Les Marx au grand magasin

After Zeppo Marx refused to move on with his brothers to MGM from Paramount, the Marxs usually secured the services of another player, usually a singer to function in Zeppo's nondescript place. Usually that person had a lot more personality than Zeppo did. It was Allan Jones in two films, Kenny Baker in one and in The Big Store it was Tony Martin.

The still very much alive, but retired Tony Martin, had one of the great voices of the last century. He never made the screen impact that other singers did, though he was in some very good films. His main media outlets were records, radio, and as one of the premier nightclub attractions, especially when he appeared with his second wife Cyd Charisse. Martin had two songs to sing in The Big Store, the much maligned Tenement Symphony and a really nice ballad, If It's You.

Martin is the heir to one half of Phelps Department store. The other half is owned by his aunt Margaret Dumont. The Hastings Brothers, who own a chain of department stores, are looking to buy this one.

Manager Douglass Dumbrille has been doing a little embezzling on the side and he's afraid that if Martin sells his half, he's taking a stretch up the river. After Martin becomes the victim of an attempted murder, Dumont hires who else, detective Wolf J. Flywheel who is of course Groucho Marx.

By a happy coincidence, Groucho has Harpo as a sidekick and Harpo's brother in the film Chico is a friend of Martin's. So now we have all the Marx Brothers working at the store.

The Big Store is usually dismissed as one of the Marx Brothers lesser films, but it's always been a favorite of mine. Another reviewer said there were too many musical numbers. I don't think there were any more or less than in other films of their's. The running time is a bit short so it might seem like there's more.

The highlight for me is always the final chase seen through the store, especially since Douglass Dumbrille joins in the fun. Dumbrille on screen usually plays some serious villains, probably his best known part is that of Mr. Cedar the lawyer who is milking the estate that Gary Cooper is inheriting in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town.

Dumbrille is just as successful dealing with the Marx Brothers over embezzlement as he is with Gary Cooper. But here this very serious and obviously classically trained actor joins right in the slapstick fun. Dumbrille looks like he's having a ball. Later on he would really cut loose in a couple of Abbott and Costello films.

A question to all movie fans. Who do you think had the most inventive screen character names, W.C. Fields or Groucho Marx?

When crooner Tommy (Tony Martin) inherits his father's lucrative department store, he hopes to sell it to open a music conservatory for disadvantaged boys. Shady store manager Mr. Grover (Douglass Dumbrille) has been embezzling from the place, so he tries to have Tommy killed before the deal can take place and reveal Grover's malfeasance. Tommy's aunt Martha (Margaret Dumont) hires private detective Wolf J. Flywheel (Groucho Marx) to be Tommy's bodyguard, and along with Flywheel's assistant Wacky (Harpo Marx) and Tommy's pal Ravelli (Chico Marx) they get into all sorts of trouble in the department store.

The Marx Brothers declared that this would be their last film together, and I can see why they wanted to give it up after this substandard outing. The jokes fall flat, and too much time is spent on other characters and Tony Martin's singing numbers. It's not a complete bust, and there are a few chuckles scattered about like rare gems. Groucho's scenes with Dumont are still funny. The Brothers eventually made a couple more together as finances necessitated it, but they never matched their early 30's heyday.

When people are asked which is their least favorite Marx Brothers movie, "The Big Store" is one of the most frequent choices. And it's not hard to understand why: this must be the Marx movie with the least comedy content in it - if not in quality, then certainly in quantity. Apart from the hilarious scene near the start where Margaret Dumont tries to explain the case "in detail" to supposedly busy detective Groucho while Harpo is typing loudly and a toaster goes out of control (a sequence that can make you laugh no matter how many times you see it), it's hard to name another classic piece of comedy here. The scene with the 14-member Italian family and the climactic chase inside the store are more chaotic and frenetic than funny (and there's also way too much fast motion used). On the bright side, this film has a better supporting cast than "Go West", "Sing While You Sell" is a grand and catchy number, Harpo and Chico have a delightful piano duet and Harpo's harp-playing scene is pure magic. While in many Marx Brothers movies I find the piano and harp numbers a dull interruption of the comedy, in "The Big Store" they are a welcome relief from the absence of comedy! **1/2 out of 4.

This latter Marx Bros. comedy still contains some vintage moments between Groucho and his longtime foil Margaret Dumont, with good comic dialogue written for Groucho once again. The scene where she visits his office to hire him as a detective, as he and Harpo pull off a ruse by making it appear that Groucho's not a starving nobody but a first-class private eye, is as good as anything I've seen in their other pictures.

Things get bogged down later with musical numbers (I mean, what else is new?), but I was impressed by many of the sets in the grand department store.

Some good, some not-so-good.

By 1941, Groucho didn't want to make any more movies. The Brothers continued to do so just to keep oldest Brother Chico afloat, due to his gambling habits.

Someone commented earlier about Virginia O'Brien, the deadpan singer in the "rockabye" sequence. The deadpan delivery was her "shtick", and predated a similar approach taken by Keely Smith some years later. Legend has it that the first time a spotlight fell on Ms. O'Brien for an on-stage solo, she froze, an delivered her song with a pre-Botox facial paralysis. The audience thought it was part of the act and roared approvingly with laughter. From then on, Ms. O'Brien sang no other way. (She also sings a few bars of the Jerome Kern song, "A Fine Romance" in the semi-bio, "'Til The Clouds Roll By".) The big store is best remembered (and viewed) for the rousing "Sing While You Sell" piece about 38 minutes into the movie.