My book, Marx and Re-Marx : Creating and Re-Creating The Lost Marx Brothers Radio Series should finally be available in the next month or so and if you’re interested in reading it there are worse place to get updates than the official Facebook Page.
Archive for the ‘Marx Brothers’ Category
Scan, Bam, thank you Ma’m
April 1, 2010
A couple of weeks ago, film critic, beardie, and all round nice guy Leonard Maltin tipped his readers off to an ongoing project headed up by film historian David Pierce of the BFI’s National Film and Television Archive. The scope of this project is enormous but the intent is for thousends of film and radio industry journels, fan magazines and trade papers from the early half of the twentieth century to be digitised and made available to schollars world wide.
Periodicals like Photoplay, Moving Picture World, Variety and Radio Guide can help shed new light on well trodden histories, revealing insights into how the film industry viewed censorship, detailed info on the wherabouts of famous directors, producers and actors on specific dates, or how fans responded to screen stars. Also worth noting is how the way in which films were advertised has changed. The scan below reveals that Hollywood during it’s golden age suffered from the same anxieties that it is seen to suffer from today.
This is exactly the kind of archive I would have loved to have had available during the research for my upcoming book Marx and Re-Marx. Although I was able to track down a number of ancient clippings via paper-based archives the experience of doing so was almost always tedious and unpleasant – I’m looking at you Collingdale Newspaper Library. (I should note, however, that it was always a pleasure to communicate with fellow collectors and film fans)
Time is running out to preserve and cherish these increasingly rare and valuable materials so I’m going to be doing all I can to encourage David Pierce in his endeavors. If you are at all interested in preserving film history for generations to come I suggest you do the same. To see what has been achieved so far you can visit the Internet Archive and at the projects own temporary web space.
Anything Can Happen And It Probably Will…
February 4, 2010
Having just returned from a successful screening of this film to an appreciative audience, the time seems right to expound a little upon one of my favourite film comedies, Hellzapoppin’. This obscure title certainly deserves to be better known and here is my own attempt to make this happen.
Hellzapoppin’ tells the story – well, sort of tells the story – of a Hollywood producer trying to film a movie about Hellzapoppin‘. Does that make sense? Good. Despite his best efforts at describing a potential storyline the film is constantly hijacked by Olsen and Johnson, a master of disguise private detective and even the projectionist at the back of the very cinema in which you sit watching the film. Basically, a thin romantic subplot is used an excuse for eighty minutes on non stop puns, innovative visual gags and metatextual anarchy. No matter how many ways I think up to describe the film nothing seems to do it justice. It’s that weird. The best I can come up with is the description, “Wathching Hellzapoppin’ is like watching the Marx Brothers on speed.”
Based on a hit Broadway play, Hellzapoppin’ is the type of film to throw a lot of elements into a bucket, stir them with a big stick, and then pour the mixture into your eyeballs. Verbal gags, slapstick comedy, romance, musical numbers, fourth wall breaking, dance sequences and special effects are all incorporated and the result is one of the weirdest films ever to be produced during the ‘golden age’ of the Hollywood studio system.
Thanks to the rights to the Broadway play complicating any plans to re-release the film in America, Hellzapoppin’ has been quite difficult to see until fairly recently when it was released on Region 2 DVD. Yet, despite being so difficult to see for so long, it isn’t hard to see the influence it has exerted over certain strains of American film comedy that were to follow. In particular, parallels can be drawn between this and the work of Mel Brooks (Blazing Saddles, Spaceballs) or early efforts from the Zucker Brothers (Airplane!, Kentucky Fried Movie). Joe Dante, the director of Hollywood Boulevard, Gremlins, Gremlins 2, Matinée and Small Soldiers amongst other films, freely admits that he steals from Hellzapoppin’ in order to lace his own films with gags; his perfectly justified reasoning being if nobody has seen it, why let a good gag go to waste!
Olsen and Johnson, however, are an odd team. Their role in Hellzapoppin’ is to literally draw the viewer in to this crazy world, the humour of which relies very little upon the interaction between the two. They’re likeable, not loveable, and have no particularly distinguishing characteristics that stick in the mind. In my experience the team’s other films, while on the whole enjoyable, really strongly on strong writers to gain laughs. In fact only one of their movies, Crazy House, is generally thought of as coming anywhere near the standard set by Hellzapoppin’. Still, they must have had something, and I in know way intend to knock their performances, which are first rate. Clearly too they were capable of writing great material for themselves, as they are credited as having written the original broadway book for the Hellzapoppin’. Perhaps studios insisted on outside writers.
But I digress, simply put, more people should see this film. And now that it’s out on DVD there is no excuse. Watch it. Love it. Spread the word! I’m working on my own secret project to help raise the profile of the film in some small way.
Further Reading
BOOK UPDATE: A Cover!
January 4, 2010
My upcoming book, Marx and Remarx: Making and Remaking The Lost Marx Brothers Radio Series, now has a cover!
I still have no word on the release date but hopefully it shan’t be long before people can place orders. Until then, don’t forget that audio copies of the remaining episodes of the original Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel radio series are available HERE.
One of my new years resolutions is to update this blog more often, so stay tuned for goodies to come.
Book Update
November 7, 2009
To all you patient folks out there waiting for my book, (there must be at least two of you, right?) things are starting to move along. Currently I have a good friend and designer working on the cover while another designer works on the interior.
In the meantime I have added a NEW PAGE to this site which includes streaming audio copies of all surviving material from the original Five Star Theatre run of Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel in 1932/1933. You can access them at any time by clicking the link to the sidebar at the right of this page. Hope you enjoy!
On Your Marx, Get Set, Stall!
July 22, 2009
Recently, Jerry Beck posted this promotional image for an aborted Marx Brothers cartoon series over at the excellent Cartoon Brew. A Marx Brothers cartoon seems a slightly stranger prospect than some of the other comedy teams who made it into animated form; Abbot and Costello, Laurel and Hardy and The Three Stooges were all more child-friendly than the Marxes. Strip the brothers of their more abrasive, adult humour and you’re not left with too much for Groucho and Chico to do. Harpo on the other hand, would have made a brilliant cartoon character!
The ad was printed in a 1966 which means the finished product would have been somewhat of a frankenstine job; Chico died in 1961, Harpo followed in 1964 and would Groucho, who was still around and active, even have wanted to lend his voice talents alongside actors imitating his brothers. If not, it’s hard to imagine anyone being able to fill his shoes.
Hundreds of projects like these were attempted, and stalled during the 60s and 70s, one that immediately springs to mind is the The Bickersons. The interesting part about the above image though, is that it offers screenings to interested customers. This would imply that a pilot had been produced; I’d love to see that turn up!
In light of this projects absence here are two great vintage cartoons, one from Disney, one from Warner, that feature brilliant caricatures of the brothers amongst others.
Have You Ever Seen A Wild Boar?
February 1, 2009Here is a clip from the television show The Hollywood Palace hosted by Groucho Marx. Margaret Dumont guests and together they re-stage one of their earliest outings from the stage show Animal Crackers. Dumont died shortly after recording this performance lending the performance an extra layer of unintended pathos. With this in mind it’s very gratifying to see her clearly enjoying herself and being afforded such a warm round of applause from the audience. Groucho too is on top form here, it’s just a shame he didn’t don the greasepaint mustache.
Quick Update
January 20, 2009Sorry for the lack of updates over the past couple of weeks. As regular readers will know I have a book due to come out later this year and that isn’t going to happen if I don’t finish writing it! More wonderfulness to come I promise.
Coming Soon: My First Book!
December 5, 2008I have been gagging to announce this publicly for a great deal of time now and at long last I can finally come clean about what I have been scribbling a way at over the past year; my first book! Bear Manor Media in the USA have kindly agreed to publish the book that nobody asked for, a complete history of the Marx Brothers’ Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel! Read on for the a better explanation of what is to come.
Marx and Re-Marx
Creating and Recreating the Lost Marx Brothers Radio Show
In 1932 the legendary Marx Brothers began work on one of their most hilarious and enduring feature films, Duck Soup. At the same time they also began work on their first ever radio series, a half hour sitcom that featured the adventures and mishaps that befell the underhanded lawyer Waldorf T. Flywheel (Groucho) and his hapless assistant Emmanelle Ravelli (Chico). This series, eventually entitled Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel was written by Marx collaborators and comic geniuses Nat Perrin and Arthur Sheekman, was popular with audiences but in 1933 was cancelled and promptly forgotten. The scripts were shelved, the recordings discarded and the Marxes went back to work on Duck Soup.
However Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel refused to remain buried and tantalizing glimpses of the routines from the series went on to be reused in classic films like Duck Soup, A Night at the Opera and The Big Store.
In 1986 Micheal Barson, a researcher and Marx fan who had unearthed all but one of the original radio scripts, published them in book form and people took notice. In 1989 BBC Radio 4 aired the first of what was to become an eighteen episode remake of the series. Painstakingly adapted and augmented and with a lovingly recreated cast and ambience Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel once again proved a success becoming popular with listeners and picking up the Golden Award at the New York Radio Festival.
You can’t keep a good joke down.
For the first time in detail Re-Marx takes a look at the history of this enduring series, its genesis, its death and its resurrection.
Featuring:
- Previously unpublished letters from the desk of Flywheel creator Nat Perrin.
- Full Episode Guides for both incarnations of the Flywheel and a guide to related productions.
- Contributions from the cast and crew of the BBC remake of Flywheel; Mark Brisenden (Weekending, Spitting Image), David Firman (Dinner Ladies, Norbert Smith: A Life) (Graham Hoadly (The Adventures of Sexton Blake, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Stageshow), Dirk Maggs (Superman: Doomsday and Beyond,Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency), and Frank Lazarus (Pennies From Heaven, Our Friends in the North).
- Transcripts of the remaining recordings of the original series.
Due Spring 2009
Spring 2009 is the best approximate publication date I have so far and while there is still a damn good chance I could mess things up I am very excited about being able to keep you up to date with the latest developments on this very blog. Also bear in mind is that the book, unlike the above announcement, will be fully proof read!
Pooh Poohing My Ideas
September 23, 2008One of the fantastic things about wordpress is that it allows you to see the search terms people are using on their way to your blog. Over the past week or so people seem to be really hungry for Winnie the Pooh. I thought I’d mention him again here as I am a shameless hit whore who craves more attention.
I’d like to draw your attention to the new site banner as well. Nothing too spectacular but it will do for now.
