Horse Feathers (1932)

Quincy Adams Wagstaff, the new president of Huxley University, accidentally hires bumblers Baravelli and Pinky to help his school win the big football game against the rival Darwin University.

Director:

Norman Z. McLeod (as Norman McLeod)

Writers:

Bert Kalmar (by), Harry Ruby (by)

Stars:

Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx

2 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
The Marx Brothers	...	(as The Four Marx Brothers)
Groucho Marx	...	Professor Quincy Adams Wagstaff
Harpo Marx	...	Pinky
Chico Marx	...	Baravelli
Zeppo Marx	...	Frank Wagstaff
Thelma Todd	...	Connie Bailey
David Landau	...	Jennings

Storyline

Professor Quincy Adams Wagstaff has just been installed as the new president of Huxley College. His cavalier attitude toward education is not reserved for his son Frank, who is seeing the college widow, Connie Bailey. Frank influences Wagstaff to recruit two football players who hang out in a speakeasy, in order to beat rival school Darwin. Unfortunately, Wagstaff mistakenly hires the misfits Baravelli and Pinky. Finding out that Darwin has beaten him to the "real" players, Wagstaff enlists Baravelli and Pinky to kidnap them, which leads to an anarchic football finale.

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Plot Keywords:

slot machine | femme fatale | professor | college | breaking the fourth wall | 

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Taglines:

The Maddest Comics of the Screen!

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Genres:

Comedy | Musical | Romance | Sport

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

19 August 1932 (USA)

Also Known As:

Horse Feathers

Filming Locations:

Occidental College -1600 Campus Road, Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

68 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Zeppo played Groucho's son, but in real life, Zeppo Marx was only 11 years younger than Groucho Marx. Groucho was born in 1890, and Zeppo in 1901.

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Goofs

Pinky and Baravelli are kneeling in the center of the section of floor they're sawing, but when they fall through into the football players' room, they fall well to the left and right of the section of floor.

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Quotes

Jennings: I love good music.
Professor Wagstaff: So do I, let's get out of here.
Jennings: Sit down!
Professor Wagstaff: [to the audience] 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.

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Connections

Referenced in Sam and Max: The Mole, the Mob, and the Meatball (2007)

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Soundtracks

I'm Daffy Over You
(1930) (uncredited)
Written by Chico Marx and Sol Violinsky
Performed by Chico Marx on piano

User Reviews

The Brothers At Their Zaniest

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.