Monkey Business (1931)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Norman Z. McLeod

Writers:

S.J. Perelman (screenplay) and
Will B. Johnstone (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

19 September 1931 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

On a transatlantic crossing, the Marx brothers get up to their usual antics and manage to annoy just about everyone on board the ship.

Plot Keywords:

Gangster | Marx Brothers | Chase | Fainting | Picnic

Cast

Groucho Marx	...	Groucho
Harpo Marx	...	Harpo
Chico Marx	...	Chico
Zeppo Marx	...	Zeppo
Rockliffe Fellowes	...	J.J. 'Big Joe' Helton
Harry Woods	...	Alky Briggs
Thelma Todd	...	Lucille Briggs
Ruth Hall	...	Mary Helton
Tom Kennedy	...	First Mate Gibson

Runtime:

77 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Certification:

Spain:T | Finland:S (1976) | UK:U | USA:Unrated | USA:Approved (re-release)

Filming Locations:

Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Except in the credits, the Brothers' characters have no names in this movie. They are referred to only as "the stowaways".

Goofs:

Continuity: When Groucho and Chico hide under the table in the chart room (before their encounter with the Captain) Chico has a cigarette in his right hand. He didn't have it before diving under the table.

Quotes:

Alky Briggs: Okay, he's in there. When he comes out, plug him.
Zeppo: What do we plug him with?
Alky Briggs: [referring to guns] Didn't I give you two "gats"?
Groucho: We had to drown the "gats", but we saved you a little black "gitten".

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Hogan's Heroes: Monkey Business (#3.29)" (1968)

Soundtrack:

When I Take My Sugar to Tea

The Original Ship of Fools

MONKEY BUSINESS (Paramount, 1931), directed by Norman McLeod, and written by S.J. Perelman, presents those four zany Marx Brothers in their third feature comedy. Following their previous efforts in THE COCOANUTS (1929) and ANIMAL CRACKERS (1930), each based on their 1920s stage works which were both filmed at Paramount's Astoria studios in Long Island, NY, MONKEY BUSINESS, produced in Hollywood, became the team's first original comedy and one of their most funnier outings. While no relation to the 20th Century-Fox 1952 comedy starring Cary Grant and Ginger Rogers, except in title only, and having nothing to do with monkeys, this presentation does get right down to business, however, when comedy is concerned.

Here Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Zeppo play four stowaways aboard ship bound for the states who, after being discovered hiding in barrels and singing "Sweet Adeline," they are pursued by First Officer Gibson (Tom Kennedy) and his crew, which finds the foursome running wild all over the ship, eluding authorities and driving practically everybody out of their minds. Eventually the four stowaways separate, with Chico and Harpo disguising themselves as barbers; Groucho posing as the captain and invade the sanctity of the captain's quarters where he and Chico makes themselves at home by eating his meals; Harpo later chasing the young ladies as well as entertaining the little children during a puppet show while at the same time making a fool out of Gibson. Harpo even finds time to make friends with a frog, which he keeps under his hat. As for Zeppo, in between being chased, he finds time to escort a young lady named Mary (Ruth Hall) around the deck. Afterwards, they all encounter rival gangsters, such as Alkie Briggs (Harry Woods), who finds Groucho flirting with his wife, Lucille (Thelma Todd). Briggs, however, takes a liking to Groucho for proving his bravery by standing up to him, and offers him a job, along with Zeppo, as his personal bodyguards, while Chico and Harpo encounter another noted hood, Joe Helton (Rockcliffe Fellows), Mary's father and Zeppo's new love interest, and become his bodyguards as well. After the ship docks New York, the Marx Brothers find they must get past custom officials in order to get off, so after obtaining the passport belonging to the popular French entertainer, Maurice Chevalier (who does not appear), they pass themselves off as Chevalier by singing one of his current hit songs, "You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me," but to no avail. How the silent Harpo gets by with this must be seen to be believed. While the story is not set entirely on board ship, the final 25 minutes or so shifts over to a swank party given by Kelton to introduce his daughter, Mary, to high society. The Marx Brothers join in the function with disfunctional tendencies, ranging from Groucho insulting the guests, Chico and Harpo entertaining with their traditional piano and harp interludes, as well as Briggs having his gang sneaking in, posing as musicians, and carring out his orders by kidnapping Kelton's daughter, Mary, and holding her hostage in the barn in order to obtain ransom money for her release from her father, thus, leading Zeppo to act as hero and come to her rescue, while his fellow stowaway passengers Groucho, Chico and Harpo create havoc of their own.

Virtually plotless in a sense, MONKEY BUSINESSS plays like an extended comedy short that would have worked equally well had it starred the Three Stooges. MONKEY BUSINESS is pure Marx Brothers nonsense that appears to be every bit as funny today as it possibly was way back in 1931. Anything goes with this film, including many memorable shipboard moments such as Groucho's comedic dance with Thelma Todd; Groucho doing his bit by posing as a reporter interviewing and insulting the cultured Madame Pucchi (Cecil Cunningham, in a manner somewhat similar to Margaret Dumont, Groucho's frequent foil and straightwoman). GROUCHO: "Is it true you're getting a divorce as soon as your husband recovers his eyesight? Is it true you wash your hair in clam broth? Is is true you used to dance in a flea circus?" MADAME PUCCHI: "This is outrageous! I don't like this innuendo." GROUCHO: "That's what I always say. Love flies out the door when money comes innuendo."; the Chico and Groucho exchange regarding Christopher Columbus: GROUCHO: "Columbus sailed from Spain to India looking for a short cut," CHICO: "Oh, you mean a strawberry short cut?;" Harpo coming out from a barrel of hay in the barn and seen kissing a calf, and much more.

As with most of the Marx Brothers films produced at the Paramount studio, MONKEY BUSINESS is pure comedy at best. Had this been done over at MGM, where the Marx Brothers would eventually themselves with their annually released comedies from 1935 to 1941, MONKEY BUSINESS would have been toned down some in comedy antics with extended romantic subplots and straight-forward and lengthy musical numbers. MONKEY BUSINESS has none of that. Unlike most Marx Brothers comedies, their characters in MONKEY BUSINESS have no background, no professions and no spoken character names (the closing cast credits them with their first names only). They are just unusual stowaways trying to keep themselves from being caught and taken to the brig. However, in this case, MONKEY BUSINESS has its full quota of belly-laughs. Nothing really drags and no scenes are unnecessary. And whatever scenes may not be of importance or interest to the viewers, it passes by very quickly.

MONKEY BUSINESS, hailed as one of the top 100 comedies by the American Film Institute, has become a perennial favorite to many Marx Brothers enthusiasts. After many years being presented on commercial television on the afternoon or evening to after midnight hours, it became available on video cassette through MCA Home Video in the 1980s, and to cable television on several channels, from the Comedy Channel shortly prior to 1990, then to American Movie Classics from 1991 to 1992, and, ten years later, on Turner Classic Movies from December 2001 to November 2002. In spite of its age, MONKEY BUSINESS, for all its silliness, continues to bring laughter to a new generation of movie lovers whenever shown, thanks to those funny men billed as The Marx Brothers. Because of them, no ocean voyage would ever be the same again, which is why no self respecting ship should ever set sail without them either. Bon Voyage.