Horse Feathers

Plot (or should I say plan of attack)— Entering a college campus, the gang gets to deconstruct the whole idea of higher education.

The gags fly faster than speeding bullets. There's no real let-up, not even for hasty romantic interludes with Zeppo and Todd. It's like the boys have a hundred pages of material to squeeze into 70-minutes. Harpo's got more to do than usual, even a harp solo, while Groucho is at his caustic best with a zillion one-liners. I did miss his usual foil, Margaret Dumont, who should have been lurking somewhere in the faculty lounge. Instead, as a college president, he gets to insult anything collegiate, including America's unofficial national religion-- football. And check out that big game that looks more like Ben Hur than a sports contest. But what I really liked was Thelma Todd in the slinkiest gowns this side of Jean Harlow. And what a fine comedienne she was; too bad her life ended as several probing pages in Hollywood Babylon. All in all, this is the chaos brothers at their liveliest, and may cause highschoolers to rethink the whole idea of higher education.

While this film ISN'T as famous as DUCK SOUP or A NIGHT AT THE OPERA, it's my personal favorite. I think it's probably because unlike these other two pictures, there isn't all the singing and dancing in HORSE FEATHERS plus it has at least as much energy as any other film they made. Plus, unlike THE COCOANUTS and ANIMAL CRACKERS, there is a real honest-to-goodness plot!!! So, it's not just one gag after another after another.

Groucho is wonderful as the incompetent and perpetually horny Professor Wagstaff at Huxley College. Plus, as idiots mistaken for professional ringers, Chico and Harpo are at their best. Oh, and I guess Zeppo is in the movie, but as in all their early Zeppo films, he is pretty much a non-entity. You can really see why he never caught on as one of the Marx Brothers (nor did his other brother, Karl, who was by far the LEAST funny Marx Brother).

About the only negative about the film is the climactic football game. Even for a Marx Brothers film, this does get a little too stupid! But, the rest of the movie is so good, you really don't mind.

UPDATE: I just saw this film on the big screen and upon viewing it again, I am reducing the score to 8. Yes, it is good for the Marx Brothers but the plot, such as it is, is barely a plot at all, the film's ending is bizarre and senseless and a few of the jokes a bit less funny after re-watching. Still good and still worth seeing if you just turn off your brain and enjoy all the nonsense.

Fun and hilariously amusing comedy in which the Marx Brothers attempting to win a Rugby major championship for getting fame and fortune to save the University . Relentlessly comical and outrageous comedy with musical interludes that still works very well . The first to follow ¨Monkey Business¨, one of their biggest success and use a variation on its formula . Amusing and entertaining Marx Brothers picture , it has a lot of funny material and unfortunately intrusive songs . Groucho's wisecracks and the incomparable Chico and Harpo carry the movie . Profesor Wagstaff (Groucho Marx) has just been installed as the new but corrupt president of Huxley College , and he has to beef up its football team to win the championship game which has been rigged by local gamblers in the opposition´s favor , as he knows just how to do it . His rightness attitude toward education is not reserved for his son Frank (Zeppo) , who is seeing the college widow , Connie Bailey. Frank influences Wagstaff to recruit two football players who hang out in a speakeasy, in order to beat rival school Darwin . Unfortunately, Wagstaff mistakenly hires the crooks and hilarious Baravelli (Chico) and Pinky (Harpo). Finding out that Darwin has beaten him to the "real" players, Wagstaff enlists Baravelli and Pinky attempt to kidnap them. They go collegiate-and change "rah-rah" into "ha-ha-ha!"Mirth's Four Horsemen run wild thru a college of love-thirsty co-eds. Lunacy becomes a pleasure as these nuts go collegiate! They turn dear old Darwin into a monkey asylum-twist rah! Rah! Into ha! Ha! -and have a swell time while the school burns to the ground!

Amusing and fun Marx movie with a series of incidents which lead to an anarchic football end . Features some of the brothers´s classic routines and the songs : ¨Whatever it is , I´m against it¨ , ¨Everyone says I love you¨. Classic Marx film with many funny sequences , this is the most sustained bit of insanity , full of crazy gags , antics and amusement , being now deemed a satiric masterpiece and one of the biggest hits . Though not as mercilessly hilarious and outrageous as other films , it results to be , nonetheless , an agreeable movie . The Marx Brothers were still at the peak of their fame in this Paramount Pictures musical/comedy. Although it suffers from excessive musical comedy plotting , but it gives the zany threesome plenty of comic elaboration . It works very well , which , unfortunately and sadly , did not prove to be the case with most of the Marx Brothers pictures that went on . Enough gags for give several movies , but our favorite is still as Harpo gets to win the match . Despite the abundant songs , the movie maintains itself very well . Excellent Harpo Marx , as usual , he even did many of his own stunts , he later said it was a silly thing for a 47-year-old .This is the second Marx Brothers film made with brother Zeppo Marx, it started a new trend of The Marx Brothers movies featuring a Zeppo-like supporting character who carries the love story and sings the song . If previous Marx films were M. G. M. Lavishly financed by Max Siegel and Irving Thalberg , from now on, their movies produced by Paramount Pictures and Herman J. Mankiewicz . The motion picture was well directed by Norman Z MacLeod . He was a perfectionist filming very charming scenes . Don't miss it , one of the funniest picture ever made by Marx Brothers.

Other important films starred by Marx Brothers -many of them Broadway farce plays transfered by scenarists into vehicle for the Brothers- , they are the following ones : ¨Animal crackers¨, ¨Duck soap¨ that was a flop when first released but today considered a masterpiece , ¨Horse Feathers¨, ¨At the circus¨, ¨A night at the Opera¨,¨Day at the races¨ , ¨Room service¨ , ¨Go West¨, ¨Love Happy¨ and ¨Night in Casablanca¨, though in 1946 the Marx formula was weak and wearing thin. Any film with Groucho , Chico , Harpo and Zeppo is well worth seeing .

One of the better Marx Brothers movies. This one came right in the middle of their prime, between Monkey Business and Duck Soup (probably their two best films). While Horse Feathers isn't quite as funny as either of those, it still has plenty of laughs. The Marx Brothers were still young, but they knew what they were doing now. Again they take advantage of the film medium to do things they never could have done on stage, like the wild football finale. The involvement of the supporting cast is also kept to a minimum, which is always a good thing in Marx Bros. films. They do go back to relying on too many musical numbers. Groucho's opening song "Whatever it is, I'm Against it" seems awkwardly out of place, but it's interesting to see all four brothers do their own version of "Everyone Says I Love you." It's not their very best work, but it's not far from it either.

To anyone who has never seen a Marx Brothers film, it's hard to describe. "Horse Feathers" just may be the wackiest, corniest, dumbest, funniest and just plain craziest movie you've ever seen. It could be any one of those adjectives. In my opinion, it's all of them. It's my favorite film of these guys.

Perhaps no film has so many of the above-listed descriptions, in spades, as this one does. It just leaves you shaking your head. Some of the lines in here are some of the best I've ever heard and some of the scenes and jokes are the dumbest I've ever seen. One thing for sure: they come at you at a machine-gun pace. You barely have time to digest what you just saw and heard and there's another joke coming at you. You can barely keep up with it all. The football scenes at the end of the film are the most outrageous I have ever seen. They, like much of the movie, have to be seen to be believed. Yes, the latter is a little too ridiculous but, hey, that''s the Marx Brothers.

The only breaks from the non-stop jokes comes when one of the brothers decides to sing a song or play the piano or harp. Those tunes are so-so. The long harp solo by Harpo is too long. I read once where the brothers were opposed to having that in this movie...and they were proved right; it didn't fit. Other than that, this is 67 minutes of pure insanity.