IMDb user comments for
Horse Feathers (1932) More at IMDbPro »

Filter:

Best Chronological Prolific Authors Loved It Hated It Hide Spoilers:

Page 1 of 7:

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

Index

68 comments in total

---

16 out of 17 people found the following comment useful :-
The Brothers At Their Zaniest, 8 February 2006

Author: ccthemovieman-1 from Lockport, NY, United States

To anyone who has never seen a Marx Brothers film, it's hard to describe. "Horse Feathers" just may be the wackiest, corniest, dumbest, funniest and just plain craziest movie you've ever seen. It could be any one of those adjectives. In my opinion, it's all of them. It's my favorite film of these guys.

Perhaps no film has so many of the above-listed descriptions, in spades, as this one does. It just leaves you shaking your head. Some of the lines in here are some of the best I've ever heard and some of the scenes and jokes are the dumbest I've ever seen. One thing for sure: they come at you at a machine-gun pace. You barely have time to digest what you just saw and heard and there's another joke coming at you. You can barely keep up with it all. The football scenes at the end of the film are the most outrageous I have ever seen. They, like much of the movie, have to be seen to be believed. Yes, the latter is a little too ridiculous but, hey, that''s the Marx Brothers.

The only breaks from the non-stop jokes comes when one of the brothers decides to sing a song or play the piano or harp. Those tunes are so-so. The long harp solo by Harpo is too long. I read once where the brothers were opposed to having that in this movie...and they were proved right; it didn't fit. Other than that, this is 67 minutes of pure insanity.

---

6 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Whatever it is, he's against it!, 19 March 2006

Author: theowinthrop from United States

HORSE FEATHERS, the fourth of the five Paramount Marx Brother Movies, is one of their best - tackling the world of higher education in America. Groucho is the latest of the Presidents of Huxley College, which is doing very badly (apparently) not because of poor scholastic standards but due to not having a successful football team. His son (Zeppo!) steers him toward solving this issue, but with typical Groucho ineptness he thinks the two semi-professional football players he is looking for are Harpo and Chico. He proceeds to regret his own mistake, until the climactic football game.

The music numbers of this film are well remembered, particularly Groucho's introduction ("I'M AGAINST IT!") and "Everyone Says I love you". The latter was sung to the anti-heroine of the story, Thelma Todd in her second and last film with the brothers. Thelma plays the "college widow", a popular fictional figure in early 20th Century American humor - a euphemism for an ever-ready widow of a college professor who was there to have sex with students or the staff. George Ade, the humorist who wrote FABLES IN SLANG, wrote a play called "THE COLLEGE WIDOW" in the teens of the 20th Century. Thelma is certainly effective as the vamp trying to help David Landau (President of Darwin College) get the football signals of Huxley College. Her scenes with Groucho and Chico are quite funny. Chico is playing the piano and she sings. She says she has a falsetto voice. Chico says that's all right, his aunt has a false set of teeth. And Groucho, when taking Thelma for a boat trip throws her a lifesaver (literally), while returning with a duck who interrupted his singing.

The final football game is the second best spoof of college football on film (the one in Harold Lloyd's THE FRESHMAN is a better one). In the end we see the boys demolish football huddles, football signals, even hot dogs (poor Nat Pendleton).

A delightful antique, it is well worth watching. This is one film I'm not against.

---

7 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
classic, 20 May 2005

Author: Lee Eisenberg (eisenberg.lee@gmail.com) from Portland, Oregon, USA

Oh come on! You know the Marx brothers! Groucho, with his cigar, says something that sounds serious, but then makes it into a joke; Chico, with his Italian accent, mangles certain phrases, among other things; Harpo doesn't speak but (literally) has all sorts of tricks up his sleeve; Zeppo actually is serious...to an extent. In this case, Quincy Wagstaff (Groucho) becomes dean of Huxley College and hopes to defeat rival college Darwin in a football game. He hires two goof-balls, Baravelli (Chico) and Pinky (Harpo), while the other college gets the real players.

The truth is that you don't even have to understand the plot to have a good time. The movie is all about the Marx brothers' anarchic humor, particularly when Harpo causes a traffic jam and then plays a trick on a cop. The football game at the end is not like any game that you've ever seen. You're sure to love the whole movie. And just remember: swordfish.

---

4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Marx Brothers at their best, 21 April 1999

Author: PhilN from Junction City, OR

The Marx Brothers do it again in Horse Feathers. Next to the classic Duck Soup, this is probably their best film. Their anarchist style of comedy is unleashed on Huxley College, a troubled university with a losing football team that hasn't won a game since the 1880's. The film opens with Groucho becoming president of the college, starting off with the musical sequence "Whatever it is, I'm against it." Chico and Harpo are a iceman and a dog catcher, respectivly, and Zeppo is Grouch's son, who is enrolled in the university. The story, if it can be called that, leads up to a football game with Huxley's rival, Darwin University. This has to be seen to be believed.

---

7 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
One of the Marx Brothers' best!, 10 May 2001

Author: Robert Reynolds (minniemato@hotmail.com) from Tucson AZ

What the Marx Brothers do to higher education in this film is roaringly funny, from the opening song "Whatever It Is, I'm Against It" to the end, possibly the most bizarre American Football "game" not played in the XFL! Groucho was at or near his best and it's probably the best (and most significant) role Zeppo ever had. Most highly recommended.

---

3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
my favorite Marx Brothers movie, 6 February 2006

Author: planktonrules from Bradenton, Florida

While this film ISN'T as famous as DUCK SOUP or A NIGHT AT THE OPERA, it's my personal favorite. I think it's probably because unlike these other two pictures, there isn't all the singing and dancing in HORSE FEATHERS plus it has at least as much energy as any other film they made. Plus, unlike THE COCOANUTS and ANIMAL CRACKERS, there is a real honest-to-goodness plot!!! So, it's not just one gag after another after another.

Groucho is wonderful as the incompetent and perpetually horny Professor Wagstaff at Huxley College. Plus, as idiots mistaken for professional ringers, Chico and Harpo are at their best. Oh, and I guess Zeppo is in the movie, but as in all their early Zeppo films, he is pretty much a non-entity. You can really see why he never caught on as one of the Marx Brothers (nor did his other brother, Karl, was was by far the LEAST funny Marx Brother).

About the only negative about the film is the climactic football game. Even for a Marx Brothers film, this does get a little too stupid!

---

3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Lots of Good Material, 26 July 2001
Author: Snow Leopard from Ohio

There's a lot of good material in this Marx Brothers feature, with just enough plot to hold it together and to set up a very entertaining final sequence. As usual, there are a number of memorable scenes to choose from when picking your favorite parts of the movie.

This time the brothers are let loose on a college campus that is getting ready for a big football game. Groucho and Zeppo are the new college president and his son, while Harpo and Chico arrive from a nearby neighborhood in time to add their own kind of confusion. The campus setting allows them to satirize many aspects of college life, and there are some good off-campus scenes as well, most memorably the 'swordfish' scene in the speakeasy. It's capped off with a hilarious football game that is one of their best sequences.

This ranks highly on almost anyone's list of favorite Marx Brothers features - if you're a fan, make sure to see it.

---

3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
The Marx Brothers in their prime, 9 September 2005

Author: Matthew Dickson from Denton, TX

One of the better Marx Brothers movies. This one came right in the middle of their prime, between Monkey Business and Duck Soup (probably their two best films). While Horse Feathers isn't quite as funny as either of those, it still has plenty of laughs. The Marx Brothers were still young, but they knew what they were doing now. Again they take advantage of the film medium to do things they never could have done on stage, like the wild football finale. The involvement of the supporting cast is also kept to a minimum, which is always a good thing in Marx Bros. films. They do go back to relying on too many musical numbers. Groucho's opening song "Whatever it is, I'm Against it" seems awkwardly out of place, but it's interesting to see all four brothers do their own version of "Everyone Says I Love you." It's not their very best work, but it's not far from it either.

---

4 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Marx Brothers Mania (Groucho, Chico, Harpo & Zeppo), 6 August 2005

Author: Captain_Couth (sirjosephu@aol.com) from Sacramento, CA

Horse Feathers (1932) was the third feature by the four Marx Brothers. This time around, Groucho stars as the head of a small college that's engaged with a football rivalry with a nearby school. His son (Zeppo) is having love problems whilst two local hoodlums (Chico and Harpo) wind up helping Groucho's team out just in time for the big game. The movie is padded out with several boring musical numbers (even Groucho makes note of it during one of them). Can Zeppo find true love? Will Groucho's school win the rivalry? Can Chico and Harpo become big time college football stars? You'll have to find out when you watch Horse Feathers!

A very funny film (despite the musical numbers). The best scenes are the one in the speakeasy and the big game. The four brothers made up the best version of the Marx Brothers (I know most people liked the trio but I prefer the quartet). An entertaining film but not as great as their classic film Duck Soup!

Highly recommended.

---

1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Narrative and musical numbers could have been stronger but it is still very funny and enjoyable, 4 August 2006
Author: bob the moo from Birmingham, UK

When he is installed as President of Huxley College, Professor Wagstaff causes a ruckus among his board members with his irreverent attitude. His son, a student at the college, advises him that what Huxley really needs is a winning football team. While young Frank continues his relationship with college widow Connie Bailey, Professor Wagstaff turns to drinks man Baravelli and dogcatcher Pinky for help in pulling together the players and tactics it will take to produce a winning college football team.

As is often the case with the Marx Brothers' madcap comedies, the plot here is pretty weak. The opening scene should set you up for what the film does well as it features Groucho at his wisecracking best playing off a board full of straightmen before heading into the film's best musical number. When it is doing stuff like this it is strong and fortunately it doesn't allow the narrative to get in the way of the joking and clowning very often. The musical numbers are mostly pretty pointless and, although they do have some value they are generally just stuck in for the sake of it – the clunkiest of these being Harpo's harp scene that just appears out of nowhere for several moments. Regardless of such things there are enough funny lines and scenes to cover such weaknesses.

Although there isn't the intelligence and comment of Duck Soup, the comedy still works and the cast respond well to it. Groucho naturally dominates, having all the best lines and having a wicked delivery. He works well with Chico, even though the latter is not as strong as the former. Harpo does the silent physical comedy pretty well although I personally have always found him limited in his range even if I still laugh at his antics. Zeppo is happily limited in his influence in the film and barely stuck in my mind for a second after leaving the screen.

This is not the best of the Marx Brothers but it is still very good as it does what they do well. The narrative and the musical numbers could have been stronger but it is still a funny and easily enjoyable comedy.

---

---

Page 1 of 7:

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

Add another comment

---

Related Links

Plot summary	Amazon.com summary	Ratings
External reviews	Plot keywords	Main details
Your user comments	Your vote history