Stubs – Monkey Business (1931)

Monkey Business (1931) Starring: Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, Zeppo Marx, Rockcliffe Fellowes, Harry Woods, Thelma Todd. Directed by Norman Z. McLeod.  Screenplay by S.J. Perelman, Will J. Johnstone. Produced by Herman J. Mankiewicz (credited as Associate Producer) Run Time: 77 minutes. U.S. Black and White. Comedy.

Monkey Business marks a departure for the Marx Bros. After two successful films shot in New York at Paramount’s Astoria Studios, The Cocoanuts (1929) and Animal Crackers (1930), their third film would be shot in Hollywood. More than that, however, it was the first film not to be based on a previous stage production.

Between the features and following their move to Los Angeles, the Brothers had appeared in a short film, celebrating the studio's twentieth anniversary, The House That Shadows Built (1931), in which they adapted the opening scene from I’ll Say She Is, a 1924 stage revue written by Will J. Johnstone and his brother Tom Johnstone. The revue, which starred the Marx Brothers, also featured Lotta Miles, is attributed to have led to the Brothers' rise in Vaudeville and their eventual entry into films. In the short, the four Marx Brothers are seen auditioning for the same play by imitating Maurice Chevalier, another Paramount star, performing a song.

Much has been made about the screenplay for Monkey Business. While S.J. Perelman, a humorist and screenwriter, is credited along with Johnstone, there is some argument about how much Perelman actually wrote that makes it into the final film.

The Marx Brothers' relationship with Perelman dates back to their Broadway days, when Groucho read his book, Dawn Ginsbergh’s Revenge. After a complimentary letter from Groucho prompted a meeting backstage, Perelman was asked if he could write something for a proposed Marx Brothers’ radio show with W. B. Johnstone. The fact that Harpo didn’t speak caused the writers some issues. The one idea they came up with was presented to Groucho at a story conference – the Marx Brothers as stowaways on a luxury liner. Groucho liked the idea so much that he took the writers directly to Paramount’s New York offices, so they could be put under contract.

Perelman was warned by producer Herman Mankiewicz about working with the Marx Brothers, “They're mercurial, devious and ungrateful,” he is quoted as saying. “I hate to depress you, but you'll rue the day you ever took the assignment. This is an ordeal by fire. Make sure you wear asbestos pants." Perelman didn’t have to wait long for Mankiewicz’s warning came true. As soon as he read them the first draft, Groucho either said, depending on whom you listen to, “It stinks” or “I think we need a script." Neither of which would be considered encouraging.

It’s not certain who all contributed to the screenplay. Director Norman McLeod said that over the next five months, 12 different writers were involved. Even cartoonist J. Carver Pusey, who created the pantomime comic strip Benny, which ran in newspapers from 1929 to 1939, is listed in copyright paperwork. It is also said that when Eddie Cantor visited the set, he made contributions. But as McLeod, in his first time solo in the director’s chair, would soon learn, the Marx Brothers liked to ad lib and once he kept the camera running was able to capture some of that for the movie.

One more change for the brothers was their leading lady. In Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers, Margaret Dumont had been Groucho’s love interest/foil as it were. For their next two films, she was replaced by Thelma Todd, a blond beauty with a long comedic background. While she is perhaps best known for her work with the Marx Brothers, she also worked with Charley Chase, Buster Keaton and Laurel and Hardy. Todd also appeared in any early version of the Maltese Falcon, as Iva Archer, opposite Ricardo Cortez’s Sam Spade. Todd would appear in two Marx Brothers’ movies, this one and Horse Feathers (1932).

There isn’t really that much of a plot. Per the premise, the Brothers are stowaways on a luxury liner that is already out to sea. They are being searched for by the First Mate Gibson (Tom Kennedy), who is sure there are four in the cargo hold, since he’s heard the four-part harmony of Sweet Adeline. We’re even treated to a little snippet of them singing each in their own Kippered Herring barrel, the first time Harpo’s voice is heard on film.

The Marx Brothers (Harpo, Zeppo, Chico and Groucho) stowaway on board ship in barrels.

Even when the First Mate brings down a crew of sailors to search the hold, the Brothers manage to avoid detection until he orders the barrels taken topside to get them out of the way. The hoist lifts the barrels off the brothers, leaving each exposed. The Brothers scatter when they’re noticed, but they always manage to stay one step ahead of their pursuers, even hiding in plain sight pretending to be a four-piece band.

They hide in plain sight pretending to be a four-piece band.

Harpo is chased into a Punch and Judy show, where he becomes part of the show and torments the First Mate who followed him in. When the Captain (Ben Taggart) finds his First Mate is fighting with a puppet, he sends him to his room. Even after they discover their mistake, Harpo manages to elude them. At one point, Chico and Harpo take over the ship’s barbershop and “snoop” away an officer’s moustache.

The Captain (Ben Taggart) finds his First Mate Gibson (Tom
Kennedy) fighting with Harpo, whom he thinks is a puppet.

The Brothers are not through with the Captain, as Groucho and Chico follow him into his quarters and order up his lunch, even going so far as to share his lunch without his permission and then locking the Captain in a closet.

Groucho and Chico crash the Captain's lunch.

Zeppo avoids his pursuers by hooking up with a woman walking on deck. While she’s resistant at first, he charms her with his comment about the might pretty country around here, meaning the ocean. The girl, who turns out to be Mary Helton (Ruth Hall), is so enamored that she comments about the number of trees.

Meanwhile, Chico and Harpo get hired as henchmen for a gangster on board the ship, Joe Helton (Rockcliffe Fellowes), who turns out to be Mary’s father. Groucho and Zeppo are hired by Helton’s rival, “Alky” Briggs (Harry Woods), but only after Groucho’s made a pass at his wife, Lucille (Thelma Todd).

Joe Helton (Rockcliffe Fellowes) hires Chico and Harpo as henchmen.

Each pair of brothers follows their new boss around the decks of the ship. Harpo and Chico, who don’t pay close attention, end up following any man who passes by them, until they end up following an older man, who is not in disguise. Groucho, who is working for Briggs, approaches Helton to make nice.

Groucho is hired by "Alky" Briggs (Harry Woods), but only after he's
 already made a pass at Briggs' wife Lucille (Thelma Todd)

Once the ship reaches the docks, getting off the ship proves to be difficult without a passport. They try in vain to pickpocket one of the other passengers and fail, that is until Zeppo runs into Maurice Chevalier, an action that takes place off screen. But using Chevalier’s passport proves difficult, since none of the brothers really resemble the well-known French born actor and fellow Paramount star. Zeppo suggests that they sing a song to prove their identity and all four sing "You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me", which Chevalier sang in The Big Pond (1930). [Chevalier actually had a bonafide hit with another song from The Big Pond: "Livin' in the Sunlight, Lovin' in the Moonlight"]

Maurice Chevalier in The Big Pond (1930).

The Brothers manage to get off the boat when one of the passengers faints while departing. An ambulance is called and the boys stowaway on the passenger’s stretcher.

On dry land, the fun continues at a party Helton is throwing for his daughter’s coming out, something that used to be reserved for debutantes. The Brothers through hook or crook manage to be in attendance. Zeppo appears there at Mary’s invitation, Groucho at the father’s and Chico and Harpo out of the force of their nature.

Groucho enjoys attention hanging out at the party.

In what seems customary with any Marx Brothers film is a musical interlude. Chico leads an orchestra in a piano medley. While I don’t think anyone would mistake Chico for Van Cliburn, I doubt anyone had more fun and was more fun to watch playing. Harpo ends up accompanying Maxine Castle, a contralto, in her rendering of "O Sole Mio.", before playing solo. It is interesting to note that what he plays, a little under two minute ditty, “I’m Daffy Over You”, was written by brother Chico.

But “Alky” Briggs has other plans for the night; to kidnap Mary and use her as leverage over her father, no doubt to take control of his operation. He and Lucille are in attendance, which allows him to tell Groucho of his plans and for Groucho to make one more play for Lucille.

Groucho with Lucille at the party.

When the kidnapping occurs, Groucho knows where Mary is being taken, the “old Barn” and the Brothers take chase. The Brothers manage to fight and defeat Alky’s henchmen, Zeppo rescues Mary and knocks out Briggs just as Helton and his men arrive.

The film was a huge success for Paramount, for the writers involved and for the Marx Brothers, establishing them as major stars in Hollywood. There were even plans, according to Robert Osborne, for a sequel in keeping with the mafia themes from this film. However, those plans were scuttled when Charles Lindbergh’s son was kidnapped and killed by gang members. Instead, the next film Horse Feathers ended up being a re-working of sorts of a Marx Brothers’ stage show “Fun in Hi Skule”. [The Lindbergh kidnapping was such a big event that it had a definite impact on films from Hollywood. Another example was Three on a Match (1932), which also faced censorship because of its plot points involving kidnapping.]

Some of the themes and plot points in this film would be mined later. The concept of them as stowaways would be used in their eventual radio show, Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel, a situational comedy starring Groucho and Chico that ran for 26 episodes on NBC’s Blue Network from November 28, 1932 to May 22, 1933. And of course, would be recycled again in the three Marx Brother’s A Night at the Opera (1935), by which time the act had moved to MGM.

The Marx Brothers are a unique force of comedy, being able to successfully merge wordplay with slapstick in a way no one else seems to pull off. Throw in their musical talents and there has really been no act like them in the history of Hollywood. Perhaps it’s the numbers, there are four in this film, allowing each to concentrate on what they do best. Harpo is the king of pantomime in the sound era of film, but also the source of chaos, not to mention his harp playing. Chico is the conniving “immigrant” who doesn’t quite understand English or understands only what he wants to and plays a mean piano.

Groucho is unmatched in his verbal wordplay, oftentimes opposite Chico, and manages to pull off a grease pencil moustache better than anyone. Zeppo, the group’s straight man and love interest so to speak, even gets a few laughs and gets the girl. The four brothers make a complete package in this film.

This film is an example of the Marx Brothers’ style of anarchy, driven home by Harpo’s complete lack of respect for authority when they’re trying to get past the passport check point. He literally walks on the tables in a defiance of standing in line and when he makes it to the front he throws papers off the table for no real reason but to make a mess of the order. Everything, everyone and every location is simply a backdrop for the Marx's to react to, play off and make fun of; no one is immune. The higher up the social or authority ladder, the more of a come-uppance the Marx's try to provide. You have to know that this played well with a depression-era movie-going crowd.

Harpo creates havoc at the passport check point and shows his complete lack of respect for authority.

Monkey Business is one of the funniest of the Marx Brothers films, but that’s a little like asking a parent to pick their favorite twin child. [The proper answer is the one in the middle.] They are all, for the most part, fun to watch. This film illustrates how much the Marx Brothers can do with very little and that sometimes it’s best to sit back and let them do what they do, rather than try to reel them in.

Stubs – The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947)

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) Starring: Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo, Boris Karloff. Directed by Norman Z. McLeod. Screenplay by Ken Englund, Everett Freeman, Philip Rapp. Based on the shorty story The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by James Thurber. Run Time: 110 minutes. U.S.  Color. Musical, Comedy

Hollywood is always looking for a good story, even a short story. In 1939, James Thurber, a popular humorist of his day, published a short story in The New Yorker magazine, about a man who has five distinct daydreams inspired by his surroundings while his wife visits a beauty parlor and he runs errands.

Samuel Goldwyn, one of the great independent producers of the studio era, bought the film rights to the story in 1945 and saw the need to change and expand on the plot-less tale. He hired two screenwriters, Ken Englund and Everrett Freeman, to adapt the short story into a screenplay. But Goldwyn rejected the screenplay and sent Englund to work with Thurber on a new one, but that collaboration only lasted ten days. Thurber was not happy about the process or the work they were doing. While Goldwyn would consult with Thurber, he didn’t take any of the writer’s suggestions.

With Danny Kaye set to star, the story moved away from the original short story and was customized to fit the strengths of the musical comedy actor. The original story was altered so much that Thurber referred to it as “The Public Life of Danny Kaye.” Goldwyn must have thought along similar lines, since he briefly changed the title to “I Wake Up Dreaming”, a play on the 1941 novel by Steve Fisher and the film made from it the same year, I Wake Up Screaming. But protests from Thurber fans forced Goldwyn to change it back.

No longer a married man, Walter (Danny Kaye) is instead a proof reader at Pierce Publishing in New York working on a group of pulp fiction magazines. On the way to the train station, Walter is driving with his mother, Eunice (Fay Bainter), when we see him have his first of many daydreams. When his mother asks him to bring home Sea Drift soap chips, Mitty sets off as a swashbuckling hero until his mother reminds him to watch where he’s going. Eunice has a list of things she wants Walter to do while he’s in town, some of which Walter manages to write down in a little black book he carries with him. That doesn’t prevent him from hearing cake, but writing rake, which he’ll bring home instead.

His boss, Bruce Pierce (Thurston Hall), is not above stealing Walter’s ideas, this one a monthly publication called Hospital Love Stories. This doesn’t prevent Walter from daydreaming about being a famous brain surgeon, who can't help but impress a lovesick nurse.

Walter's boss, Bruce Pierce (Thurston Hall), doesn't like
Walter's daydreaming, but he likes to steal Walter's ideas.

That night, Walter returns home in time to get ready for dinner with his fiancée, Gertrude Griswald (Ann Rutherford), her mother (Florence Bates) and Gertrude’s dog, Queenie, which doesn’t seem to like him.

Gertrude (Ann Rutherford) was one of the first pet parents.
Here, Queenie, her dog, gets a place at the dinner table.

When he goes to stoke the furnace, he briefly escapes the henpecking and fantasizes he’s a pilot in the RAF, fighting the Nazis by day and wooing a French bar maid by night. It is during this sequence that Walter breaks out into song, parodying a music teacher he and some of the other pilots had back at school.

Showcasing Danny Kaye's singing talents are detrimental to the movie.

The next morning on his train ride, glamorous Rosalind Van Hoorn (Virginia Mayo) attempts to escape from a suspicious-looking man, Hendrick (Henry Corden), by having Walter pretend to be her sweetheart. Walter recognizes Rosalind as the girl he keeps seeing in his fantasies and he agrees to go along. But once off the train, Walter is late for work and tries to catch a cab, but they’re all taken. He sees Rosalind in one and they pick up their conversation. Rosalind notices Hendrick and asks Walter to accompany her to meet a friend at the docks. He agrees, but becomes nervous about being late to work and jumps out when the cab passes by his office. But Walter leaves his briefcase with his proofs for Pierce in them.

He grabs another cab and follows her to the docks to get it back. Rosalind's friend, Karl Maarsdam (Frank Reicher), sensing things are dangerous, hides a notebook in Walter’s briefcase before returning it to him. Maarsdam then invites Walter to share their cab, but as soon as the driver takes off, Maarsdam collapses, dead. Walter and Rosalind race to the police station, but as he goes to tell his story to the police, the cab and Rosalind disappear.

That evening, Rosalind reappears at his office and convinces Walter to meet her uncle, Peter Van Hoorn (Konstantin Shayne). Peter tells Walter that he is the former curator of the Royal Netherlands Museum and when they hid all the national treasures prior to the Nazi invasion, he recorded their whereabouts in a black notebook, which a criminal called The Boot is trying to steal.

Frightened, Walter leaves, but as soon as he enters a department store, he finds the notebook in his pocket and spies Hendrick following him. He runs into the models' salon and hides the notebook in a corset, which is promptly packed up and delivered to a Mrs. Follinsbee (Doris Lloyd). Walter hurries back to work. With the elevators full, he takes the stairs, but tires on his way up. When he hears the footsteps of a charwoman, he thinks it’s Hendrick. Unable to get into the backdoor of Pierce Publishing, he goes outside on the window ledge, crawling to Pierce’s office, where he happens to be stealing another of Walter’s ideas, a pocket sized version of their magazines. One of The Boot's henchmen, Dr. Hugo Hollingshead (Boris Karloff), comes to Walter’s office under the guise of offering story ideas for one of Pierce’s magazines, but when he sees a notebook fall from Walter’s pocket, Hollingshead takes it and forces Walter out the window. Walter escapes by again crawling along the ledge and into Pierce's office, which infuriates his boss again.

At home, Walter’s romantic rival for Gertrude, Tubby Wadsworth (Gordon Jones), embarrasses him in front of her with a joke first edition that sprays Walter in the face. Humiliated, Walter escapes into a new fantasy. In this one, he’s a famous riverboat gambler who wins Rosalind's heart.

The next day, Rosalind again appears and convinces Walter to help her retrieve the notebook. They look up everyone with Follinsbee as a last name and stake them out. A deliveryman from the department store arrives at one such residence, but Walter has already upset the woman’s very jealous husband to the point that he punches out the deliveryman when he brings the delivery package. But instead of the corset, they find a woman’s night gown. They do eventually find the corset at a fashion show. This provides an opportunity for another song for Kaye, this one about a man who designs outrageous hats for women.

Rosalind (Virginia Mayo) convinces Walter to keep helping her.

Walter, however, immediately forgets to bring the notebook back to Van Hoorn, forcing Rosalind to sneak into the Mitty house that evening, when Gertrude and her mother are staying over. Walter alarms the other women as he attempts to hide Rosalind's presence, but manages to sneak off to Van Hoorn's with her to deliver the notebook to him.

There, Rosalind grows suspicious when she sees that Van Hoorn has Marsdaam's passport in his possession, and hides the notebook in Van Hoorn's desk without informing anyone that it is there. Soon after, she spots Van Hoorn's oversized shoe and realizes he must be The Boot, after which he abducts her and administers a sleeping pill to Walter.

When Walter wakes, Van Hoorn has gathered Mrs. Mitty and Pierce, and lies to them that Walter has been wandering around the grounds incoherently, that Rosalind does not exist, and that they should take him to see Hollingshead, a psychiatrist he recommends. Although Walter recognizes the doctor as his attacker, Hollingshead soon convinces him that everything has been a daydream. Even convincing Walter that he has other ailments, including one in which he sees all women as wearing swim suits. (Thurber was so bothered by this scene that he was once quoted as saying it “will haunt me all the days of my life.”)

Dr. Hugo Hollingshead (Boris Karloff) tries to convince Walter that everything has been a daydream. 

The next day, as he is about to marry Gertrude, he finds a charm Rosalind gave him for luck, a pair of golden wooden shoes. Realizing that she is real, he runs to Van Hoorn's, stealing the floral truck delivering his wedding bouquet. On the way, he passes a cowboy on horseback advertising a rodeo show and at a traffic light becomes Mitty The Kid. Against a spare set, he rescues dream Rosalind from the clutches of Toledo (a dream Tubby).

Walter's fantasies seem to get in the way of whatever thin plot the movie has.
In this case, Walter daydreams that he's Mitty the  Kid in a very stylized Old West.

When the light changes, Mitty continues to the manor where he fights past Hendrick and discovers Rosalind, whom he awakens from her shocked state. There ensues a chase through the bowels of the house. They are finally caught and the criminals are about to try to make them talk when the police, Pierce, Mrs. Mitty, Gertrude and Tubby arrive. Their rebukes provoke Walter to finally stand up to them and display his assertiveness. Jump to the end and Walter is married to Rosalind and is the new Associate Editor for Pierce Publishing.

The film seems to almost jump cut to its conclusion. The entire issue of the Dutch black notebook is forgotten and I’m afraid impressing your boss by telling them off only works in the movies. Most likely Walter Mitty would be unemployed rather than promoted, but hey, this is supposed to be a fantasy.

While the film apparently did well at the box office and is considered by many to be a classic, I’m afraid I have to side with Thurber on this one. The film, which is supposed to be funny, unfortunately isn’t. Not sure if it’s the difference between a late 40’s sense of humor and today’s, but really good comedies don’t have that problem; they find a universal truth which is unaffected by the passage of time.

Don’t get me wrong, Danny Kaye was a very talented man. A singer, dancer and comedian, Kaye was a bit of a sensation on Broadway in the early 1940’s. Movie studios, sensing Kaye’s talent and star potential, vied with each other to sign him, but it was Goldwyn who would eventually win out. Kaye, who had previously appeared in some films in the 30’s, began a rise to stardom with his first film for Samuel Goldwyn Pictures’ Up in Arms (1944).

Sometimes showcasing one actor’s talents comes at a price. I can understand why Goldwyn would want Kaye to sing, but the songs certainly slow down this movie. Perhaps they would be better if presented in a straight musical; here they are show stoppers, but for the wrong reasons.

I watched this movie, hoping to like it, but I was sadly disappointed. There are a few funny moments, including the use of the onomatopoeia ta-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa in the fantasies to be everything from the sound a heart makes to a hospital machine to the hoof beats of a horse. (This same sound was used in the short story as well.) But there isn’t enough to carry the day. As another reviewer pointed out, the film substitutes Danny Kaye's zaniness for James Thurber’s whimsy. It’s too bad it’s not a good substitution.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) is available at the WB Shop: