Copacabana

Copacabana showcases the unlikely pairing of Groucho Marx and Carmen Miranda in a musical melange concerning Carmen playing two different singers in the famous nightclub. The gags are fast and funny and the songs tuneful. Andy Russell and Gloria Jean are along to add to the music quotient and Steve Cochran is on hand to oversee the nightclub. The Copa gals are gorgeous and are given the opportunity to show off their personalities a bit. Louis Sobel, Earl Wilson and Abel Green, all real-life collumnists from the era make cameo appearances. This is definitely a forties musical with all the trappings. The musical numbers, choreographed by Larry Cebellos, are fun to watch, and look good in the restored black-and-white print. Purists may prefer a Marx Brothers comedy or a Carmen Miranda Technicolor musical from Fox, but this is a delightful way to spend an hour and a half. For me, the seemingly strange combination of Groucho and Carmen works and becomes a unique musical comedy experience.

"Copacabana" could've been GREAT fun. Groucho Marx and Carmen Miranda together: weren't they just born for each other? Unfortunately Hollywood has a recurring tendency of wasting unconventional talent, and "Copacabana" (and Groucho's film career, and Carmen's film career) is a sad evidence thereof. John Wayne, Bing Crosby, Clark Gable or Bob Hope had no problem strutting their old stuff over and over again; but in 1946 Hollywood decreed that the public was tired of Carmen's "exoticism" and Groucho's routines and came up with this B-budget turkey.

The film departs on embarrassingly deprecating premises: that Groucho should play a passé comedian who is no longer funny (!); that Carmen should play a singer who isn't electrifying enough (!), so that she has to assume a new persona as romantic French (!) chanteuse Mlle. Fifi and sing incognito (!). Now, come on: even wearing a mushroom blonde wig and a veil that hides most of her face, who except the very blind wouldn't recognize Carmen Miranda's hyperactive, pure-joy rolling eyes and those boomerang eyebrows?

The film is a dead duck that only comes to life when Groucho is allowed to deliver his peculiar one-liners and, especially, when Carmen sings and dances her "exotic" numbers (her "romantic" ones are totally unsuited to her talents). There's no point trying to resist the irrepressible, unique, sensuous Carmen, with her infectious smile, the arms and hands flashing like lightning, the athletic legs on the 7-inch platform shoes, and the gravity-defying, eye-popping costumes. She sparks with such high voltage she's like shock therapy: we smile just at the sight of how much fun she's having. There has never been anybody like her, a true one-of-a-kind.

But there are four essential things missing in "Copacabana": a) a decent script; b) a bigger budget; c) a minimally creative director and d) Technicolor. "Copacabana" CRIES for color -- it was planned to be shot in color, but the Technicolor preparation process (this was a Beacon Productions movie, not MGM) took so long the producers decided to do it in b&w, as the film HAD to be released simultaneously with the opening of the L.A.'s franchise of "The Copacabana", then NYC's #1 night-club, whose owner was one of the financiers of the film. (By the way, Carmen was the #1 headliner of NYC's Copacabana in the 1940s, she had even a lounge named after her, the "Miranda's Room").

There's a lot of expendable stuff in "Copacabana": pretty much the rest of the cast, especially toothy mellow- voiced dork-looking Andy Russell, and the super- cheesy Steve Cochran/Gloria Jean subplot. The songs are uniformly awful, with the soporific "Je Vous Aime" and "Stranger Things Have Happened" sung T-W-I-C-E each, with great exceptions being Carmen's tongue-twisting tour-de-force of Brazilian hit "Tico-Tico no Fubá" (a major hit in Brazil since 1917 and internationally famous since Ethel Smith's version in Disney's "The Three Caballeros" in 1943; later performed by Denise Dummont in Woody Allen's "Radio Days") and Groucho's performance - - or rather his "anti-performance" - of "Go West".

"Copacabana" is that kind of disappointment that drives you mad with rage for what it could have been, but fans of Carmen and Groucho have got to see it anyway. Shame on Hollywood for wasting such talented, one-of-a-kind performers with third-rate material and filmmakers.

Groucho Marx plays an agent called Lionel Q.Deveraux, who only has one client, Carmen Novarro, played by Carmen Miranda.Lionel gets Carmen to perform at a club called Copacabana, but she has to perform there as a Brazilian and as a French singer.It's not so easy.Copacabana is a nice comedy musical with Groucho Marx.The movie offers you some very funny moments, even if it doesn't have the other Marx brothers.

If you love Groucho Marx or love musicals this is the movie for you. Groucho Marx is still the funniest man alive. Groucho Marx is witty as a slippery agent to Carmen Miranda in this movie. I am a fan of anything he does or anything the "Marx Bros." are invovled with. (even though this is a solo act)This movie has it all musical numbers and laughs. The chemistry between Carmen Miranda(Carmen Novarro)and Groucho (Lionel Q.Deveraux) is incredible. I will go into the plot well it has to do with anarchy and misinformation with has been a playing ground of Groucho's for years. I would like to thank Groucho and his brothers for making me laugh when my our life I sometimes don't have much to laugh at. Fellas you were trully are blessed. Thank You. P.S. Mr. Deveraux even brings back an old friend for a song and dance... don't ask you can't afford him.

In New York City, Lionel Q. Devereaux (Groucho Marx) and his fiancée Carmen Novarro (Carmen Miranda) are unsuccessfully trying to find a spot in the show business. Lionel introduces himself to Steve Hunt (Steve Cochran), who owns the famous Copacabana nightclub, as an important agent and convinces Steve to see the presentation of Carmen. He enjoys the show and asks for another attraction; Lionel convinces Carmen to wear a veil and perform another song and introduces her to Steve as the French singer Mademoiselle Fifi. Steve hires both singers and Carmen has to change clothes and identities between her performances. When she sees Lionel flirting with a Copa Girl, Mlle. Fifi accepts the invitation to have dinner with Steve, hurting the feelings of his secretary Anne Stuart (Gloria Jean) that is in love with him. The situation gets complicated and Carmen simulates an argument with Mlle. Fifi with her subsequent disappearance, originating an investigation of the police where the prime suspect is Lionel.

"Copacabana" is a delightfully naive and entertaining movie from a time when the society was extremely innocent and could buy such ingenuous story. The plot, i.e., the double-identity of Carmen Miranda, is totally absurd but the situation of Lionel after the disappearance of Mlle. Fifi was remade by Billy August in 1963 in "Irma La Douce". Groucho Marx is funny and responsible for the best moments of this movie; but the subplots with the silly romance of Anne and Steve, and the participation of the weird singer Andy Russell should be better written. The songs are boring and dated in 2009, but Carmen Miranda was very successful in those years and sings the famous "Tico-Tico no Fubá". My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Copacabana"