Chercheurs d'or

Despite not having a reputation as one of the better Marx Brothers films, I still found this to be a typical MB movie with crazy scenes and a few songs. No, it may not have been as funny as their better-known films of the 1930s, but I didn't think it much below them, either.

It's not as totally outrageous as the boys' earlier stuff but it also has fewer stupid stuff, too. Make no mistake: it has its share of genuinely funny material, both in dialog and in sight gags. The finale is a wild chase scene on a train that is very, very entertaining. That holds true for a wild stagecoach ride earlier in the picture. Once again, Chico comes up with the funniest lines.

I think this is a solid comedy and an underrated Marx Brothers film . If you like "the boys" in their more well-known films, don't pass this one by.

The Marx Brothers' "Go West" is a vastly underrated gem. Admist a few comparatively disappointing later years Marx movies, it was certainly the strongest. I grew up on the Marx Brothers via my father (even though most of them were made before he was born as well), and ended up liking them so much I eventually bought every movie they made, and most of the documentaries, three single Groucho movies, two sets of 'You Bet Your Life' episodes, and even 'The Story of Mankind,' featuring the three primary brothers, though in small parts in separate segments...(Many books by and/or about them too.) In any case, I'm a huge fan. Even with all this, I admit that there are a handful of pretty weak Marx films. Love Happy was pretty awful on most levels, though little Harpo bits, and one or two Groucho lines give it its only very brief redemption. The Big Store was also pretty fairly terrible, with again, the only worthwhile notes being a few Groucho quips, and a few Harpo physical bits. Room Service and At The Circus as well suffered, as all their movies after the big MGM ones (Opera & races) did, due to the studios lack of interest and confidence in putting money and attention into the productions. Room Service and At the Circus both felt like they should've and could've been more, though each had a handful or more of perfectly enjoyable moments. And re-watching A Night in Casablanca (which at least a little more time and money was put into for what she really be considered their true final film, rather than the slapped together for quick cash 'Love Happy', which was originally a Harpo solo project), I've come to realize that Casablanca is stronger than I remembered, but still felt stale for much of it compared to their classics. So I suppose I better get the reason for this review-- So, in the middle of all these lesser like, later years fare, came Go West (in 1940). And I have to say, it has gotten an unfair rap from fans, critics and Groucho himself (though he was that way about much of their movies, sadly). I think, even with it's slapdash absurdity and overwrought gags, that it holds up better, and has better, more solid comedy than any of they other movies after A Day at the Races. In fact, and I know I'm essentially alone in saying this, but, I actually find it more entertaining than A Day at the Races (I think). There are some brilliant moments/lines for three brothers that felt more akin to there early madcap movies (the best ones), and I even enjoy the silly songs, and western pastiche elements, and the physical gags are stronger than the movies before and after as well. In any case, fans (and critics too) should give it another watch, and just let it try to entertain you, it really is a lot of fun, and hilarious.

S. Quentin Quale (Groucho Marx) is a con-man heading west. He encounters seemingly bumbling brothers Joseph (Chico Marx) and Rusty Panello (Harpo Marx) in a train station and ends up losing his money to them. The brothers meet old miner Dan Wilson who hasn't found gold for 40 years on his property, Dead Man's Gulch. They lend him $10 and get the property as collateral. Meanwhile, Terry Turner arranges the sale of the property to the railroad for $50k. The Turners and Wilsons are rivals. Terry hopes to ease the rivalry with the sale and marry Dan's granddaughter Eve Wilson. Saloon owner Red Baxter receives a telegram to get the property. The boys write an IOU on the back of the deed to pay for beer at Red's saloon.

This is full of the Marx brothers antics. Chico plays the piano. Groucho is the heel. Harpo doesn't talk and finds an usual harp with the Indians. This comes after a string of iconic Marx brothers comedy hits. These things come in cycles and the guys may be wearing out their welcome. They haven't changed their verbal gags and there are still songs. The last act is all action on a train and that's plenty of fun. For Marx fans, this should still hit the spot.

After the success of A DAY AT THE RACES the Marx Brothers had a serious problem. The man who brought them back into the movie game has been Irving Thalberg, who took them seriously as comic artists, let them rehearse and hone their material on stage, and gave them a percentage of the gross sales, had died in 1937. Thalberg's rival, Louis B. Mayer grabbed control of Thalberg's production unit. Mayer (whose negative effects on careers from John Gilbert to Judy Garland are becoming more known as time passes) hated comedians, and he disliked people who got contracts that took profits away from his company. He was, in fact, a selfish individual who got his just deserts in the 1950s when he was thrown out of his job by his shareholders, and found nobody in Hollywood wanted anything to do with him.

Mayer had no great love for the Marxes, and allowed RKO a loan out of them for ROOM SERVICE. I feel that film has a lot still going for it, but many people don't like it as too confining for the antics of the Marxes. Then in 1939 MGM put them into AT THE CIRCUS, even bringing back Margaret Dumont. But the results are generally mediocre (although Groucho has one of his best songs, "Lydia the Tattooed Lady"). It was symptomatic of Mayer's lack of interest in their film work - they were not sent out to test their material.

Then in 1940 came GO WEST.

The Marx Brothers had not been the first comedians that Mayer disliked. He had a negative view of silent film genius Buster Keaton. Keaton's masterpieces of the silent films had been successful for the most part, but he had been produced by Joseph Schenck, his brother-in-law, and a rival of Mayer. Joe Schenck died in the early 1930s. At that time Keaton's films were not doing as well as in his heyday, mostly due to contracts with MGM that took away his independence in production matters. Also his wife, Nathalie Talmadge, was finding her movie stardom ending, and their marriage was collapsing. Keaton took to heavy drinking, which hurt his performances in the sound films he made. Jimmy Durante was co-starred in several films with Keaton, like THE PASSIONATE PLUMBER and WHAT, NO BEER! but though the men became friends their styles of humor did not mesh. By 1935 Keaton was a has-been in Hollywood, and by the end of the decade was only appearing in minor films as comedy relief, or used as a gag writer.

Possibly Mayer decided (for some twisted reason) to put Keaton on the writing staff for GO WEST. It certainly was not with any belief in the "Great Stone Face" as a gag man or a comedian. But it is also more than likely that he put him into it to damage the Marxes still more, and to humiliate Keaton. Knowing Mayer I would not put it past him.

Groucho Marx lived to become a national icon due to his movie, radio, and television career. In his later years (before senility began to affect him) he was invited on all the talk shows, and would discuss his brothers and their films, and comedy in general. He would also drop off his acid comments which made the audiences laugh (it helped Groucho that he lived long enough to find less censorship of his lines than he faced in the 1930s and 1940s). But he was a disagreeable man in private life, being thoroughly honest on one hand, but thoroughly nasty on the other. With Keaton, given his recovering alcoholic state in 1940, you had to be respectful and kindly.

Keaton had a dream that never reached the screen. In 1933 he had seen GRAND HOTEL, and liked the concept of interlocking stories involving sets of big name stars. He wanted to do a comic version called GRAND MILLS HOTEL, with himself, Laurel and Hardy, Marie Dressler, and other comedians (Edward Everett Horton was another) intermingling in a third rate hotel. The idea never came to fruition. No doubt, in thinking of it, Keaton might have considered having the Marxes in the film too. He was a genuine appreciator of comic genius.

But here it was 1940, and Keaton was working on a film with the Marxes. Keaton went to a script meeting, and outlined an idea for a scene. Groucho listened. His expression was bland. When it was finished, apparently with a sneer, Groucho said: "You really think that was funny?" Keaton, somewhat crestfallen, replied: "I just thought it might work...you fellows are pretty funny by yourselves."

There are Keatonian touches in the movie: Harpo's showdown with the saloon keeper town boss, where he pulls out a shaving brush that fires a shot into the floor. Also the wrecking of the train at the conclusion, which reminds one of Keaton's love of trains (OUR HOSPITALITY, THE GENERAL). Possibly he had a hand in the great opening of the film, where Groucho is the city slicker fleeced by Chico and Harpo when he tries to fleece them. It did not help GO WEST that only three years before Laurel and Hardy made one of their two best features, WAY OUT WEST, nor that W.C.Fields and Mae West did MY LITTLE CHICKADIE in 1939. Both of those films are way better than the slow going GO WEST.

One wishes that Groucho had been more charitable to Keaton, because the latter did finally find a comedian who listened and worked with him. That was Red Skelton, who would work on several films with Keaton in the late 1940s and early 1950s, one of which, A SOUTHERN YANKEE, is very funny indeed. But Keaton allowed Groucho precedence of being a successful comic in GO WEST, with mediocre results. Perhaps Groucho deserved the failure that resulted. Hubris is it's own reward.

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