The Cocoanuts

Worth seeing for Marx-ites, but adding Irving Berlin to a Marx Brothers movie is like topping a sirloin steak with pureed caramel.

The first movie of it's kind and you can see that.

This rating is mostly for the bits with the Marx Brothers. Any scene they are not in just drags way too much. The bits where Harpo and Chico play instruments feels out of place, but they're actually much better than any of the other musical bits in here. It isn't terribly "cinematic", but chalk that up to it being from the very early days of sound.

The one at the hotel. Okay, so, like, it's funny. It's a comedy, and it's funny, which means it works. Fine. But why in the names of Jesus is there all that singing and dancing? Obviously it's the most boring part. I don't get it, just cut that shit out. I laughed though, so there's that.

"Ice water in [room] 318? No, I haven't. This is Cocoanut Beach. No snow. No ice. Get some onion, they will make your eyes water."

First Marx Film is a bit "stagebound" in appearance, but the zaniness is there from the start.

The Marx Brothers were comic geniuses, but The Cocoanuts was not a great showcase for their legendary talent. It's essentially a stage play adapted for the screen in the early days of sound and it shows. The basic problem is that the film makers had little idea about how to translate the Marx Brothers' vaudevillian hijinks to cinema, which admittedly would have been difficult. They were surrounded by mediocre actors and directors that had a rudimentary grasp of comic timing. Shame.

The timing is way off, obviously meant for the stage with lots of awkward pauses for laughs. Several song and dance routines bring things to a halt, and the musical bits from Chico and Harpo are superfluous (then again, aren't they always?). But there's some great bits of comedy in there, including the famous "why a duck?" routine and the auction scene.

This movie shows every bit of its age and origin. It is a filmed theatre with heavy vaudeville influence, and done when sound movies were still a new thing. Thus the movie lacks the visual brilliance of silent cinema but as a sound movie it too is technically limited and clunky. And less said about the plot, the better. A pioneer work and all that, but everything that was good here was better in next year's Animal Crackers, and much of what was bad here was better in next year's Animal Crackers.

Surely one of the earliest examples of someone saying "Einstein" in a sarcastic tone to a person who is obviously a dullard. Next time I need to walk out on someone, I will do it like Harpo at the engagement dinner. The four brothers and the Irving Berlin music are fabulous, the rest not so much.

Given that this is their first full-length feature, it's unsurprising that this Marx Brothers film is perhaps their weakest. Even though the slapstick is good, a great deal of the wordplay misses the mark, and the song and dance numbers are agonisingly dull. Harpo and Chico's instrumental scenes are the clear highlights (as they so often are).

Someone wrote you don't watch the Marx bros movies for the plot, you watch them for the chaos they cause.

The Marx Brothers' first movie, a real gem.

Good bit of fun but the Marx Brothers have done better.

my default minimum rating for marx brothers unless it is particularly worse than the others. I find all of their movies funny

One of the more obvious impulses of the early sound era was to just remount a popular production from Broadway in front of the cameras, so the Marx brothers' feature debut is a straightforward revival of their 1925 Irving Berlin musical. The horrible sound quality and awkward framing really don't do the song and dance numbers justice; however, the Marxes were always the main draw anyway, and their vaudeville-style humor carries over just fine.

I could have done without the dancing girls, but the rest is typical Marx Brothers. Some of their stuff is better here than in their later movies.

Creaky early talkie that never transcends its stage origins, in spite of the lunacy of the Marx Brothers' physical comedy and the superb dialogue of George Kaufman.

Why a duck?

The Marx brothers act like the Marx brothers... And this is a BAD thing???? At least they're not acting like richard Marx

The first Marx Bros. feature has one of their better plots and above average jokes.

The song and dance numbers feel out of place, attempts at plot are a needless distraction and it can feel a bit stagy and awkward at times. But when the Marx Brothers are on screen and I'm smiling along I just kind of forget about all that. Not as good as some of their later films, but there are still some great moments.

Why 94? Why a duck? The production numbers are so goofy, they are part of the comedy unintentionally, just don't expect heads in every frame. Funny, well, of course. Oscar Shaw's nostrils steal every scene he's in, which is good, because you'll stop noticing what a stiff he is. It survives not having Berlin's "Always" in it very well.