In 1935 Irving Thalberg had signed Groucho, Chico, and Harpo to a contract to make one picture a year for MGM. The Marxes agreed to this because Thalberg admired their stage and Paramount work, and agreed to let them and their script writers work out the material on stage. So scenes from NIGHT AT THE OPERA and DAY AT THE RACES were tried out before live audiences, and this helped the finished products to be successful. But Thalberg died suddenly. This was bad for the Marx Brothers, because Louis B. Mayer had no sympathy with comedians (he helped send the career of Buster Keaton into the toilet). Mayer was upset that the brothers had gotten a percentage of the gross due to their contract negotiations. He did not care for allowing the boys out on the road to test material. This explains the general mediocrity of AT THE CIRCUS, GO WEST, and THE BIG STORE. But in 1938 Mayer allowed RKO to have the loan of the boys for a film: ROOM SERVICE. Whatever the opinion viewers have of ROOM SERVICE, most feel it is superior to the three other late MGM films of 1939 - 41.
ROOM SERVICE was based on a successful stage farce (which is still revived from time to time). Gordon Miller is a fast-talking theater producer, who fits Groucho's string of con men turned professionals from Captain Spaulding the explorer to Rufus Firefly the Dictator of Freedonia to Dr. Hugo Z. Hackenbush the Veterinarian turned spa doctor. Only his name is ordinary in comparison to these (except Spaulding, perhaps). But Gordon Miller sounds like a theater producer (like Jed Harris or Flo Ziegfeld). His two associates Harry Binnel (turned into Binnelli) and Faker Englund generally fit Chico and Harpo, with Harpo's lines going to Chico.
Harpo does get some fun moments in the film - when he chases a live turkey through the hotel suite, and when he fakes a laryngitis attack by squeezing a Kewpie doll to sound like he is saying "Ahh" Chico shows a sentimental streak when he insists on moving a moose head to the hotel suite (he killed the moose with his bare hands). Later he wishes he could mount the head of the hotel manager Wagner (Donald MacBride) on the wall beside his moose.
Groucho has his hands full trying to keep Frank Albertson (the playwright) under control, trying to put off a debt collector (Philip Loeb) from the "We Never Sleep" Collection agency from repossessing Albertson's typewriter, trying to complete a meeting with the representative of a potential secret backer, and trying to hide all of his cast and crew in the empty hotel rooms.
As for the supporting players, Halton gives a good performance as a high strung doctor, upset by his treatment by the Marxes in examining Harpo, but who is honest enough to tell off MacBride for ruining a perfectly legitimate business deal with the backer. MacBride (who was in the stage production on Broadway - a performance that led to his successful movie career) seems too blustery to some people, but he was not yet used to movie acting but to stage acting. Probably, on stage, his bluster seemed more natural than this. Even so it is very funny business (one wishes he was allowed to explode without the minced oaths, though "Jumping Butterballs" is odd enough). In the concluding twenty minutes of the film he does yeoman service helping the brothers and Albertson make the conclusion possibly the funniest of the last six films - maybe as good a conclusion as that of DUCK SOUP for that matter.
Oddly the two female roles were being handled by Anne Miller and Lucille Ball, both skilled in comedy. Neither really has much to do. Miller does show a clear understanding of a ridiculous situation at the end of the film.
Ball has nothing to do. In 1938 nobody knew she would be the most famous comedienne in American history. Ball does have one silent moment worth pondering - when she is seen at the conclusion of the play "Hail and Farewell" wearing a costume that makes her look like she's from Bohemia, and not some American mining town. One would like to know more about that situation in the original play within the play.
Despite my recognition of some negative views on ROOM SERVICE (mostly due to it being a too-confining farce) I liked the film. The last twenty minutes, when (to stop MacBride from closing the production on opening night) Albertson fakes taking poison are hysterical. Groucho, Chico, and Harpo "assist" MacBride in trying to prevent the poison from taking effect (at one point Harpo starts pouring the poison down Albertson's throat). When Albertson finally "dies", MacBride (sentimental businessman that he is) wishes that the suicide happened at a rival hotel. MacBride and Groucho discuss how to hide the body (Groucho suggests dropping the body in the theater, suggesting the playwright committed suicide upon seeing the production). Groucho, Chico, and MacBride sing "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" to the dead Albertson. And then MacBride finds Harpo has "committed suicide" after writing a suicide note on the hotel stationary pinned to him on his chest, blaming MacBride for both his and Albertson's deaths.
The fact is the Marxes (even in the two war films) never handled death so totally in a film and they (with MacBride) made it hysterically funny. ROOM SERVICE may not make all Marx fans favorite film list, but I think that last twenty minutes make it definitely worth while.
ROOM SERVICE was based on a successful stage farce (which is still revived from time to time). Gordon Miller is a fast-talking theater producer, who fits Groucho's string of con men turned professionals from Captain Spaulding the explorer to Rufus Firefly the Dictator of Freedonia to Dr. Hugo Z. Hackenbush the Veterinarian turned spa doctor. Only his name is ordinary in comparison to these (except Spaulding, perhaps). But Gordon Miller sounds like a theater producer (like Jed Harris or Flo Ziegfeld). His two associates Harry Binnel (turned into Binnelli) and Faker Englund generally fit Chico and Harpo, with Harpo's lines going to Chico.
Harpo does get some fun moments in the film - when he chases a live turkey through the hotel suite, and when he fakes a laryngitis attack by squeezing a Kewpie doll to sound like he is saying "Ahh" Chico shows a sentimental streak when he insists on moving a moose head to the hotel suite (he killed the moose with his bare hands). Later he wishes he could mount the head of the hotel manager Wagner (Donald MacBride) on the wall beside his moose.
Groucho has his hands full trying to keep Frank Albertson (the playwright) under control, trying to put off a debt collector (Philip Loeb) from the "We Never Sleep" Collection agency from repossessing Albertson's typewriter, trying to complete a meeting with the representative of a potential secret backer, and trying to hide all of his cast and crew in the empty hotel rooms.
As for the supporting players, Halton gives a good performance as a high strung doctor, upset by his treatment by the Marxes in examining Harpo, but who is honest enough to tell off MacBride for ruining a perfectly legitimate business deal with the backer. MacBride (who was in the stage production on Broadway - a performance that led to his successful movie career) seems too blustery to some people, but he was not yet used to movie acting but to stage acting. Probably, on stage, his bluster seemed more natural than this. Even so it is very funny business (one wishes he was allowed to explode without the minced oaths, though "Jumping Butterballs" is odd enough). In the concluding twenty minutes of the film he does yeoman service helping the brothers and Albertson make the conclusion possibly the funniest of the last six films - maybe as good a conclusion as that of DUCK SOUP for that matter.
Oddly the two female roles were being handled by Anne Miller and Lucille Ball, both skilled in comedy. Neither really has much to do. Miller does show a clear understanding of a ridiculous situation at the end of the film.
Ball has nothing to do. In 1938 nobody knew she would be the most famous comedienne in American history. Ball does have one silent moment worth pondering - when she is seen at the conclusion of the play "Hail and Farewell" wearing a costume that makes her look like she's from Bohemia, and not some American mining town. One would like to know more about that situation in the original play within the play.
Despite my recognition of some negative views on ROOM SERVICE (mostly due to it being a too-confining farce) I liked the film. The last twenty minutes, when (to stop MacBride from closing the production on opening night) Albertson fakes taking poison are hysterical. Groucho, Chico, and Harpo "assist" MacBride in trying to prevent the poison from taking effect (at one point Harpo starts pouring the poison down Albertson's throat). When Albertson finally "dies", MacBride (sentimental businessman that he is) wishes that the suicide happened at a rival hotel. MacBride and Groucho discuss how to hide the body (Groucho suggests dropping the body in the theater, suggesting the playwright committed suicide upon seeing the production). Groucho, Chico, and MacBride sing "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" to the dead Albertson. And then MacBride finds Harpo has "committed suicide" after writing a suicide note on the hotel stationary pinned to him on his chest, blaming MacBride for both his and Albertson's deaths.
The fact is the Marxes (even in the two war films) never handled death so totally in a film and they (with MacBride) made it hysterically funny. ROOM SERVICE may not make all Marx fans favorite film list, but I think that last twenty minutes make it definitely worth while.