Main Cast: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Zeppo Marx, Mary Eaton
Release Year: 1929
Country: US
Run Time: 96 minutes
Plot
While The Four Marx Brothers (Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Zeppo) were appearing nightly on Broadway in Animal Crackers in the spring of 1929, they spent their days shooting their first film, The Cocoanuts, at Paramount's Astoria Studios in Long Island. Based on their 1925 stage hit, The Cocoanuts is set in Miami, where hotel manager Mr. Hammer (Groucho Marx) struggles to keep his establishment from going under. Hammer's only paying guest is Mrs. Potter (Margaret Dumont), whose daughter Polly (Mary Eaton) is in love with aspiring architect Bob (Oscar Shaw). Mrs. Potter would prefer that Polly marry the respectable Harvey Yates (Cyril Ring); what she doesn't know is that Yates is a jewel thief, in cahoots with the slinky Penelope (Kay Francis). The script was written by George S. Kaufman, and the music by Irving Berlin. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
The Marx Brothers burst upon the cinema scene with The Cocoanuts, and while the film is relatively tame compared to later efforts, at the time it was unlike anything movie audiences had previously experienced. There had certainly been zany comedy before, but the brothers had their own style – and, Harpo not withstanding, it was one that needed sound to make the transition to film. Although the film contains some classic Marx Brothers routines- including the “viaduct” exchange – and some other high points of comedy (such as a precisely-timed sequence involving entrances and exits to two connecting hotel rooms and Groucho’s auction sequence) - the overall effect is hampered by the extremely static, stagebound quality necessitated by the early sound cameras and equipment. The boys, too, were still finding their way, still learning how to use the camera to best effect and so don’t operate as the well-oiled machines that they soon would. In addition, there’s too much focus put on the unconvincing and contrived love plot and the criminal subplot. While the love plot does allow for some musical numbers with interesting overhead shots of dancers forming flower patterns (pre-dating Berkeley) and some interesting angles during some other dance segments (angles that often place the camera disconcertingly at mid-torso), it also shifts focus to a supporting cast that (Kay Francis and Margaret Dumont aside) is pretty dull. Irving Berlin’s score is below par for the master tunesmith, and the direction is a bit stodgy. Still, as long as the Marxes are onscreen, there’s plenty of entertainment to be had. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Cocoanuts, The (1925), a musical farce by George S. Kaufman (book), Irving Berlin (music, lyrics). [ Lyric Theatre, 276 perf.] A vehicle for the Marx Brothers, this daffy musical produced by Sam H. Harris was set in Florida where hotelier Henry W. Schlemmer (Groucho Marx) is trying to sell swamp land off as prime real estate. It was a gag‐filled, uproarious show that changed each night as the brothers improvised and clowned their way through the thin plot. The only song from Berlin's score to find favor was “Always,” yet it was cut before opening. Revivals in regional theatre and in New York in the 1990s have proven that much of the silly show still plays well.
The Cocoanuts is set in a resort hotel during the big Florida development boom of the 1920s. Groucho runs the place, assisted by "straight man" Zeppo (who in reality would rather sleep at the front desk than actually help him run it). Chico and Harpo arrive with empty luggage, which they plan to fill by robbing and conning the guests. Margaret Dumont, in the first of her many appearances as a stuffy dowager wooed and tormented by Groucho, is a guest, one of the few paying customers. Her daughter is in love with a struggling young architect, who is working to support himself as a clerk at the hotel, but who has plans for the development of the entire area. Dumont's character wants her daughter to marry a man she believes to be of higher social standing. This man is actually a con man out to steal the dowager's diamond necklace with the help of his conniving partner, played by Kay Francis. As viewers who are familiar with Marx Brothers movies, particularly the early ones, are aware, the plot is rather beside the point. The story and setting are little more than an excuse for the brothers to run rampant in their trademark style. The film is also notable for a very early usage of "production numbers" similar to those used in the 1930s by Busby Berkeley, including techniques which were soon to become standard, such as overhead shots of dancing girls imitating the patterns of a kaleidoscope. It is also notable that all musical sequences in this early “talkie” were recorded “live” on the soundstage as they were shot (not pre-recorded), using an off-camera orchestra. (The main titles are superimposed over a negative image of the "Monkey-Doodle-Do" number, but photographed from an angle that does not appear in the body of the film.)
One of the more famous (or infamous) gags in the film has Groucho giving directions to Chico, who keeps misunderstanding "viaduct" as "why-a-duck", and a lengthy surreal dialogue plays out.
In another sequence, Groucho is the auctioneer for some land of possibly questionable value ("You can have any kind of a home you want to; you can even get stucco! Oh, how you can get stuck-oh!") He has hired Chico to artificially "bid up" during the auction. Misunderstanding the concept, Chico keeps out-bidding everyone (even himself), much to Groucho's exasperation.
Also of note is a scene in which Groucho (and later the necklace thief) perform a speech at a wedding ceremony, and the end result has Harpo, bored, walking off several times with a grim look on his face, instead preferring to fill up on fruit punch (which one might believe has been spiked with alcohol).
Production
Referring to directors Robert Florey and Joseph Santley, Groucho Marx remarked, "One of them didn't understand English and the other didn't understand Harpo."[citation needed] When the Marx Brothers were shown the final cut of the film, they were so appalled they tried to buy the negative back and prevent its release. Paramount wisely resisted — the movie turned out to be a big hit and earned close to two million dollars.
As the film was made in the early days of sound film, to eliminate the sound of the camera motors, the cameras and the cameramen were enclosed in large sound-proof booths with a glass panel to allow filming fronting the booth. Before filming the cameraman was shut inside the booth with packs of ice to prevent condensation forming on the glass panel. The length of filming was therefore limited by endurance of the cameramen within the airtight booths. This practice was common-place in the early years of sound film and is largely responsible for the static camera work of that era.
Every piece of paper in the movie is soaking wet, to keep crackling paper sounds from overloading the primitive recording equipment of the time. In fact, this did not occur to the director until twenty-seven takes had been made (of the "Viaduct" scene) and disposed of because of the noise made by the paper. The director finally got the idea to soak the paper in water; the 28th take of the "Viaduct" scene used soaked paper, and this take was quiet and kept. (Source: The Marx Brothers at the Movies, by Paul D. Zimmerman and Burt Goldblatt.)
The ink that Harpo drank from the hotel lobby inkwell was Coca-Cola, and the telephone mouthpiece that he nibbled was made of chocolate, inventions of Robert Florey.
Cast
Groucho, Chico, and Harpo interacting with each other in the hotel lobby in this scene from The Cocoanuts.
This film is noted as one of the few Irving Berlin vehicles that did not yield any particularly memorable songs. Berlin had actually written one of his eventual greatest hits, "Always", for the stage play. But George S. Kaufman, convinced that it would never be a hit, convinced him to cut it. Reportedly, Kaufman (or Groucho) remarked, "No one will believe a lyric like 'I'll be loving you, always.' How about changing it to, 'I'll be loving you Thursday'?" (The song "Always" was eventually used in a movie--Pride of the Yankees (1942)). Several songs from the stage play were omitted from the film. "Lucky Boy" was sung by the chorus to congratulate Bob on his engagement to Polly. "A Little Bungalow" was a love duet sung by Bob and Polly, and was replaced with "When My Dreams Come True" in the film.
