Synopsis:

I've been a lifelong Marx Brothers fan from my earliest memories. I could debate with myself all day about which of their 13 films is the best ('A Day At The Races'?). But I can say with no doubt that most of their films come with certain baggage... Due to the commercial neccesities of the time and due to the radical nature of their comedy they usually peppered the popular songs of the day throughout the films, to keep people happy. At the time, this formula was boxoffice dynamite but some of these songs have not aged well and I almost always fast-forward through them (Other songs are still masterpieces, 'Cosi-Cosa' for example). Also sometimes the plots, subplots and supporting talent isn't up to the match of The Brothers' firecracker humour. But fast-forwarding through that material isn't really possible, so wouldn't it be wonderful to have a collection of these films with all the killer and none of the filler?

Intentions:

These edits should be a fun diversion for me, from more time consuming and challenging edits. This 13 film project will be a long time in the making. I'll be editing through their filmography in chronological order. I will not be cutting out any of the comedy and as I move towards their mid-career films, I'll be cutting less and less. But their last 6 films will require the most editing with the final film 'Love Happy' being drastically recut. I want these edits to feel like nothing is missing (or nothing that you will miss anyway!), just pure comedy magic.

Change List:

- Minimal trims to the 'Stolen painting' subplot. Without removing any of the Brothers. - Cut the two 'Stolen painting' scenes back together to highlight their farcical nature - Sharpened the image throughout (The print is of a variable quality) - Smoothed out some of the primitive cuts and shots where possible. While still preserving the look of a film from this period. 00.00.00 Added TM2YC and Swordfish idents 00.00.12 Adjusted framing of opening credits to match rest of film 00.16.01 Fade to black shortened and Groucho/Rittenhouse scene brought forward 00.21.20 Hives' dialogue shortened 00.24.58 POV shot of painting added 00.25.00 2nd half of painting discussion blended back in 00.26.05 POV shot of painting removed and two shot recropped 00.26.30 Strange camera pan removed 00.47.10 Partially smoothed out the rough cut from Chico/Harpo to Mrs Rittenhouse 00.57.21 Hives sneaking and intro to unveiling shortened 00.57.41 Partially smoothed out the rough sound cut from painting to couple 00.57.45 Exposition dialogue trimmed 00.59.10 Start of scheming scene trimmed 01.00.22 Hives' final line and start of painting search trimmed 01.00.57 Lovers' song removed 01.04.23 Fade to black shortened 01.26.43 Introduction to Rittenhouse/Chandler scene trimmed 01.33.09 Trailer for 'Monkey Business' added to the end Original Length: 97 minutes FanEdit Length: 93 minutes Removed: 4 minutes.

Additional Notes:

The goal of the edit was to keep all the comedy but to streamline and fix all the other material. However due to this being basically a masterpiece the edit isfairly light compaed to what I will be doing with the later films.

Other Sources:

The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection - Region 1 DVD Boxset.

Special Thanks:

Thanks of course go to Chico, Harpo, Groucho and Zeppo for a lifetime of laughs. Plus to those of the FE.org community that offeried words of encouragement when this DVD kept going wrong (This is the 3rd time I did this edit from scratch).