The Marx Brothers must have blown away audiences with their first screen vehicle, this talkie. I know they were stage stars but millions would have been unfamiliar with them – then they come barrelling on to the screen, with Groucho wise-cracking away, clearly a star on his own… then the electric duo of Harpo and Chico explode on to the screen as well. Harpo is particularly strong in this one, ripping up letters and molesting women (his character would be softened later on). Zeppo is in this one, as a hotel clerk – he joins in a few of the routines but you barely notice him.The actual vehicle itself is a bit mouldy but effective. It feels like not that many changes were made from the original stage show, so you get an impression of what sort of shows they liked on Broadway in the 20s. And The Cocoanuts would have been a fun show – the setting (the real estate boom in Florida) is just as pertinent today, there are lots of chorus girls and songs, the Marx Brothers come on and do their thing, there is a plot involving a stolen necklace involving “straight” actors, Margaret Dumont appears, Harpo plays on the harp and Chico the piano. It helps that George Kaufman wrote the book and Irving Berlin did the score (some of the songs are really good, like the oft-repeated romantic ballad 'When My Dreams Come True').
Certainly there are flaws: the stolen necklace plot isn’t very interesting, the male romantic lead (Oscar Shaw) is too old and smarmy, the direction has that early-sound-film tentativeness (sometimes during the production numbers it feels as though they didn’t know where to put the camera and there is a reluctance to use close ups), the story doesn’t build it just ends. But there are classic lines and the lead trio are terrific.
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