Horse Feathers

I can’t remember when I first saw the Marx brothers. This is odd. I imagine most people can or will remember (if they haven’t seen them yet). There is nothing in the world like them anymore, although there may have been at the time they made their movies. Nonetheless, where to rank their films as cinema is still an issue – are they just good comedies, or something more? It could be argued the sheer force and relentless nature of the jokes makes them great – even if, as films, they are simple and somewhat inane. They take the physical comedy of Chaplin to a new level, adding not just the verbal wit, but songs, dance and music. Horse Feathers, however, isn’t the title with which to introduce someone to the Marx brothers. The films starts almost immediately with a bizarre, nonsensical monologue by Groucho, followed by a song and dance routine. It includes great lines such as ‘Well, I thought my razor was dull until I heard his speech’ and ‘I came into this college to get my son out of it’, but there is a lot there which I didn’t, or couldn’t, understand. As an introduction it’s baffling, but it at least makes it clear to the audience what the Marx brothers are trying to do here: tell jokes, regardless of any plot. The humour is strange in places (this film was made 80 years ago after all), the jokes sometimes either seem not funny at all or offensive, and the plot is flimsy and strained, but there are equally moments when you’ll laugh so hard you’ll cry. ‘I married your mother because I wanted children. Imagine my disappointment when you arrived’. Their best films are more than just a collection of sketches like this, but still in Horse Feathers you will find the relentless verbal and physical humour and some great songs, including the classic ‘everyone says I love you’ – with different verses depending on the perspectives of the different characters.