The more post-Zeppo Marx Brothers movies I see, the more lousy Marx Brothers movies I see. They're not terrible or anything, they're just not very good. Room Service is one of those.
Groucho is producing a play but he has no money and he (and his entire cast) are mooching off the hotel his brother in law manages. The owner wants to kick them all out. The writer of the play wants to be successful and marry Ann Miller. And it's just a series of zany schemes that aren't zany so much as they are uncomfortable. (And there was a faking-a-suicide sequence that went on a really long time and was supposed to be funny. Ordinarily that wouldn't have bothered me (I still don't think I would have thought it was funny, but I also probably wouldn't have thought much about it) that was just really bad timing.)
So Room Service isn't worth it. It didn't really feel like a Marx Brothers movie. It felt like a mediocre play that happened to star the Marx Brothers. (In fact, it's quite possible that's what it was. I know a few of their movies were adapted from plays they were in.)
End of line.
-Sally
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4 comments:
It WAS a mediocre play that they decided to turn into a Marx Brothers movie.
proffy
A-ha! Good to know.
Actually, I don't think it was that mediocre. I considered directing it last year. I just think it was a bad choice for the Marx Bros. The comedy styles were similar, but didn't mesh completely.
I could see how maybe in the right hands it could have been funny. The movie just didn't work for me.
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