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Dougsarnecky
Reviews
Woman Haters (1934)
Woman Haters (1934)
WOMAN HATERS, where it all began for The Three Stooges at Columbia, is more of an anomaly in The Three Stooges series. Officially, it is part of The Musical Novelties series, a series in which all the dialogue is spoken in rhyme and accompanied by music. Well, "novelty" is a good way to describe this short because that is exactly how I view it.
I'm glad this short exists because it gives us a different look at The Three Stooges in a musical role, and Larry in particular does a fine job (no pun intended). That said, would I be a Three Stooges fan if all 190 shorts were like this? Not exactly. Musicals aren't really my thing, and this one holds my interest simply because of three certain actors who are in it.
The rhyming dialogue gets old after a while and the Stooges really have to conform to the rhythm of the music as opposed to the rhythm they would naturally develop in later shorts, so it sounds a bit forced. I don't have much else to say with this one except I find it to be a fascinating one off.
The Cocoanuts (1929)
The Cocoanuts (1929)
A lot of people are of the belief that the Paramount Marx films are the pure Marx Brothers films while the MGM Marx films are bogged down in musical numbers and romantic subplots. Well, I have news for those folks - Paramount's THE COCOANUTS has musical numbers and a romantic subplot. Like their second film, ANIMAL CRACKERS, THE COCOANUTS has its origins as a successful stage play and was shot on the east coast. Stage comedians of the time were generally in variety shows that had dancing chorus girls (think Zeigfeld Follies), musical numbers, and plots and characters outside of the comedians. The silent comedians had pure comedies involving their characters, the Marx Brothers came from said stage comedian tradition and wouldn't make films that had Hollywood values until their third film.
Something else to consider about THE COCOANUTS is that it was released in 1929, the first full year of talking features. Talkies this early tend to be very static camera wise and have a very static based, lo-fi soundtrack. The lack of good sound technology is at times a hindrance on this film, as Groucho's rapid fire dialogue pacing works best with clarity. Whenever there is dialogue being spoken on top of a musical soundtrack, the mix gets pretty muddy. Also, Kay Francis, who is famous for making her r's sound like w's (as in Kay Fwancis), is not helped by the early technology soundtrack either.
The plot is nowhere near as tight as NIGHT AT THE OPERA, there are technological flaws everywhere, yet in spite of all of this, there are plenty of good parts to consider this a good film. Groucho and Chico's "Why a duck/viaduct" routine is an all time classic. I marvel at the way these guys can sustain such lengthy dialogue throughout their films, a truly wonderful gift. Groucho's opening scene trying to get out of paying his worker's wages is great, and one thing the bad soundtrack does not hinder is Harpo, because he needs no stinkin' soundtrack. Watching him tear up the mail, eat a telephone (!) and cause havoc all around is a lot of fun. Another bit I love is after the boring scene where the female lead finds out she has to dump her fiancé and marry another man, Harpo offers her a lollipop. It's so completely inappropriate, but since this is a Marx Brothers movie, that's exactly what I want!
As with most Marx Brothers films, we get a Harpo harp solo and a Chico piano solo, which always seems like a comfort food. Harpo is such a crazy guy, yet he's this serious virtuoso playing beautiful music on that harp. Chico, while not quite the musician of his brother, still has tons of charisma and is fun to watch.
Another thing I love is we get to see all three brothers involved in bedroom seduction talk, with Kay Francis seducing Chico and Harpo and Groucho "seducing" Margaret Dumont. We get to see the three brother's personalities doing the same thing in the same way we get to see all four brother serenade Thelma Todd later on. Speaking of Ms. Dumont, she's wonderful as usual, my favorite bit being her appalled reaction as Harpo invites her to bed.
Zeppo appears in this film. He does absolutely nothing. There's also the "Monkey Doodle Doo" number, which is completely bizarre and appears in several Hal Roach soundtracks.
Anyway, this is a flawed film and their weakest for some time to come, but there's enough good stuff in here to keep any Marx Brothers fan entertained.