Watch Marx Brothers Go West

The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act that was successful in vaudeville. Groucho calmly checked his watch and ad-libbed, \'The 9:20\'s right on time. 1938), the Marx Brothers returned to MGM and made three more films: At the Circus (1939), Go West (1940) and The Big Store (1941). Dec 06, 1940  Directed by Edward Buzzell. With Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, John Carroll. The Marx Brothers come to the rescue in the Wild West when a young man, trying to settle an old family feud so he can marry the girl he loves, runs afoul of crooks.

The family had five brothers, although only four (and later three) performed together at a given time. According to interviews Groucho gave late in his life, their stage names reflected personal traits or important events in their lives, and were inspired by a comic strip called \'Sherlocko the Monk\', which triggered a brief rash of nicknames ending in \'-o\'.

Groucho (Julius Henry Marx; October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977), nicknamed for his abrasive wit. (Some sources say the name came from his \'grouch bag\', a bag worn around the neck, and used to keep money, as vaudeville performers were sometimes not above stealing from each other.) The patron saint of. Known for his cigar and mustache (which was actually a stripe of greasepaint, at least until he became the host of in 1947 and grew a real one). He\'s the singer of the group and, although it\'s not as showcased as Chico\'s and Harpo\'s instrumental talents, a gifted guitar player. A cross between a participant and a commentator, Groucho\'s on-screen persona would inspire performers from to the team and arguably up into the present day with groups like, his most famous imitator being.

Later in life, he became a fan and friend of, oddly enough. Chico (Leo or Leonard Marx; March 22, 1887 – October 11, 1961), whose nickname (pronounced \'chicko\') referred to his habit of \'chicken chasing\' (womanizing). His trademarks were an outrageously fake Italian accent, a conical black hat, and a distinctive style of piano playing where he appear to literally \'tickle\' the piano (a play on the phrase \'tickling the ivories\') and would \'shoot\' selected keys with his fingers held to form a gun. The most traditional comedian of the three major brothers, Chico would typically find himself providing the verbal component to Harpo\'s mime, or sparring with Groucho. Despite his persona, as a basically-flattering caricature, since most of his scenes have him outwitting his WASP antagonists.

Harpo (Adolph Marx, later changed to Arthur note though not for; he just plain hated the name and had it legally changed in 1911, long before the world had heard of and even before \'s anti-German hysteria was even an issue - among family he was routinely called \'Ahdie\'; November 23, 1888 – September 28, 1964), nicknamed for his virtuoso harp playing (which was completely self-taught). His trademarks were harp playing, a silent mime performance (using a horn instead of speaking), and a clown-like costume featuring a raincoat with apparently, a curly red wig (later blond, as it looked better in black-and-white film), and a top hat. He is a virtuoso kleptomaniac with a special knack for pickpocketing, ending up with such unlikely prizes as Groucho\'s boxers and a random man\'s birthmark.

In the early stage shows, he did an accent, but it was eventually decided that having him be was funnier. His mime routines (most notably the famous Mirror Scene from Duck Soup) have become a staple for comedy shows today, and even inspired all of \'s entire character in the 2009 season of. Zeppo (Herbert Marx; February 25, 1901 – November 30, 1979), whose nickname was born (according to Groucho) from, but the dates don\'t match.

Harpo, in his book Harpo Speaks, claims that the name was derived from a chimpanzee appearing in a comic strip of the day, Mr. Zippo, but when Herbert objected, this was changed to Zeppo. (There are other stories concerning the name\'s origin, such as the time the brothers were pretending to be farmers in order to dodge serving in and gave each other hayseed names like \'Zeke\' and \'Zeb\'.) Zeppo was the youngest and most handsome of the brothers, and while still part of the act generally played the straight man and sometimes the romantic lead. His trademark is less developed than the above. (He was a talented comedian, however, once filling in for Groucho during a Vaudeville tour when the latter was ill, and could flawlessly imitate all of his siblings.) After several movies, he followed brother Gummo in leaving the act and becoming a manager for his performing siblings. A talented mechanic and inventor, he also founded a manufacturing company. His final movie appearance was.

Gummo (Milton Marx; October 23, 1893 – April 21, 1977), nicknamed for the sneaky, or \'gumshoe\', way he had of walking around backstage, or a pair of galoshes (\'gumshoes\') he had as a child. Having a lifelong dislike of being onstage, Gummo left the act right before it became famous to join the army during, although he was never sent to Europe due to the war ending shortly afterwards. Zeppo, who until then was considered too young to be in the act, took his place. Like Zeppo, he later became a manager for his siblings and other talent, but he kept at it longer than his younger sibling. He died four months before Groucho, with the latter not being informed of his death in fear of making his already frail health worse. According to, the contemporary actor Gregg Marx is his grandson. There was actually a sixth Marx Brother, Manfred Marx, who was also the oldest; he died of enterocolitis on 17 July 1886, aged seven months (his youngest brother Zeppo was given \'Manfred\' as a middle name in his memory).

He is buried in New York Washington Cemetery near Minnie\'s mother Fanny. The Marx\'s \'sister\' Polly was actually a cousin whom Minnie and Frenchie adopted. They are in no way related to, author of The Communist Manifesto, despite humorist Richard Armour\'s assertion that Karl was the funniest of the brothers, nor are they related to musician note Marx is not an unusual surname among Jews of German extraction. Their father was actually a French-speaking Alsatian, who\'d changed his name from Simon Marrix to Sam Marx. Also, was never the name of one of the brothers. Nor was.Also frequently joining them was the matronly figure of Margaret Dumont, typically cast as a who was a perfect foil for Groucho; he would alternate between shamelessly flirting with her (\'Ah, married. I can see you right now in the kitchen, bending over a hot stove.\'

) and viciously insulting her (\'But I can\'t see the stove.\' ).Their comedic style was chaotic and absurd, with lots of word play, pantomime and satire. In general, they would appear in stock stories, tired even by the standards of the day, and demolish them. The surrounding characters, trapped by their roles, would attempt to continue on through the story, mostly ignoring the literary deconstruction going on.In particular, Chico, Harpo and Groucho had their own identifiers:. Chico spoofed the ignorant Italian Immigrant, always looking to con, steal or otherwise make a quick buck. He was the only Marx Brother to keep using his vaudeville accent into the movies. It\'s notable that Chico\'s character worked on another level besides the obvious spoof; he often got the better of Groucho and other characters with a hint of and more than a little gusto, particularly in A Day at the Races.

One Marx historian proposed that this was a vicarious release for actual immigrants, seeing \'one of their own\' get one up on the establishment. Given that the brothers\' parents were immigrants (Alsatian Jews rather than Italians), there might be something to that. Harpo originally spoofed an Irish Bruiser in the early vaudeville days, but later developed his trademark pantomime, \'speaking\' only through whistling, charades, and honking a horn. (In, Harpo actually had a pleasant baritone voice, and was described as talkative and intelligent; among his friends were Alexander Woolcott.

He, like Woolcott, was a member of the Algonquin Round Table.) He was the clown of the group — okay, they all were, to a point. He\'d literally chase women, randomly snip off people\'s ties and other things with scissors, eat random objects, and produce unlikely items from his pockets and tattoos. In the team\'s vaudeville days, Groucho originally played a German-accented character; but he was often booed for it (there was a going on) and so became the fast-talking \'authority figure\', and possibly the king of wordplay. It was he who uttered those immortal lines, \'Once I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don\'t know.\' However, one of the absolute best-known of his lines is something — a to a woman with lots of children who appeared on. Woman: I love my husband.Groucho: I love my cigar, too, but I take it out once in a while.Pretty racy stuff, for the 1950s.Groucho and Harpo went on to inspire the characters of Yakko and Wakko respectively in the hit 1990s cartoon.

In fact, an episode of Animaniacs entitled \'King Yakko\' is very similar to, following a similar plot and with Yakko and Wakko falling into roles similar to those of Groucho and Harpo. The episode even ends with Wakko having a beautiful woman hold his leg, one of Harpo\'s.Also,: Bugs actually stole some of his mannerisms and lines from Groucho, including the famous line \'Of course you know, \' It is also argued that the way Bugs holds his carrot is meant to be reminiscent of Groucho and his cigar. There was even a short in which Bugs disguised himself as Groucho to evade the attentions of restaurant chef Elmer Fudd.

It didn\'t work, because Fudd was already disguised as Harpo.Groucho also has the distinctive pleasure of starring in a series of successful mystery novels by author Ron Goulart in which he and his writer investigate various murders and crimes that popped up in Hollywood during the 1930s (in the novels, Groucho did the investigations in between his working in movies and his hosting a weekly radio program).Not to be confused with Marx, a character from. Or.The Marx Brothers\' films:. (also called Humorisk; 1921) — Don\'t expect to ever see it, as the Marxes had all the copies soon after it debuted as. (1929). (1930). (1931).

(1932). (1933). (1935). (1937). Room Service (1938). At The Circus (1939).

Go West (1940). The Big Store (1941).

A Night In Casablanca (1946). (1949). Groucho, Chico, and Harpo also appeared (in separate, individual vignettes) in \'s 1957 fantasy film The Story of Mankind. Giraffes on Horseback Salad - A screenplay by (yes, really) which the Brothers loved but was deemed unfilmable. Groucho: ( as Chico begins a piano solo) I\'ve got to stay here— but there\'s no reason why you folks shouldn\'t go out into the lobby until this thing blows over. In another instance, he deliberately tells a bad joke and then says to the audience \'Well, all the jokes can\'t be good!

You gotta expect that sometimes.\' . Similarly, after one particularly bad stock joke he says \'That\'s the first time I\'ve used that joke in 20 years.\'

. It becomes a in At The Circus since Groucho does it numerous times. One of the best is a scene where he\'s trying to get something Pauline has, and when he realized she\'s done so he looks at the camera in fear and says \'There has to be some way to get that money!\' . This dress is bright red, but Technicolor is SOOO expensive!.

In Go West, after one of the villain\'s henchmen, Groucho turns toward the audience and remarks. \'Pardon me while I have a strange interlude.\'

This is a shout-out to Eugene O\'Neill\'s, in which the characters speak to each other while holding masks, then drop the masks to voice their true feelings in soliloquies.: Margaret Dumont\'s characters were always insulted and embarrassed by Groucho.: During the musical number \'Lydia the Tattooed Lady\' in At the Circus, Groucho mentions that Lydia had a tattoo of \'Captain Spaulding exploring the Amazon\', referring back to the character he played in Animal Crackers. In A Night at the Opera, Groucho says \'You know this means war!\'

, referring to their previous film Duck Soup. In A Day At The Races he barn dance has the lyric \'All God\'s children got swing.\'

Which is a call back to Duck Soup where the line was \'All God\'s children got guns.\' .: During the 1970s, when Groucho attended a performance of with, he remarked \'This is sure to offend the Jews\' in reagards to the crucifixion scene, which may be considered a bit of self-deprecating humor, since Groucho and his brothers were Jewish.: Chico in real life. His nickname, not coincidentally, was pronounced \'Chick-o\'.: In Go West, Harpo on Groucho.: Harpo. Sometimes a harmless.: Part of their charm is the fact that the Marxes basically didn\'t care about the plot. Groucho was a comedic sociopath exactly as much as \'s Mike and Joel were — he doesn\'t buy into the significance of anything that you would normally expect a character in a movie to care about.

All three of the primary Marxes, and were willing to continue being in the movie as long as nobody expected them to give a damn. Harpo and Chico are sometimes theoretically allies with Groucho, sometimes antagonists.and it doesn\'t matter in the slightest. In the original scripts for Duck Soup, Groucho\'s character (Rufus T.

Firefly) is the owner of a munitions factory before being appointed President of Freedonia and he has no qualms about using his new position to start a war in order to improve his business. Forced this to be changed, as The Powers That Be at Paramount Pictures felt.: After Zeppo left, and some would claim before.: Zeppo, several times. Some would argue that this is his real talent.

It was definitely Margaret Dumont\'s talent. Not many people can act like this around Groucho without.: Groucho.

Wagstaff: Whatever it is / I\'m against it! / No matter what it is or who presents it / I\'m against it!.: Harpo\'s high hat.: Harpo.: Groucho especially, but Chico had his moments. In the letter dictation scene from Duck Soup, the underappreciated Zeppo deadpans circles around Groucho.: Harpo.: A routine in A Night at the Opera which focuses on a contract whose clauses are all along the lines of \'The party of the first part shall be known in this contract as the party of the first part.\' .: Everybody, but especially.: Being entirely self-taught, Harpo inadvertently learned the harp backwards.

(he put it on the wrong shoulder — then saw a greeting card with an angel holding it the right way.) After he became successful, he tried to take lessons to learn how to do it the right way, but his teachers were all too enraptured by his playing to ever instruct him. The one exception was, who broke him of a lot of bad habits and coached him in certain songs he wanted to learn. When he got stuck he would call her up and she\'d pull her harp over next to the phone and they\'d play back and forth until he could correct the problem. In other cases, he was asked to share his technique with formally-trained harpists, which he found entirely impossible.: Groucho could turn anything into one with just a and a smirk. He would later lampshade his reputation for this on You Bet Your Life, because the audience would go off when a guest would say something they knew Groucho would turn into this. Groucho: I must have some reputation if they keep laughing before I even say anything.: In The Cocoanuts Harpo wore his red wig from their stage show, which appears dark grey on the black and white film. He quickly decided that it would look better bleached to a light pink.

That\'s why he\'s called Pinky in some of the films. Many fans do think of Harpo as blond.: Any \'plot\' is there purely for form\'s sake. The real reason their movies were made and why people went to see them is purely. In his autobiography, Harpo describes how, during an acting tour in Russia, a director insisted on inserting dramatic scenes between Harpo\'s comedic routines because he didn\'t think the audience would enjoy the show unless it made some level of sense. As Harpo couldn\'t understand the scenes (which were in Russian), he would just stand there waiting for his cue to do his next trick. Quale: There\'s something corrupt going on around my pants, but I just can\'t seem to locate it.: Margaret Dumont was the perpetual butt of the Marxian humor throughout a long series of films.: The, naturally.

The scripts for their movies would often contain sections which consisted of a direction for one or more of them to do some comedic business, with the details left to them.: Harpo. He reportedly to speak one word in At The Circus.

Except (apparently) singing \'Sweet Adeline\' in Monkey Business, since the first officer could hear them all singing in four-part harmony. Later in life, Harpo had a second career as a dinner speaker. He would always open his speeches with a wry \'unaccustomed as I am to public speaking,\' and get the audience rolling with laughter. Harpo named the memoirs he wrote in his old age Harpo Speaks. The two last words in it are \'honk, honk!\'

.: Chico and Groucho are both prone. One well known example is this Groucho monologue from Duck Soup: \'Well, that statement covers a lot of ground. Say, you cover a lot of ground yourself!

You\'d better beat it! I hear they\'re going to tear you down and put up an office building where you\'re standing.

You can leave in a taxi. If you can\'t get a taxi you can leave in a huff. If that\'s too soon you can leave in a minute and a huff.\' .: Harpo\'s high hat, magical coat, motor horn and harp. Chico\'s pseudo-Italian suit.

Groucho\'s cigar.: All their features from Animal Crackers to Duck Soup are named after silly phrases with animals in them that have nothing to do with the plot. These were followed by two films with titles featuring variations of A at the.: In A Night at the Opera.

Groucho: Two beers, bartender!Chico: I\'ll take two beers too.: Groucho made this type of comedian universally famous and popular. He is more or less the godfather of this genre.: In Duck Soup, Groucho does this to Trentino. Although he still likes \'upstart\'.: \'Chico\' is pronounced \'Chicko,\' rather than the normally-expected \'Cheeko.\' He was an inveterate womanizer, and the nickname (and pronunciation) comes from his habit of \'chasing the chicks.\' Note It was actually originally spelled as \'Chicko\', but the very first time they used the stage names, the K was accidentally omitted, and that mistake ended up sticking.: Groucho, although he\'s also most times a.

Groucho was known to be this in real life, too. He was notoriously incapable of reining in his caustic and deadpan wit, but was rarely malicious with his verbal barbs. He was also noted to be a bit of a sexist, but also had a. In fact, the PBS special The One and Only Groucho noted that \'he married for love but drove all his wives away with his caustic wit,\' though all his marriages lasted for years and sometimes decades.: Don\'t be mean to Harpo.: Groucho and company spend much of their movies getting back at those who have wronged them. Groucho was an inspiration for the most famous of all.: Groucho and Chico. Harpo is one of the mute examples.: When the Brothers went to MGM, Irving Thalberg made them lighten up their act a bit to play slightly nicer characters who saved their mischief for the villains while helping the romantic leads of the stories.: While the general consensus is that was their best film, Groucho felt was better.

This is a minor example, though, as both movies are highly regarded.: Chico, a lot of the time.: Not an (the routine predates film), but one of the most memorable.: All of them were devoted to their mother, Minnie, and Groucho, Chico, and Harpo named their daughters in honor of her.: Groucho.: Most (if not all) of their movies, of course, but also Minnie\'s Boys, a musical, namely the Marx Brother\'s early life and careers, as well as their relationship with their mother, the titular Minnie (played by Shelley Winters in the original Broadway production). How loosely based? Well, for one thing, Gummo never even joins the act once (though he\'s in the early scenes and some later ones when his brothers get famous).: Harpo was a prop comic mime harpist.: Although the public image of Margaret Dumont was as a stuffy dowager who, according to legend, had no clue of how the brothers were funny, many people have observed that she had a long enough career in stage comedy to say that was an act.

Groucho claimed she really didn\'t get the jokes, but.: Groucho, Harpo, Chico, Zeppo, Gummo, and.: Zeppo\'s schtick. He often played an exaggerated parody of the straitlaced and handsome leading man prevalent in Hollywood at the time, but also acted as an to the madcap shenanigans that were going on; The Cocoanuts and Monkey Business are the best examples. In the latter, he even gleefully joins in with some of his brothers\' antics and lets fly a few zingers of his own.: \'I could dance with you until the cows come home. I\'d rather dance with the cows until you came home.\' .: Watch Harpo when he sits down to play the harp. All traces of his usual goofy clown suddenly disappear as he becomes intent on the music, and then reappear as soon as the music ends. Chico at the piano is sometimes this as well, but Chico mixed up the clowning and the serious music more than Harpo did.:.

A Day at the Races features Harpo beginning to play the piano. Before attacking it, spending two to three minutes just tearing it apart. Out of the wreckage, he pulls the strings, which he then proceeds to play as a harp, at which point, the scene stops being a gag and just becomes a very nice harp performance. Animal Crackers features Chico\'s incredibly long piano scene and the scene where Harpo pours a truly remarkable amount of cutlery out of his pocket. A Night at the Opera.

Chico: And two hard-boiled eggs.Groucho: And two hard-boiled eggs.Harpo: ( honk)Groucho: Make that three hard-boiled eggs.: Not an example in the strictest sense, but the for half of the ones that are. Anytime the password is \'swordfish\', it\'s a reference to Horse Feathers.: Groucho, Chico, and Harpo.: A truly epic example in; see the trope page for the full quote.: Duck Soup.: In Go West, Chico and Harpo (playing Joseph and Rusty Panello) approach Groucho (as S. Quentin Quale), and when Groucho sells Harpo a beaverskin hat for $1, Harpo gives him a $10 bill, and gets $9 back in change, with Harpo fishing his original $10 bill out of Groucho\'s pocket and buying an animal skin for $1 by giving him the same $10 bill with $9 change due from Groucho. By the time Groucho gets wise, Chico and Harpo offer him $1 back, only to give him the $10 with $9 change back, and again when offering to pay the $1 sales tax with $9 change coming back, pretending they didn\'t receive their change, when Harpo put his hand in front of Chico\'s to pocket the bills.

By the time Groucho goes about his way, they\'ve gained about $45 change due to Harpo\'s nimble hands and his original $10 bill.: Even for their time, they were considerable masters of this craft, especially Groucho, who spat out so many one-liners that it can take multiple viewings of any film just to hear all of his jokes (presumably because you\'ll be ), let alone find them funny. Even if you don\'t laugh at each individual joke, the absurdly fast delivery can be funny in itself.: According to Gummo, Chico\'s favourite people were actors who gambled, producers who gambled and women who screwed. Averted with Harpo, who married late, but was a devoted family man.: Every followed this pattern. From reddest to bluest: Harpo\'s characters, Chico\'s characters, Groucho\'s characters, and Zeppo\'s characters.: Groucho and Chico have a famous routine based on this concept in. Is the fact that Groucho would later become the host of a game show called where a secret word was also an important part of the game.: In most films, Harpo is the supremely silly clown, but he always performs the harp as a serious musician.: Chico frequently did the talking for Harpo, and even lampshaded this on occasion.: Margaret Dumont.

Groucho even lovingly called her \'The fifth Marx brother.\' .: The basis for most of their stories, with the uncouth Marxes making fools out of high-society people.: In the movies Chico and Harpo are usually paired up together, with Chico as the scheming leader, while the mute Harpo just tags along. Nevertheless, Chico often scolds Harpo for being stupid and not understanding him.: It\'s not entirely clear whether Harpo\'s character is meant to be this or just.

The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act that was successful in vaudeville. Groucho calmly checked his watch and ad-libbed, \'The 9:20\'s right on time. 1938), the Marx Brothers returned to MGM and made three more films: At the Circus (1939), Go West (1940) and The Big Store (1941). Dec 06, 1940  Directed by Edward Buzzell. With Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, John Carroll. The Marx Brothers come to the rescue in the Wild West when a young man, trying to settle an old family feud so he can marry the girl he loves, runs afoul of crooks.

The family had five brothers, although only four (and later three) performed together at a given time. According to interviews Groucho gave late in his life, their stage names reflected personal traits or important events in their lives, and were inspired by a comic strip called \'Sherlocko the Monk\', which triggered a brief rash of nicknames ending in \'-o\'.

Groucho (Julius Henry Marx; October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977), nicknamed for his abrasive wit. (Some sources say the name came from his \'grouch bag\', a bag worn around the neck, and used to keep money, as vaudeville performers were sometimes not above stealing from each other.) The patron saint of. Known for his cigar and mustache (which was actually a stripe of greasepaint, at least until he became the host of in 1947 and grew a real one). He\'s the singer of the group and, although it\'s not as showcased as Chico\'s and Harpo\'s instrumental talents, a gifted guitar player. A cross between a participant and a commentator, Groucho\'s on-screen persona would inspire performers from to the team and arguably up into the present day with groups like, his most famous imitator being.

Later in life, he became a fan and friend of, oddly enough. Chico (Leo or Leonard Marx; March 22, 1887 – October 11, 1961), whose nickname (pronounced \'chicko\') referred to his habit of \'chicken chasing\' (womanizing). His trademarks were an outrageously fake Italian accent, a conical black hat, and a distinctive style of piano playing where he appear to literally \'tickle\' the piano (a play on the phrase \'tickling the ivories\') and would \'shoot\' selected keys with his fingers held to form a gun. The most traditional comedian of the three major brothers, Chico would typically find himself providing the verbal component to Harpo\'s mime, or sparring with Groucho. Despite his persona, as a basically-flattering caricature, since most of his scenes have him outwitting his WASP antagonists.

Harpo (Adolph Marx, later changed to Arthur note though not for; he just plain hated the name and had it legally changed in 1911, long before the world had heard of and even before \'s anti-German hysteria was even an issue - among family he was routinely called \'Ahdie\'; November 23, 1888 – September 28, 1964), nicknamed for his virtuoso harp playing (which was completely self-taught). His trademarks were harp playing, a silent mime performance (using a horn instead of speaking), and a clown-like costume featuring a raincoat with apparently, a curly red wig (later blond, as it looked better in black-and-white film), and a top hat. He is a virtuoso kleptomaniac with a special knack for pickpocketing, ending up with such unlikely prizes as Groucho\'s boxers and a random man\'s birthmark.

In the early stage shows, he did an accent, but it was eventually decided that having him be was funnier. His mime routines (most notably the famous Mirror Scene from Duck Soup) have become a staple for comedy shows today, and even inspired all of \'s entire character in the 2009 season of. Zeppo (Herbert Marx; February 25, 1901 – November 30, 1979), whose nickname was born (according to Groucho) from, but the dates don\'t match.

Harpo, in his book Harpo Speaks, claims that the name was derived from a chimpanzee appearing in a comic strip of the day, Mr. Zippo, but when Herbert objected, this was changed to Zeppo. (There are other stories concerning the name\'s origin, such as the time the brothers were pretending to be farmers in order to dodge serving in and gave each other hayseed names like \'Zeke\' and \'Zeb\'.) Zeppo was the youngest and most handsome of the brothers, and while still part of the act generally played the straight man and sometimes the romantic lead. His trademark is less developed than the above. (He was a talented comedian, however, once filling in for Groucho during a Vaudeville tour when the latter was ill, and could flawlessly imitate all of his siblings.) After several movies, he followed brother Gummo in leaving the act and becoming a manager for his performing siblings. A talented mechanic and inventor, he also founded a manufacturing company. His final movie appearance was.

Gummo (Milton Marx; October 23, 1893 – April 21, 1977), nicknamed for the sneaky, or \'gumshoe\', way he had of walking around backstage, or a pair of galoshes (\'gumshoes\') he had as a child. Having a lifelong dislike of being onstage, Gummo left the act right before it became famous to join the army during, although he was never sent to Europe due to the war ending shortly afterwards. Zeppo, who until then was considered too young to be in the act, took his place. Like Zeppo, he later became a manager for his siblings and other talent, but he kept at it longer than his younger sibling. He died four months before Groucho, with the latter not being informed of his death in fear of making his already frail health worse. According to, the contemporary actor Gregg Marx is his grandson. There was actually a sixth Marx Brother, Manfred Marx, who was also the oldest; he died of enterocolitis on 17 July 1886, aged seven months (his youngest brother Zeppo was given \'Manfred\' as a middle name in his memory).

He is buried in New York Washington Cemetery near Minnie\'s mother Fanny. The Marx\'s \'sister\' Polly was actually a cousin whom Minnie and Frenchie adopted. They are in no way related to, author of The Communist Manifesto, despite humorist Richard Armour\'s assertion that Karl was the funniest of the brothers, nor are they related to musician note Marx is not an unusual surname among Jews of German extraction. Their father was actually a French-speaking Alsatian, who\'d changed his name from Simon Marrix to Sam Marx. Also, was never the name of one of the brothers. Nor was.Also frequently joining them was the matronly figure of Margaret Dumont, typically cast as a who was a perfect foil for Groucho; he would alternate between shamelessly flirting with her (\'Ah, married. I can see you right now in the kitchen, bending over a hot stove.\'

) and viciously insulting her (\'But I can\'t see the stove.\' ).Their comedic style was chaotic and absurd, with lots of word play, pantomime and satire. In general, they would appear in stock stories, tired even by the standards of the day, and demolish them. The surrounding characters, trapped by their roles, would attempt to continue on through the story, mostly ignoring the literary deconstruction going on.In particular, Chico, Harpo and Groucho had their own identifiers:. Chico spoofed the ignorant Italian Immigrant, always looking to con, steal or otherwise make a quick buck. He was the only Marx Brother to keep using his vaudeville accent into the movies. It\'s notable that Chico\'s character worked on another level besides the obvious spoof; he often got the better of Groucho and other characters with a hint of and more than a little gusto, particularly in A Day at the Races.

One Marx historian proposed that this was a vicarious release for actual immigrants, seeing \'one of their own\' get one up on the establishment. Given that the brothers\' parents were immigrants (Alsatian Jews rather than Italians), there might be something to that. Harpo originally spoofed an Irish Bruiser in the early vaudeville days, but later developed his trademark pantomime, \'speaking\' only through whistling, charades, and honking a horn. (In, Harpo actually had a pleasant baritone voice, and was described as talkative and intelligent; among his friends were Alexander Woolcott.

He, like Woolcott, was a member of the Algonquin Round Table.) He was the clown of the group — okay, they all were, to a point. He\'d literally chase women, randomly snip off people\'s ties and other things with scissors, eat random objects, and produce unlikely items from his pockets and tattoos. In the team\'s vaudeville days, Groucho originally played a German-accented character; but he was often booed for it (there was a going on) and so became the fast-talking \'authority figure\', and possibly the king of wordplay. It was he who uttered those immortal lines, \'Once I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don\'t know.\' However, one of the absolute best-known of his lines is something — a to a woman with lots of children who appeared on. Woman: I love my husband.Groucho: I love my cigar, too, but I take it out once in a while.Pretty racy stuff, for the 1950s.Groucho and Harpo went on to inspire the characters of Yakko and Wakko respectively in the hit 1990s cartoon.

In fact, an episode of Animaniacs entitled \'King Yakko\' is very similar to, following a similar plot and with Yakko and Wakko falling into roles similar to those of Groucho and Harpo. The episode even ends with Wakko having a beautiful woman hold his leg, one of Harpo\'s.Also,: Bugs actually stole some of his mannerisms and lines from Groucho, including the famous line \'Of course you know, \' It is also argued that the way Bugs holds his carrot is meant to be reminiscent of Groucho and his cigar. There was even a short in which Bugs disguised himself as Groucho to evade the attentions of restaurant chef Elmer Fudd.

It didn\'t work, because Fudd was already disguised as Harpo.Groucho also has the distinctive pleasure of starring in a series of successful mystery novels by author Ron Goulart in which he and his writer investigate various murders and crimes that popped up in Hollywood during the 1930s (in the novels, Groucho did the investigations in between his working in movies and his hosting a weekly radio program).Not to be confused with Marx, a character from. Or.The Marx Brothers\' films:. (also called Humorisk; 1921) — Don\'t expect to ever see it, as the Marxes had all the copies soon after it debuted as. (1929). (1930). (1931).

(1932). (1933). (1935). (1937). Room Service (1938). At The Circus (1939).

Go West (1940). The Big Store (1941).

A Night In Casablanca (1946). (1949). Groucho, Chico, and Harpo also appeared (in separate, individual vignettes) in \'s 1957 fantasy film The Story of Mankind. Giraffes on Horseback Salad - A screenplay by (yes, really) which the Brothers loved but was deemed unfilmable. Groucho: ( as Chico begins a piano solo) I\'ve got to stay here— but there\'s no reason why you folks shouldn\'t go out into the lobby until this thing blows over. In another instance, he deliberately tells a bad joke and then says to the audience \'Well, all the jokes can\'t be good!

You gotta expect that sometimes.\' . Similarly, after one particularly bad stock joke he says \'That\'s the first time I\'ve used that joke in 20 years.\'

. It becomes a in At The Circus since Groucho does it numerous times. One of the best is a scene where he\'s trying to get something Pauline has, and when he realized she\'s done so he looks at the camera in fear and says \'There has to be some way to get that money!\' . This dress is bright red, but Technicolor is SOOO expensive!.

In Go West, after one of the villain\'s henchmen, Groucho turns toward the audience and remarks. \'Pardon me while I have a strange interlude.\'

This is a shout-out to Eugene O\'Neill\'s, in which the characters speak to each other while holding masks, then drop the masks to voice their true feelings in soliloquies.: Margaret Dumont\'s characters were always insulted and embarrassed by Groucho.: During the musical number \'Lydia the Tattooed Lady\' in At the Circus, Groucho mentions that Lydia had a tattoo of \'Captain Spaulding exploring the Amazon\', referring back to the character he played in Animal Crackers. In A Night at the Opera, Groucho says \'You know this means war!\'

, referring to their previous film Duck Soup. In A Day At The Races he barn dance has the lyric \'All God\'s children got swing.\'

Which is a call back to Duck Soup where the line was \'All God\'s children got guns.\' .: During the 1970s, when Groucho attended a performance of with, he remarked \'This is sure to offend the Jews\' in reagards to the crucifixion scene, which may be considered a bit of self-deprecating humor, since Groucho and his brothers were Jewish.: Chico in real life. His nickname, not coincidentally, was pronounced \'Chick-o\'.: In Go West, Harpo on Groucho.: Harpo. Sometimes a harmless.: Part of their charm is the fact that the Marxes basically didn\'t care about the plot. Groucho was a comedic sociopath exactly as much as \'s Mike and Joel were — he doesn\'t buy into the significance of anything that you would normally expect a character in a movie to care about.

All three of the primary Marxes, and were willing to continue being in the movie as long as nobody expected them to give a damn. Harpo and Chico are sometimes theoretically allies with Groucho, sometimes antagonists.and it doesn\'t matter in the slightest. In the original scripts for Duck Soup, Groucho\'s character (Rufus T.

Firefly) is the owner of a munitions factory before being appointed President of Freedonia and he has no qualms about using his new position to start a war in order to improve his business. Forced this to be changed, as The Powers That Be at Paramount Pictures felt.: After Zeppo left, and some would claim before.: Zeppo, several times. Some would argue that this is his real talent.

It was definitely Margaret Dumont\'s talent. Not many people can act like this around Groucho without.: Groucho.

Wagstaff: Whatever it is / I\'m against it! / No matter what it is or who presents it / I\'m against it!.: Harpo\'s high hat.: Harpo.: Groucho especially, but Chico had his moments. In the letter dictation scene from Duck Soup, the underappreciated Zeppo deadpans circles around Groucho.: Harpo.: A routine in A Night at the Opera which focuses on a contract whose clauses are all along the lines of \'The party of the first part shall be known in this contract as the party of the first part.\' .: Everybody, but especially.: Being entirely self-taught, Harpo inadvertently learned the harp backwards.

(he put it on the wrong shoulder — then saw a greeting card with an angel holding it the right way.) After he became successful, he tried to take lessons to learn how to do it the right way, but his teachers were all too enraptured by his playing to ever instruct him. The one exception was, who broke him of a lot of bad habits and coached him in certain songs he wanted to learn. When he got stuck he would call her up and she\'d pull her harp over next to the phone and they\'d play back and forth until he could correct the problem. In other cases, he was asked to share his technique with formally-trained harpists, which he found entirely impossible.: Groucho could turn anything into one with just a and a smirk. He would later lampshade his reputation for this on You Bet Your Life, because the audience would go off when a guest would say something they knew Groucho would turn into this. Groucho: I must have some reputation if they keep laughing before I even say anything.: In The Cocoanuts Harpo wore his red wig from their stage show, which appears dark grey on the black and white film. He quickly decided that it would look better bleached to a light pink.

That\'s why he\'s called Pinky in some of the films. Many fans do think of Harpo as blond.: Any \'plot\' is there purely for form\'s sake. The real reason their movies were made and why people went to see them is purely. In his autobiography, Harpo describes how, during an acting tour in Russia, a director insisted on inserting dramatic scenes between Harpo\'s comedic routines because he didn\'t think the audience would enjoy the show unless it made some level of sense. As Harpo couldn\'t understand the scenes (which were in Russian), he would just stand there waiting for his cue to do his next trick. Quale: There\'s something corrupt going on around my pants, but I just can\'t seem to locate it.: Margaret Dumont was the perpetual butt of the Marxian humor throughout a long series of films.: The, naturally.

The scripts for their movies would often contain sections which consisted of a direction for one or more of them to do some comedic business, with the details left to them.: Harpo. He reportedly to speak one word in At The Circus.

Except (apparently) singing \'Sweet Adeline\' in Monkey Business, since the first officer could hear them all singing in four-part harmony. Later in life, Harpo had a second career as a dinner speaker. He would always open his speeches with a wry \'unaccustomed as I am to public speaking,\' and get the audience rolling with laughter. Harpo named the memoirs he wrote in his old age Harpo Speaks. The two last words in it are \'honk, honk!\'

.: Chico and Groucho are both prone. One well known example is this Groucho monologue from Duck Soup: \'Well, that statement covers a lot of ground. Say, you cover a lot of ground yourself!

You\'d better beat it! I hear they\'re going to tear you down and put up an office building where you\'re standing.

You can leave in a taxi. If you can\'t get a taxi you can leave in a huff. If that\'s too soon you can leave in a minute and a huff.\' .: Harpo\'s high hat, magical coat, motor horn and harp. Chico\'s pseudo-Italian suit.

Groucho\'s cigar.: All their features from Animal Crackers to Duck Soup are named after silly phrases with animals in them that have nothing to do with the plot. These were followed by two films with titles featuring variations of A at the.: In A Night at the Opera.

Groucho: Two beers, bartender!Chico: I\'ll take two beers too.: Groucho made this type of comedian universally famous and popular. He is more or less the godfather of this genre.: In Duck Soup, Groucho does this to Trentino. Although he still likes \'upstart\'.: \'Chico\' is pronounced \'Chicko,\' rather than the normally-expected \'Cheeko.\' He was an inveterate womanizer, and the nickname (and pronunciation) comes from his habit of \'chasing the chicks.\' Note It was actually originally spelled as \'Chicko\', but the very first time they used the stage names, the K was accidentally omitted, and that mistake ended up sticking.: Groucho, although he\'s also most times a.

Groucho was known to be this in real life, too. He was notoriously incapable of reining in his caustic and deadpan wit, but was rarely malicious with his verbal barbs. He was also noted to be a bit of a sexist, but also had a. In fact, the PBS special The One and Only Groucho noted that \'he married for love but drove all his wives away with his caustic wit,\' though all his marriages lasted for years and sometimes decades.: Don\'t be mean to Harpo.: Groucho and company spend much of their movies getting back at those who have wronged them. Groucho was an inspiration for the most famous of all.: Groucho and Chico. Harpo is one of the mute examples.: When the Brothers went to MGM, Irving Thalberg made them lighten up their act a bit to play slightly nicer characters who saved their mischief for the villains while helping the romantic leads of the stories.: While the general consensus is that was their best film, Groucho felt was better.

This is a minor example, though, as both movies are highly regarded.: Chico, a lot of the time.: Not an (the routine predates film), but one of the most memorable.: All of them were devoted to their mother, Minnie, and Groucho, Chico, and Harpo named their daughters in honor of her.: Groucho.: Most (if not all) of their movies, of course, but also Minnie\'s Boys, a musical, namely the Marx Brother\'s early life and careers, as well as their relationship with their mother, the titular Minnie (played by Shelley Winters in the original Broadway production). How loosely based? Well, for one thing, Gummo never even joins the act once (though he\'s in the early scenes and some later ones when his brothers get famous).: Harpo was a prop comic mime harpist.: Although the public image of Margaret Dumont was as a stuffy dowager who, according to legend, had no clue of how the brothers were funny, many people have observed that she had a long enough career in stage comedy to say that was an act.

Groucho claimed she really didn\'t get the jokes, but.: Groucho, Harpo, Chico, Zeppo, Gummo, and.: Zeppo\'s schtick. He often played an exaggerated parody of the straitlaced and handsome leading man prevalent in Hollywood at the time, but also acted as an to the madcap shenanigans that were going on; The Cocoanuts and Monkey Business are the best examples. In the latter, he even gleefully joins in with some of his brothers\' antics and lets fly a few zingers of his own.: \'I could dance with you until the cows come home. I\'d rather dance with the cows until you came home.\' .: Watch Harpo when he sits down to play the harp. All traces of his usual goofy clown suddenly disappear as he becomes intent on the music, and then reappear as soon as the music ends. Chico at the piano is sometimes this as well, but Chico mixed up the clowning and the serious music more than Harpo did.:.

A Day at the Races features Harpo beginning to play the piano. Before attacking it, spending two to three minutes just tearing it apart. Out of the wreckage, he pulls the strings, which he then proceeds to play as a harp, at which point, the scene stops being a gag and just becomes a very nice harp performance. Animal Crackers features Chico\'s incredibly long piano scene and the scene where Harpo pours a truly remarkable amount of cutlery out of his pocket. A Night at the Opera.

Chico: And two hard-boiled eggs.Groucho: And two hard-boiled eggs.Harpo: ( honk)Groucho: Make that three hard-boiled eggs.: Not an example in the strictest sense, but the for half of the ones that are. Anytime the password is \'swordfish\', it\'s a reference to Horse Feathers.: Groucho, Chico, and Harpo.: A truly epic example in; see the trope page for the full quote.: Duck Soup.: In Go West, Chico and Harpo (playing Joseph and Rusty Panello) approach Groucho (as S. Quentin Quale), and when Groucho sells Harpo a beaverskin hat for $1, Harpo gives him a $10 bill, and gets $9 back in change, with Harpo fishing his original $10 bill out of Groucho\'s pocket and buying an animal skin for $1 by giving him the same $10 bill with $9 change due from Groucho. By the time Groucho gets wise, Chico and Harpo offer him $1 back, only to give him the $10 with $9 change back, and again when offering to pay the $1 sales tax with $9 change coming back, pretending they didn\'t receive their change, when Harpo put his hand in front of Chico\'s to pocket the bills.

By the time Groucho goes about his way, they\'ve gained about $45 change due to Harpo\'s nimble hands and his original $10 bill.: Even for their time, they were considerable masters of this craft, especially Groucho, who spat out so many one-liners that it can take multiple viewings of any film just to hear all of his jokes (presumably because you\'ll be ), let alone find them funny. Even if you don\'t laugh at each individual joke, the absurdly fast delivery can be funny in itself.: According to Gummo, Chico\'s favourite people were actors who gambled, producers who gambled and women who screwed. Averted with Harpo, who married late, but was a devoted family man.: Every followed this pattern. From reddest to bluest: Harpo\'s characters, Chico\'s characters, Groucho\'s characters, and Zeppo\'s characters.: Groucho and Chico have a famous routine based on this concept in. Is the fact that Groucho would later become the host of a game show called where a secret word was also an important part of the game.: In most films, Harpo is the supremely silly clown, but he always performs the harp as a serious musician.: Chico frequently did the talking for Harpo, and even lampshaded this on occasion.: Margaret Dumont.

Groucho even lovingly called her \'The fifth Marx brother.\' .: The basis for most of their stories, with the uncouth Marxes making fools out of high-society people.: In the movies Chico and Harpo are usually paired up together, with Chico as the scheming leader, while the mute Harpo just tags along. Nevertheless, Chico often scolds Harpo for being stupid and not understanding him.: It\'s not entirely clear whether Harpo\'s character is meant to be this or just.