Greetings, fellow Marxists! (The good kind!) This week Ian and Dave take a fond look at the late period Marx Brothers film A Night in Casablanca. This is the first Marx Brothers film that Dave ever saw. Does it hold up to his Grade 5 memories? Well, you’ll just have to listen to find out what the fellows think.
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Loved listening to these reviews!
As for a future episode – or maybe episodes, if time permits – what about going through some of the Marx’s other works? I’m sure “The Story of Mankind” will get a mention, but how about solo movies, TV appearances (the TV Collection from Shout! Factory is a great source for that), and maybe even projects that never got off the ground? Just a suggestion, of course. Since that is a lot of ground to cover, and not always content that is 100% Marx, maybe just an episode or two briefly covering a selection of these projects would work.
I know you guys bring up W. C. Fields from time to time. Ever thought of doing a similar series on his movies?
Hey Guys,
Really enjoying the podcasts, sorry it’ll be ending soon. If I can make a suggestion for the final episode, I’d like to hear a discussion about the final Marx Brothers projects, like ‘The Incredible Jewel Robbery’, ‘You Bet Your Life’ with Harpo’s surprise appearance, the fragments of the ‘Deputy Seraph’ pilot which was the last thing all three Brothers did together, the proposed final Marx movie ‘A Day At The U.N.’ that Billy Wilder was going to direct, and maybe a look back at the ‘Flywheel, Shyster & Flywheel’ radio show that was revived by the BBC and a more in-depth discussion of the ‘I’ll Say She Is’ revival with perhaps Noah Diamond as a special guest. You might also touch on solo Marx projects like ‘You Bet Your Life’, Harpo on ‘I Love Lucy’, Chico on ‘College Bowl’ and others. It might also be a good idea to talk about some of the Marx Brothers documentaries like ‘The Marx Brothers In A Nutshell’, ‘The Lost Marx Brothers’ and also some of the best and recommended Marx Brothers books. You can call the episode ‘Scraping the Bottom of the Herring Barrel’. (I’ll give you that one for free, you just have to pay the one dollar delivery fee).
Looking forward to hearing the next episodes.
Swordfish!
Fred Velez
Hello Gents!
A Night in Casablanca is another informative and entertaining Full Marx. Great job! I really enjoyed it. I hadn’t seen ANIC in almost 25 years. I was better than I remembered. I agree that the Marxes brought back echoes of previous films–in a good way.
I’ve always wondered about Harpo’s hair in this one…. I’ve read in several places- and you mentioned, that they curled Harpo’s real hair for the film. Looking at photos of Harpo out of character from that time– it seems to me that his hair was much too thin and short to get the volume of hair he has in the movie. Dave mentioned that they added “fluff”. What is fluff, and how does that work in hair?
Regardless, Great work– thanks for all the deep research Dave! It really makes the show. Ian, thanks for the shout out to the Marx C0uncil podcast–they are fantastic also. Podcasts have reinvigorated my lifelong admiration of the Marx Brothers.
See you soon at Sneaky Dragon
Thank you Boys!
Danny Joseph
I had to do my homework before I listened to this podcast. Like Danny said in the above reply, I haven’t watched A Night in Casablanca in many years and much of it was almost like a new film to me. So thanks to my recent viewing with your latest Full Marx as a follow-up gave me the updated immersion I sorely needed.
I realize all the work and research David does for these podcasts and that deserves a great many thanks and much appreciation from all your Full Marx listeners out here. You guys really do a great show…seriously.
One dozen down, one duck egg to go!!
Thanks!!
ed
Thanks for another great podcast. Where did you find the deleted scenes? I knew there had been stuff cut, but didn’t know scripts actually still existed.
Thanks, Jerry! Glad you’re enjoying this series. The deleted scenes came from a handy website called Marxology. (We also got the deleted courtroom scene in At the Circus from that site.)
The podcasts on the Marx Bros’ work after “A Night at the Opera” have made me want to watch those movies again – particularly “A Night In Casablanca”. The only memory I have from this movie is Harpo holding up the wall.
The scene where Groucho asks the Smythes for a marriage certificate is fantastic – I’m so glad you covered that scene in detail.
Thanks for unearthing the missing scenes with Groucho and Chico – it is maddening to consider the material that was cut and subsequently lost from their films to make room for ‘plot’.
Speaking of which, I am enjoying your Sneaky Dragon discussion now about the plots of ‘Christmas movies.’ Yeah, they really are squeezed from a tube.
Keep us laughing through all of this.
Harpo (and Chico) wore wigs in every film including “A Night In Casablanca.” Both Chico and Harpo were balding as early as the 20s, see this pic:
http://www.hippoquotes.com/img/chico-marx-quotes/20140521-182416-66256796.jpg
So – someone, or Harpo himself, decided on a short wig in NIC that makes him look 10 years older.