Author: Miss Cellania / Source: Neatorama
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.
The year was 1931 and the four Marx Brothers (Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Zeppo) had by now had three hit Broadway shows and two smash movies: The Cocoanuts (1929) and Animal Crackers (1930)- behind them. Both The Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers were simply filmed versions of their Broadway shows. Both films had been shot in nearby Astoria Studios in Long Island, New York.
The Marxes, now being official 24-karat movie stars, decided to pull up stakes and move to the only residence befitting motion picture celebrities- Hollywood. Their third film would be their first with an official Hollywood screenplay.
The working title of their tertiary film was Pineapples, but was soon changed to Monkey Business. Written by S.J. Perelman and Will B. Johnstone with a screenplay by Arthur Sheekman, Monkey Business was directed by Norman Z. McLeod
Monkey Business was to be the only Marx Brothers film in which none of the brothers have a character name. Because they played four stowaways on a passenger ship, they were simply referred to as “the stowaways.” (in the film’s end credits, they are credited by their names, i.e. Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Zeppo Marx.)
What little plot there is involves the boys stowing away on a ship, being pursued by the captain of the ship and his underlings, meeting rival gangsters on board and getting involved with them, leaving the ship and thwarting an attempted kidnapping of one of the gangster’s daughters.
Another switch from the team’s previous two films was the absence of the boys’ female foil, perennial dowager Margaret Dumont. In her stead as the female lead is the always delightful blonde bombshell, Thelma Todd.
According to the studio’s reasoning, Dumont “was not sexy enough for the part.”According to Robert Osborne of Turner Classic Movies, on the first day of shooting, the four Marx Brothers reported to the set, each wearing each other’s wardrobe and imitating that respective brother. (We feel sympathy for the poor brother who had to dress as and imitate Zeppo- how much fun could that have been?)
Monkey Business, like every Marx Brothers film, has several delightful musical numbers.
The movie opens with the four brothers, hiding out in four barrels, beneath the deck, singing “Sweet Adeline.” To this day, a Marx Brothers rumor exists which states that mute Harpo is actually singing the song, hidden from sight inside his barrel, along with his three speaking brothers. Neither Harpo himself, nor any of his brothers, ever acknowledged whether or not the perennially silent sibling did, indeed, harmonize, while within his barrel in this scene. Whether true or not that Harpo was stealthily singing, we must be resigned to the fact that Harpo (and presumably his brothers) each went to his grave with the secret intact and unrevealed.
Interestingly, Monkey Business is the the only Marx Brothers film where one of the brothers composed the film’s theme song. It opens with the Chico Marx-composed song “I’m Daffy Over You.” Chico had originally played “I’m Daffy Over You” as his piano solo in Animal Crackers. A very catchy, breezy tune, “I’m Daffy Over You.” is often wrongly thought to be the 1950’s hit “Sugartime.”
Although the song was written by Chico (and Sol Violinsky), no…
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