Documentary review – “Inside the Marx Brothers” (1999) ***1/2

Enjoyable hour-long doco on the famous brothers. These films are always fun, done in a similar style – you don’t hear many new stories or discover much new information, but the vision is terrific: glimpses of the Harpo’s appearance in a silent film, home movies (a tanned Harpo, Groucho mucking around with his alcoholic wife), Harpo playing the harp in Soviet Russia, that terrific moment of Chico playing “Waltzing Matilda” to Aussie servicemen (used in Newsfront), Groucho and Carole Landis performing for the Marines, Harpo performing on stage in 1945, the pilot for the TV version of You Bet Your Life, Grouch on television with Tallulah Bankhead and Ethel Barrymore, a taped interview with Harpo, the final television pilot with the three brothers. Wonderful. Groucho married three alcoholics – c’mon, Groucho, to marry one may be unfortunate, to marry two looks like carelessness.