Most Marx Brothers fans agree that their first five films, made for Paramount, were generally better than their remaining eight. Among their early films, however, "Monkey Business" is probably the one that is most rarely mentioned (OK, maybe it is mentioned more often than "The Cocoanuts"). There is a reason for that: although this may be the single most anarchic Marx outing, it is not one of their best. Anarchic also means disorganized, and this has its good and its bad points: there is almost no plot to get in the way of the comedy (good), but there is also a missed opportunity to go further with the idea of the Groucho-Zeppo and Harpo-Chico teams working for rival gangsters (bad). There are no musical numbers involving secondary characters (good), but there is a piano solo and a harp solo back-to-back in the last 15 minutes (bad structure). Seeing this film today, it is Harpo's physical comedy that seems the most timeless in my opinion. Sure, Groucho could deliver his lines incredibly fast and some of those lines were decades ahead of their time, but Harpo is the life of the film's most memorable bits, like the puppet show or his impersonation of Maurice Chevalier. He is like a visitor from another planet, where people are allowed to do all the things we want to do but can't. He's extraordinary. (**1/2)
Review of Monkey Business
