957)
Director: Irwin Allen.
Cast: Ronald Colman, Vincent Price, Hedy Lamarr, Virginia Mayo, Agnes Moorehead, Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Peter Lorre, Cesar Romero, Charles Coburn, Cedric Hardwicke, Marie Wilson, Helmut Dantine, Edward Everett Horton, Marie Windsor, Dennis Hopper, John Carradine, Reginald Gardiner, Franklin Pangborn, Cathy O’Donnell, Francis X. Bushman, George E. Stone, Melville Cooper, Henry Daniell, Anthony Dexter, Jim Ameche, Bobby Watson.
100m
Grouch Marx movies’ schedule via the TCM website.
Groucho Marx Duck Soup image: Paramount, via Heeb Magazine.
Margaret Dumont and Groucho Marx At the Circus image: United Artists.