The Marx Brothers made 13 celebrated movies together over 20 years, with some being much better than others. Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Zeppo worked together for many years bringing their vaudeville talents from the stage to the big screen. Each of the brothers used the characters they had developed in their younger years to great success in films. Groucho with his greasepaint mustache, Harpo with red wig and horn, Chico with his Italian accent, and Zeppo as the straight man proved to be a hit troupe that played off each other well. The Marx Brothers’ absurdist comedy that took shots at high society proved to be very popular.
The impact of the Marx Brothers' movies can not be overstated, and their brand of irreverence can be seen in comedies from Monty Python to those produced by Judd Apatow. The Marx Brothers gained nationwide attention thanks to their Broadway shows and eventually attracted interest from the major film studios of the era as they were beginning to make “talkies." Musical sequences, sight gags, and perfectly timed jokes filled the Marx Brothers' wide filmography, and audiences and critics alike praised their subversive and mad-cap style. Even as the success of the Marx Brothers' movies began to dwindle, contemporaries continued to claim them as a higher standard than anything else available.
13 Love Happy (1949)
The final feature film of the Marx Brothers, Love Happy sees Groucho, Harpo, and Chico fighting over a cache of stolen diamonds. Love Happy had a difficult production, and it’s clear the brothers don’t have the same energy as in their previous movies. Even an early movie role by a young Marilyn Monroe in a bit part is not enough to make it anything better than the worst Marx Brothers’ film. A major issue is the three brothers do not appear on-screen together until the end. Groucho’s role is particularly strange as he is relegated to narrating events since a lack of funding led to some scenes not being filmed.
12 A Night In Casablanca (1946)
Groucho, Harpo, and Chico unwittingly foil an escaped Nazi’s plan in the hotel-centered comedy A Night in Casablanca. It’s the last time the Marx Brothers shared the screen for a significant amount of the runtime, and while it lacks the live-wire nature of their most famous movies, it has some funny moments. The Marx Brothers took inspiration from the 1940s Hollywood classic movie Casablanca, but the plot of this near-parody is too convoluted and tiresome. It was the first Marx Brothers movie released following the announcement of their retirement, and the group already seems to have lost a step.
11 At The Circus (1939)
At the Circus sees the Marx Brothers at their goofiest, in a movie about a circus robbery. Groucho, Harpo, and Chico are brought in to solve the problem, and the film's studio, MGM, continues its trend of putting the trio up against a villainous adversary rather than letting the situation drive the jokes, as their Paramount releases did. Gags such as a woman walking upside down on suction cups and a man in a gorilla suit are just too silly. The great silent movie comedian Buster Keaton wrote parts of At the Circus but went uncredited after a number of clashes with the stars, who didn’t appreciate his elaborate style.
10 The Big Store (1941)
The Marx Brothers signed on for five movies with MGM, and The Big Store was the last of this contract. At the time, they had planned to retire after the MGM deal, and the movie about a department-store manager vying for an inheritance pulls out all the stops for their would-be final outing. There are musical numbers as grand as any seen before, and the high number of stunt doubles and stop-motion animated scenes make The Big Store feel like a curtain call. It’s even the end for Margaret Dumont (another of the most underrated actresses of classic Hollywood cinema) as this was her final movie with the Marx Brothers.
9 Room Service (1938)
For most of their career together, the Marx Brothers' screenplays were written specifically for them. Room Service breaks that tradition. It’s an adapted story from a play of the same name about a theater cast trying to put on a play before the studio director evicts them. The story is sharp and engrossing with a satisfying payoff when the play actually takes off. It also offers ample room for the Marx Brothers’ antics, but it doesn’t feel much like it’s their movie. Room Service is as crazy as any movie they made, but its lunacy doesn’t necessarily need the Marx Brothers, and at times they feel superfluous.
8 Go West (1940)
Go West is the Marx Brothers' attempt to get into the comedy Western film genre. In the movie, the Marx Brothers become embroiled in a land deed battle between a destitute farm and the Railroad. Critics considered it a zany improvement over the group's previous effort, At the Circus. The Western setting gives a unique background to their classic gags and also provides ample opportunity for the brothers to showcase their musical talents with harmonicas, guitars, pianos, and harps that are naturally in the scene. It’s fairly tame in terms of laughs, but the final act contains a classic Marx Brothers ending, and it's a thrilling watch.
7 Monkey Business (1931)
Before Monkey Business, the Marx Brothers' movies were adapted from their Broadway plays. This was the first time one of their screenplays was not a stage-to-screen adaptation. The movie sees Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Zeppo as unnamed stowaways on their way to the United States. This is their first feature without regular straight woman Margaret Dumont, but her absence is partially alleviated by another actress, Thelma Todd, who does an excellent job going toe to toe with the manic Marx energy. Monkey Business has one of their most ridiculous plots, but it’s filled from start to finish with jokes and gags that are signatures of their early anarchic style.
6 The Cocoanuts (1929)
The Marx Brothers' first appearance in a feature film together was The Cocoanuts, based on their stage play. Despite it being a massive success, grossing $1.8 million, nearly quadrupling its budget, the brothers hated their own movie upon seeing it. The Cocoanuts has a very slight plot that is mostly just there to allow for as many jokes as possible. As their first “talkie,” the film has a theatrical nature that can feel odd today. However, the movie shows just how great the comic interactions of the Marx Brothers would go on to be with some early classics like the “why-a-duck/viaduct” argument.
5 A Day At The Races (1937)
A Day at the Races was another critical success for the Marx Brothers, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Dance Direction, for its "All God's Chillun Got Rhythm" number. The movie is a gag machine with one story about a financially precarious sanatorium and another part being a horse movie about a fixed race. This is the best combination of an MGM budget and the antics and wild Marx Brothers jokes, as their later films together lost something in the comedy. A Day at the Races is at times as funny as anything they’ve made, and the movie sets have never looked better.
4 Horse Feathers (1932)
The Marx Brothers go to college in Horse Feathers, and along with being a hilarious comedy with fantastic jokes and musical numbers, it also manages to be an excellent sports movie. Groucho’s Professor Wagstaff tries to recruit professional football players for his college’s failing team but accidentally picks up Harpo and Chico’s bootleggers instead. While the plot is still thin, it is a remarkably modern effort in terms of its storytelling. The football game at the end of Horse Feathers could fit right in next to the funniest scenes from National Lampoon's Animal House with the pageantry, chaos, and stunts.
3 Animal Crackers (1930)
Animal Crackers is one of the best examples of the Marx Brothers lampooning upper-class sensibilities with their boorish, over-confident working-class manner. Captain Jeffrey Spaulding, played by Groucho, is a famed explorer of Africa who is throwing a party when an expensive painting is stolen. The sequences contain some of the more bawdy comedy in the Marx Brothers catalog. Zeppo, who disappeared from the films after a few years, shows exactly what it is he can bring to the screen as the “fourth” brother. No one else but him would be able to “talk back” to Groucho in the dictation scene and come out as the winner.
2 A Night At The Opera (1935)
The first movie of the Marx Brothers' MGM deal, A Night at the Opera saw a notable change in the style from their Paramount films, but it remains one of their most rewatchable efforts and one of the best-reviewed comedy movies of all time. Unlike their previous movies, A Night at the Opera has a clear story structure with a villain and the Marx Brothers as protagonists. With an improved plot structure, the gags take on a more intentionally crafted feel. This does away with the improv antics of earlier movies but allows for jokes like the classic Stateroom scene to be possible.
1 Duck Soup (1933)
Duck Soup takes viewers to Freedonia, a fictional country in dire financial straits. In order to save the nation, politicians put Rufus T. Firefly in charge so that the richest woman in the country will continue funding the government. Over time, Duck Soup has come to be known as not only the Marx Brothers’ best movie but one of the best political satires of all time. When it was first released, audiences and critics didn’t quite know how to take the absurdity and mockery of politics and war. Firefly, played by Groucho, is all the anarchic and chaotic tendencies of the brothers wrapped up in one character.
The comedy provided by Chico, Harpo, and Groucho in Duck Soup is made even better by Margaret Dumont as Mrs. Gloria Teasdale, in one of her best roles in a Marx Brothers movie. Her infatuation with Firefly is played straight, making his insane and mean antics all the more hilarious. The comedy of the Marx Brothers is biting, and Duck Soup's running gags are some of the best they have ever done. The first number, "Just Wait 'Til I Get Through With It," is a rousing and catchy production that may hit too close home, as the satire of fascism is so sharp it can’t help but resonate today.