''Monkey Business'' is a 1931 American pre-Code

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

. It is the third of the

Marx Brothers The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act that was successful in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in motion pictures from 1905 to 1949. Five of the Marx Brothers' thirteen feature films were selected by the American Film Institute (AFI) ...

' released movies (

Groucho Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx (; October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977) was an American comedian, actor, writer, stage, film, radio, singer, television star and vaudeville performer. He is generally considered to have been a master of quick wit an ...

, Harpo,

Chico Chico () means ''small'', ''boy'' or ''child'' in the Spanish language. It is also the nickname for Francisco in the Portuguese language (). Chico may refer to: Places *Chico, California, a city *Chico, Montana, an unincorporated community *Chic ...

and Zeppo), and the first with an original screenplay rather than an adaptation of one of their Broadway shows. The film also features

Thelma Todd Thelma Alice Todd (July 29, 1906 – December 16, 1935) was an American actress and businesswoman who carried the nicknames "The Ice Cream Blonde" and "Hot Toddy". Appearing in about 120 feature films and shorts between 1926 and 1935, she ...

, Harry Woods and Ruth Hall. It is directed by

Norman Z. McLeod Norman Zenos McLeod (September 20, 1898 – January 27, 1964) was an American film director, screenwriter and cartoonist. McLeod's most acclaimed work was made in collaboration with major comic performers of the 1930s, and included such films as ...

with screenplay by S. J. Perelman and

Will B. Johnstone William Breuninger Johnstone (13 March 1881 – 4 February 1944) was an American writer, cartoonist, and lyricist. His writing credits include the Marx Brothers's Broadway revue ''I'll Say She Is'' and, with S.J. Perelman, their first two Hol ...

. Much of the story takes place on an ocean liner crossing the Atlantic Ocean.

Plot

On board an

ocean liner An ocean liner is a passenger ship primarily used as a form of transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (such as for pleasure cruises or as hospital ships). Ca ...

, four stowaways hide in barrels in the ship's cargo hold. After singing " Sweet Adeline", they are discovered. The naval officers spend the rest of the voyage chasing and attempting to arrest the stowaways. Chico and Harpo disrupt a chess game and confiscate the board, taking it into the stateroom of racketeer Big Joe Helton and his daughter Mary, during a confrontation with rival gangster Alky Briggs. After they scare off Briggs, Big Joe hires Chico and Harpo to be his bodyguards. Groucho dances and romances with Briggs' wife, Lucille, until he is caught and threatened by Briggs. Groucho's audacity convinces Briggs to hire him and Zeppo. Briggs gives them loaded guns, which they immediately ditch in a bucket of water. Groucho offers his services to Big Joe, who says he will think it over. As the ocean liner is about to dock in the United States, the stowaways realize that to get off the boat they must steal passports and fool customs officials. Zeppo steals the passport of movie star

Maurice Chevalier Maurice Auguste Chevalier (; 12 September 1888 – 1 January 1972) was a French singer, actor and entertainer. He is perhaps best known for his signature songs, including " Livin' In The Sunlight", " Valentine", "Louise", " Mimi", and "Thank Hea ...

, and demonstrates his ability to mimic Chevalier's singing. The four butt in line at customs and Zeppo impersonates Chevalier. He is unsuccessful, however, and passes the passport to Chico, Groucho and Harpo, who each attempt unconvincing portrayals of Chevalier singing the same song, with Harpo resorting to a phonograph strapped on his back with an actual record of Chevalier singing. The four escape the authorities after hiding under a covered load of baggage. Big Joe and his daughter, whom Zeppo met and romanced on board, host a party at which Groucho makes announcements, Chico plays piano and Harpo plays harp. Briggs' men kidnap Big Joe's daughter and take her to an old barn. The former stowaways follow and a fight ensues. The daughter is rescued, and Groucho attempts to find a needle in a haystack. Except in the credits and in the screenplay, the Marx Brothers' characters have no names in this film. They are referred to simply as "the stowaways".

Cast

Production

Writers S. J. Perelman and

were excited to be working with the Marx Brothers. However, producer

Herman J. Mankiewicz Herman Jacob Mankiewicz (; November 7, 1897 – March 5, 1953) was an American screenwriter who, with Orson Welles, wrote the screenplay for ''Citizen Kane'' (1941). Both Mankiewicz and Welles would go on to receive the Academy Award for Best Or ...

advised them to lower their expectations. He called the brothers "mercurial, devious, and ungrateful ... I hate to depress you, but you'll rue the day you ever took the assignment. This is an ordeal by fire, make sure you wear asbestos pants." Of the original script delivered by Perelman and Johnstone, Groucho said, "It stinks." He considered Perelman too intellectual to write for the Marx Brothers manic comic style. The final script was the result of five months of work by the brothers, gag writers, director Norman Z. MacLeod and Mankiewicz. Mankiewicz, Ben (July 11, 2018) Intro to the

Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie channel, movie-oriented pay television, pay-TV television network, network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasti ...

presentation of the film MacLeod later said that up to 12 writers worked on the film, and that

Eddie Cantor Eddie Cantor (born Isidore Itzkowitz; January 31, 1892 – October 10, 1964) was an American comedian, actor, dancer, singer, songwriter, film producer, screenwriter and author. Familiar to Broadway, radio, movie, and early television audiences, ...

contributed when he visited the set during shooting. Typical for many Marx Brothers films, production censors demanded changes in some lines with sexual innuendo. ''Monkey Business'' was

banned A ban is a formal or informal prohibition of something. Bans are formed for the prohibition of activities within a certain political territory. Some bans in commerce are referred to as embargoes. ''Ban'' is also used as a verb similar in meaning ...

in Ireland because censors feared it would encourage anarchic tendencies. In Ireland, the film was passed on January 8, 1932, with '16 unspecified cuts to script', including characters falling over each other in a dance scene. This is the first Marx Brothers film not to feature Margaret Dumont: this time their female foil is

comedian A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing Amusement is the state of experiencing humorous and entertaining events or situations while the person or a ...

, who would also star in the Marx Brothers' next film, '' Horse Feathers''. A few years later, in December 1935, Todd died in unexplained circumstances. A line of dialogue in ''Monkey Business'' seems to foreshadow Todd's death. Alone with Todd in her cabin, Groucho quips: "You're a woman who's been getting nothing but dirty breaks. Well, we can clean and tighten your brakes, but you'll have to stay in the garage all night." In 1935, Todd died in her car inside a garage, apparently from accidental

carbon monoxide Carbon monoxide (chemical formula CO) is a colorless, poisonous, odorless, tasteless, flammable gas that is slightly less dense than air. Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom connected by a triple bond. It is the simple ...

poisoning. Early on in ''Monkey Business'', the Brothers—playing stowaways concealed in barrels—harmonize unseen while performing the popular song " Sweet Adeline". It is a matter of debate whether Harpo joins in with the singing. (One of the ship's crew asserts to the captain that he knows there are four stowaways because he can hear them singing "Sweet Adeline".) If so, it would be one of only a few times Harpo used speech on screen, as opposed to other vocalizations such as whistling or sneezing. At least one other possible on-screen utterance occurs in the film '' A Day at the Races'' (1937), in which Groucho, Chico, and Harpo are heard singing " Down by the Old Mill Stream" in three-part harmony. This was the first Marx film to be written specifically for film, and the first shot in

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

. Their first two films were filmed at Paramount Pictures'

Astoria Studios The Kaufman Astoria Studios is a film studio located in the Astoria section of the New York City borough of Queens. The studio was constructed for Famous Players-Lasky in 1920, since it was close to Manhattan's Broadway theater district. The p ...

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. The Marx Brothers' real life father ( Sam "Frenchie" Marx) is briefly seen in a

cameo appearance A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly eit ...

, sitting on top of luggage behind the Brothers on the pier as they wave to the First Mate upon alighting. Sam Marx was 72 at the time, and the appearance was his film debut. He was paid $12.50 each day for two days' work. ''Monkey Business'' was Norman MacLeod's solo directorial debut.

Songs

One of the sequences in this film involves the four brothers attempting to get off the ship using a

passport A passport is an official travel document issued by a government that contains a person's identity. A person with a passport can travel to and from foreign countries more easily and access consular assistance. A passport certifies the personal ...

stolen from famous singer (and fellow

Paramount Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to: Entertainment and music companies * Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. The following busin ...

star)

. Each brother impersonates Chevalier (complete with straw hat) and sings " You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me" ("If the nightingales could sing like you ...") in turn. This poses a problem for the mute Harpo, who mimes to a hidden

phonograph A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

tied to his back which plays the Chevalier recording. When the turntable slows down and he has to rewind it, the ruse is uncovered. Earlier, when Zeppo first meets gangster Joe Helton's daughter Mary on the promenade of the ocean liner, "Just One More Chance" by Arthur Johnston and Sam Coslow can be heard playing in the background. Chico performs two pieces on the piano, the "Pizzicato" from '' Sylvia'' by

Léo Delibes Clément Philibert Léo Delibes (; 21 February 1836 – 16 January 1891) was a French Romantic composer, best known for his ballets and operas. His works include the ballets ''Coppélia'' (1870) and '' Sylvia'' (1876) and the opera ''Lakm� ...

, which then morphs into the song "When I Take My Sugar to Tea", written by

Sammy Fain Sammy Fain (born Samuel E. Feinberg; June 17, 1902 – December 6, 1989) was an American composer of popular music. In the 1920s and early 1930s, he contributed numerous songs that form part of The Great American Songbook, and to Broadway theatre. ...

, Irving Kahal, and

Pierre Norman Pierre Norman, born Joseph P. Connor (November 16, 1895 – March 31, 1952), was an American clergyman, songwriter, and composer. He was born in Kingston, Pennsylvania, United States, and died in Teaneck, New Jersey. As a songwriter he is mos ...

. Harpo performs "I'm Daffy over You" by Sol Violinsky and Chico. The dance band at Mary's debut party is playing the song "Ho Hum!" when the Marx Brothers arrive.

Musical numbers

*" Sweet Adeline", music by Harry Armstrong, lyrics by Richard Gerard * "Just One More Chance", by Arthur Johnston and Sam Coslow *" You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me", music and lyrics by Irving Kahal,

and

*"Pizzicato" from '' Sylvia'' by

, played on the piano by Chico *"When I Take My Sugar to Tea" by Sammy Fain, Irving Kahal, and Pierre Norman *"

O Sole Mio "O sole mio" () is a well-known Neapolitan song written in 1898. Its Neapolitan language lyrics were written by Giovanni Capurro and the music was composed by Eduardo di Capua (1865–1917) and Alfredo Mazzucchi (1878–1972).. The title transla ...

" sung by

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

singer Maxine Castle with harp accompaniment by Harpo; music by

Eduardo di Capua Eduardo Di Capua (May 12, 1865 – October 3, 1917) was a Naples, Neapolitan composer, singer and songwriter. Biography He was born in Naples in 1865. He is best known for the song "'O sole mio, 'O Sole mio". In 1897, di Capua bought a collect ...

, lyrics by

Giovanni Capurro Giovanni Capurro (February 5, 1859 – January 18, 1920) was an Italian poet, best remembered today as the co-creator, with singer/composer Eduardo Di Capua, of the world famous song, "'O Sole mio". Capurro was born in Naples. He made his li ...

*"I'm Daffy Over You" by Chico Marx and Sol Violinsky (Solly Ginsberg)

Reception and impact

''Monkey Business'' was a critical and box office success, and is considered one of the Marx Brothers' best and funniest films.Griffin, Danel
Movie Review: ''Monkey Business''
. ''Film as Art''.

University of Alaska Southeast The University of Alaska Southeast (UA Southeast, Alaska Southeast, or UAS) is a public university with its main campus in Juneau, Alaska and extended campuses in Sitka and Ketchikan. It is part of the University of Alaska System and was estab ...

. Retrieved on April 6, 2008. Contemporary reviews were positive.

Mordaunt Hall Mordaunt Hall (1 November 1878 – 2 July 1973) was the first regularly assigned motion picture critic for ''The New York Times'', working from October 1924 to September 1934.The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' wrote, "Whether it is really as funny as '

Animal Crackers An animal cracker is a particular type of cracker, baked in the shape of an animal, usually an animal either at a zoo or a circus, such as a lion, a tiger, a bear, or an elephant. The most common variety is light-colored and slightly sweet, but ...

' is a matter of opinion. Suffice it to say that few persons will be able to go to the Rivoli and keep a straight face." '' Varietys review began, "The usual Marx madhouse and plenty of laughs sprouting from a plot structure resembling one of those California bungalows which sprout up overnight." ''

Film Daily ''The Film Daily'' was a daily publication that existed from 1918 to 1970 in the United States. It was the first daily newspaper published solely for the film industry. It covered the latest trade news, film reviews, financial updates, informatio ...

'' agreed that the plot was "flimsy", but also found the film "crammed all the way with laughs and there's never a dead spot." John Mosher of ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' thought the film was "the best this family has given us." The film was evidently based on two routines the Marx Brothers did during their early days in vaudeville (''Home Again'' and ''Mr. Green's Reception''), along with a story idea from one of Groucho's friends, Bert Granet, called ''The Seas Are Wet''. The passport scene is a reworking of a stage sketch in which the brothers burst into a theatrical agent's office auditioning an impersonation of a current big star. It appeared in their stage shows '' On the Mezzanine Floor'' and '' I'll Say She Is'' (1924). This skit was also done by the Marxes in the Paramount promotional film '' The House That Shadows Built'' (1931). The concept of the Marx Brothers being stowaways on a ship would be repeated in an episode of their radio series ''

Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel ''Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel'' is a situation comedy radio show starring two of the Marx Brothers, Groucho and his older brother Chico Marx, and written primarily by Nat Perrin and Arthur Sheekman. The series was originally broadcast in the ...

'' (1933) in the episode "The False Roderick", and would also be recycled in their MGM film '' A Night at the Opera'' (1935). The essence of Groucho's joke, "Sure, I'm a doctor—where's the horse?" would serve as an integral plot element for their film ''A Day at the Races'' (1937). Also repeated in that later film would be the uproarious medical examination that Harpo and Chico give opera singer Madame Swempski ( Cecil Cunningham).

Awards and honors

* 2000: AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs – #73

Sequel

According to

Robert Osborne Robert Jolin Osborne (; May 3, 1932 – March 6, 2017) was an American film historian, television presenter, author, actor and the primary host for more than 20 years of the cable channel Turner Classic Movies (TCM). Prior to hosting at TCM, Os ...

, a sequel was planned for this film that would continue the gangster theme. During the development of that film, aviator

Charles Lindbergh Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, military officer, author, inventor, and activist. On May 20–21, 1927, Lindbergh made the first nonstop flight from New York City to Paris, a distance o ...

's son was kidnapped and killed by what was believed to be gangsters. The writers quickly shifted gears and instead based the next film, '' Horse Feathers'', very loosely on the Marx Brothers' earlier stage show ''Fun in Hi Skule''.

References

External links

* * * *
The Marx Brothers Council Podcast discussing "Monkey Business"
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Monkey Business 1931 films 1931 comedy films American comedy films American gangster films American black-and-white films 1930s English-language films Films directed by Norman Z. McLeod Marx Brothers (film series) Paramount Pictures films Films set on ships Films produced by Herman J. Mankiewicz Cultural depictions of Maurice Chevalier 1930s American films