Comments on: Euphoria #36: top Marx

By: dcairns

dcairns — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 09:23:00 +0000

I think some part of me has always resisted the book because I didn’t want my delusions shattered. I want Harpo to be the same mute mutant he is in the movies, as he’s portrayed in Mrs Parker and the Vicius Circle. I can just about handle Jimmy Durante in The Man Who Came to Dinner, but that’s as far as it can go.

GREAT story in a Marx Bros doc about how Groucho (I think)’s daughter skipped a show one night, and the Bros approached afterwards and asked “Did you spot it?” Turned out that they had played each others roles for one night, and it was the night she missed. Of course she couldn’t admit to skipping the show. And they never did it again.

By: Simon

Simon — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:45:51 +0000

I had a scruffy old car-boot-sale copy of ‘Harpo Speaks’ for some years. In my humble opinion it’s a better book than Groucho’s autobio. I enjoyed it more, largely because you didn’t doubt his sincerity at any point. He explains at some length how he and his wife adopted children and the stories he told them in order for them to feel wanted and part of the family. It’s something that has always stuck in my mind.

By: dcairns

dcairns — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 22:31:44 +0000

Thanks! I have the Roud, must refresh my memory of it.

By: David Ehrenstein

David Ehrenstein — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 21:20:51 +0000

Artaud writes about the Marx Brothers in The Theater and its Double. Hodeir can be found in Richard Roud’s Cinema: A Critical Encyclopedia

By: dcairns

dcairns — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 18:27:01 +0000

Haven’t read ANY of that. Keep hoping to find a copy of Harpo Speaks.

Dali’s treatment for a Marx Bros film is fascinating because it’s so unfunny: it lacks the necessary vestiges of logic. But it does show us what the Marx Bros looked like to Dali. More promising is Billy Wilder’s idea for A Night At The United Nations, which would have moved Freedonia-style international politics into the Cold War…

I used to hand people my leg, in imitaion of HM, but nobody ever accepted it. just as well, I suppose, I find it useful for getting around on.

By: David Ehrenstein

David Ehrenstein — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 18:19:33 +0000

Hapro’s combination of child-like innocent and sex-mad sybarite was unique. I especially love his handing people his leg. His memoir Harpo Speaks is required reading, as is Artaud’s essay about the Marx Bros. Andre Hodier is great about them too.