La pêche au trésor

Yes, this movie is sad; it's the end of an era. Bye bye, Marx Brothers; over half a century later, you still haven't been topped.

However, this movie is not sad in the sense of being pathetic. There's still some laughs here, and on balance, I think this is better than some of the previous Marx efforts ("A Night in Casablanca" and "At the Circus" in particular). Harpo is quite charming (who's not a Harpo fan?), and I remember finding the Central Park scene quite touching. The rooftop chase is a blast, too. Granted, those two scenes are standouts and the rest of the movie is weaker in comparison, but I never found it painfully weak.

Let's put it this way; even mediocre Marx is still okay by me.

I've been a die-hard Marxist for several years now. After I watched their first seven films to the point where my tapes were in tatters, I sought out their later films, the lesser productions Room Service thru Night in Casablanca. After that, I still wanted more, so I finally gave in and watched the one film that I KNEW would be painful: Love Happy. Virtually every review has smeared this film and ripped into it with full claws, so I braced myself and bought the DVD.

Now let me tell you something: this movie is great. Of course it's not in the ballpark of the Paramounts, but it fits nicely with their later films, and is a real delight. So why the negative rap? Well, this movie was originally intended as a solo vehicle for Harpo Marx. Chico joined on when he needed money to get out of debt. Groucho was never supposed to be in this film, but the sponsors said that they wouldn't release it unless he was, so that they could bill it as a "Marx Brothers" picture. So footage of Groucho narrating parts of the story were shoehorned into the finished product. The result? Chico and Harpo are just as enchanting as ever, and Groucho--despite being displayed prominently on the movie posters--is relegated to a commentator. Since most Marx fans are Groucho fans first, Chico/Harpo fans second, this setup comes as a slap in the face, and the film gets trashed.

As such, if you watch the Marxes mainly to see Groucho's witty quips, this movie will bore you stiff. However, if you--like me--love the others just as much as Groucho (for me, Chico will ALWAYS be the funniest Marx Brother!) you'll be surprised at how good Love Happy really is. I'd go into the plot, but with a Marx movie, who really cares about the plot? It's our boys we're after. Chico plays an uproarious piano/violin duet, lusts after Ilona Massey, has some "tootsy-frootsy ice cream" and does some flawed mind-reading; Harpo tumbles through a washing machine, turns his fingers into candles, pulls a dog out of his coat and lusts after Ilona Massey. And Groucho narrates, searches, quips, ponders the situation, and...lusts after Ilona Massey. Oh!--and did I mention this film started the career of a young Marilyn Monroe?

In short, to a Chico/Harpo fan, this movie is as good as (and often better than) At the Circus or A Night in Casablanca. To a Groucho fan...well, that's why we have remote-controls.

Love Happy is the final movie that features the three Marx brothers (Groucho Chico Harpo) in top billing and as the stars. Once again they do the occasional musical performances. This time Frank Tashlin co-writes the script (bringing, I'd imagine, some pure cartoonish brilliance to it, in fits and starts). And it's OK... ish. Actually Harpo is better than OK, but when isn't he? This isn't even his premier work and he's delightful to watch in scenes that should be rote like when the actress asks Harpo to be his manager and he mimes becoming a "big shot" with his feet up on a can of rubbish in a park, miming as well being on the phone with many agents. It's what he was made for as a performer, moments like this.

The main problem for me is a major lack of the brothers interacting with one another - Groucho barely appears in the first half for Pete's sake, and only through limited 4th wall breaks - yet there are a lot of legitimately entertaining musical numbers (really, there isn't a dull one, including a number where a woman sings about being frustrated with motherhood). There's once again another loony but half-baked crime plot, here involving stolen diamonds in a can of... sardines I think, Chico on piano, and a musical that is on thin ice as far as being produced. Objectively this isn't as good a movie as I'm rating it, but I'm being generous because when these guys do click in their scenes they are just that funny. In other words it's better than Room Service (oddly enough this has the storyline that it's closest to), but not by much.

It's also uncanny seeing Groucho without his grease-paint mustache as a movie character with the brothers.

This last Marx Brothers film is NOT the right place to begin if you've never seen one of their movies before. That said, it's not as bad as its reputation suggests either. It was originally conceived as a vehicle for Harpo, so as a result we get lesser input from Chico and even less from Groucho (which is especially unfortunate). But as it stands, Harpo fans should find some things to chuckle about, on and off.

That's the main problem with LOVE HAPPY - it's not consistent in entertaining you, and the funny bits come and go. It's also too long and veers off into other characters we just don't care about. But you could do worse, and this is noteworthy as Marilyn Monroe's debut film (she's got a tiny part). It's always a pleasure to see Ilona Massey strutting her stuff, too.

"Love Happy" is remembered, primarily, as the last "Official" Marx Brothers film (they would all appear in brief vignettes in "The Story of Mankind", seven years later, but not as a team), but if the film were a baseball statistic, it would have an asterik (*), because it truly isn't a showcase of the brothers, together, but a comedy starring Harpo, with Chico in a supporting role, and Groucho doing narration, and making brief appearances, occasionally (rather like the "General Electric Theater" TV episode the brothers would do, in 1959, where Harpo and Chico played crooks with hearts of gold, and Groucho would make a surprise appearance at the finale, as their lawyer).

As a comedy, "Love Happy" is so-so, with Harpo providing some genuine laughs, particularly during an interrogation scene with villains Raymond Burr, Ilona Massey, Eric Blore, and Bruce Gordon, and in the rooftop finale, with Harpo offering the same kind of outrageous physical humor that he had demonstrated in the classic MGM comedies. But the rest of the plot, while mildly entertaining, is simply a musical variation of "Room Service", as an impoverished group of performers (headed by Paul Valentine and future star Vera-Ellen) struggle to put on a Broadway musical.

The back story of the film is possibly more entertaining than the movie, itself; Harpo had wanted to make a solo film throughout the forties, and had tinkered on the script for several years, while soliciting financial backing for the project. Chico, meanwhile, was running up huge gambling debts, as was often the case (while a brilliant card player, he was a notoriously bad gambler), and just as the Marxes had made "A Night in Casablanca", in 1946, to pay off his debts at that time, Harpo brought him into "Love Happy" to do the same. Unfortunately, the end of the decade was a depressed time for film making (with television making inroads into the ticket-buying public), and backers would only fund the project if all three brothers would appear in the movie.

Groucho, by now a genuine TV star, thanks to the "You Bet Your Life" quiz show, hated the script of "Love Happy", and had little desire to co-star in the film. He was, however, loyal to his brothers, and finally reached a compromise; he would only appear briefly, would not have to wear his trademark greasepaint eyebrows and mustache, and would have final approval of his dialog and the performers working with him. He could honestly say he helped 'discover' Marilyn Monroe, at an open audition (watching two other starlets walk across a stage, followed by Marilyn, when asked for his pick for a small role, he raised his eyebrows and quipped, "You're kidding, right?")

Be warned: While "Love Happy" is not terrible, it certainly is no "Night at the Opera", or "Duck Soup"!