richardchatten
Joined May 2016
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The first Marx brothers comedy based on an original screenplay, the presence of Zeppo and Thelma Todd reminding you that 'Monkey Business' belongs to the first phase of the boys' film career under their contract to Paramount.
Virtually plotless - the action chiefly confined to one of those grand ocean liners that featured regularly in the films of the thirties - the technique may not be exactly sophisticated, but after over ninety years it's still funny, with both Groucho and Harpo benefiting from the fact that the film was preCode; Harpo in particular being permitted throughout to display a rampant libido.
Virtually plotless - the action chiefly confined to one of those grand ocean liners that featured regularly in the films of the thirties - the technique may not be exactly sophisticated, but after over ninety years it's still funny, with both Groucho and Harpo benefiting from the fact that the film was preCode; Harpo in particular being permitted throughout to display a rampant libido.
This guilty pleasure has probably the ultimate in high concepts. Imagine the pitch: "a bunch of terrorists take a group of Miss Universe contestants hostage and demand a ransom!! And get this, they're also threatening to unleash a deadly virus if their demands aren't met!!"
The cast member who truly makes this hokum worth watching is Sheree North - looking seriously badass in cutaway shorts - as the regulation psycho blonde, her best friend evidently her machine gun, who'd undergone the most extraordinary transformation imaginable from a former star of fifties musicals to a regular feature in high testosterone thrillers of the seventies.
The cast member who truly makes this hokum worth watching is Sheree North - looking seriously badass in cutaway shorts - as the regulation psycho blonde, her best friend evidently her machine gun, who'd undergone the most extraordinary transformation imaginable from a former star of fifties musicals to a regular feature in high testosterone thrillers of the seventies.
Although it only entered the vernacular a quarter of a century ago, the term 'Sliding Doors moment' feels as if's been a part of human perception - often accompanied by a profound feeling of relief or regret at what might or might not have been but for capricious fate - since at least 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles'; while cinematic precedents include 'It's a Wonderful Life'.
Had a poorly educated neurotic called Adolf Hitler not possessed such for gift for public speaking would there there ever been a Second World War; and would all of humanity therefore now be living an existence defined by fear of the atom bomb, for example?
Had a poorly educated neurotic called Adolf Hitler not possessed such for gift for public speaking would there there ever been a Second World War; and would all of humanity therefore now be living an existence defined by fear of the atom bomb, for example?