Marx Brothers - Go West

I have a real soft spot for "Go West". It's a little less frantic, has a

mellow vibe and it's obvious they enjoyed making it. I liked the

songs and many of the sequences, particularly the "outfitter" and

also the train sequence which is such a metaphor for modern life

(they are in such a hurry to "get there" that they totally destroy and

burn the entire contents and structure of the train so when they

arrive at their destination there is nothing left but skeletal

wreckage). This alone is worth any other disappointments the film

may hold for you. I would say, don't skip over this one. And, to get

to the required 10 lines, I will say it again: don't skip over this one.

LOL

I have to go back to being somewhat of a contrarian on this one. The consensus is that Go West is passable, at least, but not one of the better Marx Brothers films. Tied up with that is the fact that Go West is a late-career Marx Brothers film. It's in their MGM period, which many fans consider not as good as their earlier Paramount period. They were all around 50 years old while shooting this one. The follow-up was The Big Store (1941), after which they announced that they were officially retiring as a comedy team. They ended up doing a couple more films together in the 1940s--A Night in Casablanca (1946) and Love Happy (1949), but the conventional wisdom has it that those were provoked more by a need to pay for Chico's gambling debts than they were by a desire to make a film together (which is not to say that they're not good films).

For me, however, Go West is another excellent entry in a long string of Marx Brothers films that are primarily 10 out of 10s. Maybe it's that I'm also a big fan of westerns, but this western spoof is sublimely enjoyable. Western parodies were big in 1940, the year of Go West's first release (its wide release came in 1941), with W.C. Fields' My Little Chickadee premiering in February and Jack Benny's Buck Benny Rides Again opening in May. Perhaps because of that climate, Go West did better critically and popularly when it opened than would be indicated by its current "middling" reputation. But as with anything, there is a lot of crowd following in opinions on films. The consensus tends to evolve over time, despite the fact that the films themselves do not change.

Go West has Groucho Marx in his usual huckster mode as S. Quentin Quale. He's short $10 for his train fare to head to the western United States. He spots Joseph (Chico Marx) and Rusty Panello (Harpo Marx), takes them for a couple suckers and tries to bilk them of $10. But they're better con artists than he is, and end up ripping him off instead.

Somehow they all end up out west anyway. Joseph and Rusty come into possession of the deed to Dead Man's Gulch, which Terry Turner (John Carroll) was hoping to sell (his grandfather is the one who gave it to Joseph and Rusty) to the railroad magnates back east so they can complete the first transcontinental line. Go West ends up being about a number of people attempting to con each other out of money and the deed, in a race to see who can get it to New York first.

Of course, the plot is primarily an excuse for a series of gags. Like usual, the comedy in the film is a balance between slapstick and intellectual humor. Appealing to my tastes, the Marx Brothers are often surrealistic in their humor, as well, both verbally and visually. They continually play "games" with the conventions of film in general and the western in particular, making this clear right off the bat--any pretense at holding the plot supreme is joyously sabotaged in the first 10 minutes when Go West becomes an extended gag instead (as the brothers try to bilk each other out of the money needed for train fare). The gag could just as well be set on any stage, in any context, and work the same. The name of the game is irreverence--towards film, towards the genre, and towards various other conventions, including those they have established for themselves in previous films--and the Marxes do it as well or better than anyone else.

The gags are pleasantly varied, but the film has some wonderfully serious moments that work well, too. Each brother gets a song, and each song is at least semi-sincere. Chico shows off his skills at the piano, eventually playing in the upper registers with a piece of fruit. During a scene where they have to spend the night with an Indian tribe, Harpo transforms a loom into a harp and ends up performing a beautiful jazz tune. Groucho plays guitar and gives us slightly bizarre singing that resides somewhere between authentic blues and vaudeville goofiness. Although these moments might at first seem like unwelcome breaks from the otherwise madcap proceedings, the songs are magnificent, and temporarily become transcendent moments that one wishes wouldn't end.

Go West is most famous, perhaps, for its climactic train sequence, and rightfully so. The brothers channel the Keystone Cops and produce an extended series of increasingly outrageous, surreal and hilarious stunts/gags. Buster Keaton's infamous film The General (1927) was an obvious influence, and in fact, Keaton was an uncredited writer for Go West, as Keaton was employed as a gag writer for MGM at this time. I don't want to give any of the material away here, but it's worth watching the film for the climax alone, and in fact, during the pre-VCR days when 8mm home projectors were all the rage, the ending of Go West was siphoned off and marketed by itself.

The Marx Brothers' performances are fine, of course, as are all of the technical elements, but the rest of the cast is great, too. Just watch the subtle range of attitudes that the two "villains" progress through while chasing the train in their relatively simple cart, for example. And of course, like always, it doesn't hurt that there are beautiful women around, even if there not in the film that much.

While I agree that Go West is perhaps not the best Marx Brothers film, that's only because they have so many 10s that it's too difficult to pick. Even if you end up thinking that it pales compared to their Paramount-era work, Go West is still worth seeing.

Patchy but still fairly enjoyable Marx Bros. vehicle. Their unique brand of comedy adapts reasonably well to the Western format though, at the end of the day, a lot more could have been done with this situation; the film suffers in comparison with their 'classic' stuff, but even more so when measured against other comics' brush with the genre – particularly two ambitious Buster Keaton masterworks, OUR HOSPITALITY (1923) and THE GENERAL (1927), and Laurel & Hardy's (more straightforward but) equally delightful and inspired WAY OUT WEST (1937)!

That said, a number of scenes here deliver the goods: the ticket-office sketch at the beginning, the stagecoach ride, the robbery of the safe and, of course, the climactic train 'wreck; on the debit side: the songs in this one are particularly negligible.

My verdict, therefore, is that GO WEST is a worthwhile comedy but a lesser Marx Bros. film.

Go West is a solid effort, with its share of funny jokes. There's a good song, which isn't common in the Marx Brothers films, and both the piano and harp numbers are good. The movie slows down big time nearer the end, although some of the train sequence is surreal, especially when it runs into a house. 7/10.

The movies from the Marx Bros. are just like my old Bowie's vinyls, or my Oscar Wilde's books: they're always there, and always will be. They're just like those old friends that will never let you down.

"Go West" has each and everyone of the essential ingredients of the movies from Groucho and co. : hilarious dialogs, crazy situations, Harpo's hooliganism, the music... everything goes as quick as a flash. So, if some youngster thinks that this movie hasn't anything to offer because it was made 65 years ago, thats belongs to the Pleistocenic... OK, I won't waste my time explaining why the Marx Brothers are bigger than life. I'd rather watch "Duck Soup" or "A Night At The Opera" one more time, and let the party begin once again...

*My rate: 8/10