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Duck Soup (1933)
7.7/10on IMDb
Released
The best first date with the brothers, because nothing gets in the way. Groucho's Rufus T. Firefly is handed control of bankrupt Freedonia by the wealthy Mrs. Teasdale and promptly talks the country into war, and Leo McCarey keeps the whole thing to about 70 minutes of insults, sight gags and the famous mirror routine, in which Harpo, dressed as Firefly, poses as his reflection.
It flopped at the box office in 1933 and ended the team's Paramount contract, which says more about the mood of the time than the film. It was also Zeppo's last appearance with his brothers, and it entered the National Film Registry in 1990. If this one leaves you cold, the rest probably will too.
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A Night at the Opera (1935)
7.8/10on IMDb
Released
Their first film at MGM, and the most polished thing they ever made. Irving Thalberg signed the brothers once their Paramount contract ended, and many of the gags were tried out on stage before filming, so set pieces like the tiny ship's cabin that fills up with stowaways, maids and workmen land with near-perfect timing.
The trade-off is the studio formula: a romance between a soprano and a chorus singer, played by Kitty Carlisle and Allan Jones, with musical numbers that slow things down. Newcomers who want a proper story with their chaos may even prefer it to Duck Soup. Watch it second either way.
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Horse Feathers (1932)
7.5/10on IMDb
Released
Groucho as Professor Quincy Adams Wagstaff, the new president of Huxley College, is the purest dose of his contempt for authority, and at 68 minutes the film never outstays its welcome. He opens by singing that whatever it is, he's against it, and spends the rest of the picture trying to buy two football ringers and ending up with Chico and Harpo instead.
It is the closest thing in tone to Duck Soup, just looser and sillier, with Thelma Todd game for every bit of nonsense. The college football finale is a gloriously cheap shot at the whole sport. A strong third pick for anyone who liked the anarchy of the top two.
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Animal Crackers (1930)
7.4/10on IMDb
Released
Come here for Captain Spaulding, the African explorer whose welcome-home party at Mrs. Rittenhouse's estate gives Groucho one of his most quotable roles and Margaret Dumont an ideal target. The Kalmar and Ruby song that greets him, "Hooray for Captain Spaulding," is the highlight, though many prints carry a trimmed version.
The catch is that it is a filmed Broadway show, adapted from their 1928 stage hit, and it looks it: long dialogue scenes, a stiff camera and a stolen-painting plot that nobody cares about. Patience pays off, because the wordplay is as dense as anything they recorded. Watch it once you know you love Groucho talking.
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Monkey Business (1931)
7.4/10on IMDb
Released
Their first movie written for the screen rather than carried over from Broadway, and you can feel the freedom. All four brothers play stowaways on a luxury liner, chased by the crew for the entire voyage, and the picture moves from one hiding place to the next with almost no plot to slow it down.
The set piece newcomers remember is the docking, where each brother tries to pass himself off as Maurice Chevalier using one stolen passport. A gangster subplot gives it a little shape, and Thelma Todd is sharp company. It is a rough sketch next to Duck Soup, but a fast, funny one, and a good fifth step.
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A Day at the Races (1937)
7.5/10on IMDb
Released
The last great one, with Groucho as Dr. Hugo Hackenbush, a horse doctor posing as the head of a sanitarium, and Chico, as a racetrack ice cream vendor, swindling him with a racing code book in the "Tutsi-Fruitsi" scene, one of their best double acts. The gags were tested in 140 stage shows before filming, and the race finale was shot at Santa Anita.
It is also long, at well over 100 minutes, and MGM's formula weighs heavier than in A Night at the Opera. Be warned about one sequence: "All God's Chillun Got Rhythm," sung by Ivie Anderson and danced by Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, is a thrilling number that ends with the brothers in a blackface gag, and it plays badly now.
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The Cocoanuts (1929)
6.8/10on IMDb
Released
Their first feature, shot in 1929 at Paramount's Astoria studio in Queens while the brothers were playing Animal Crackers on Broadway at night. Groucho runs a failing Florida hotel during the land boom, and the land auction he stages with Chico is a riot of misunderstanding.
Historically it is a treasure; as an introduction it is a test. Early sound recording makes it creak, the Irving Berlin songs and the young lovers take up a lot of room, and the comedy arrives in bursts rather than a stream. Save it for after the top six, when seeing where it all started will feel like a reward.
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At the Circus (1939)
6.8/10on IMDb
Released
Worth it for one number: Groucho, as the lawyer J. Cheever Loophole, singing Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg's "Lydia, the Tattooed Lady," a comic song that became one of his signatures; he was still performing it at Carnegie Hall in 1972. Margaret Dumont is back as well, which always helps.
Around those highlights is a fairly ordinary rescue-the-circus plot, with too much time spent on the young lovers and their songs. It marks the point where the MGM films start running on formula, so treat it as the first of the lesser pictures: enjoyable if you already love the team, thin if you don't.
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Go West (1940)
6.8/10on IMDb
Released
A Western parody with Groucho as S. Quentin Quale, a con man heading west to look for gold, whom Chico and Harpo cheat out of his money before the three end up in the middle of a feud between two families. That early hustle, with each of them trying to out-swindle the others, is the brothers working at full speed.
After it, the plot about land and rival developers takes over and the jokes come less often. Of the late MGM films it is the liveliest and the best next step once you have run through the top seven and want more.
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Room Service (1938)
6.6/10on IMDb
Released
The odd one out: a one-off at RKO, adapted from John Murray and Allan Boretz's stage farce rather than built around the brothers. Groucho plays Gordon Miller, a broke Broadway producer who has sunk every dime into his new play and is hiding his cast in a hotel while he hunts for a backer.
The play was not written for them, and it shows. The brothers squeeze into roles that fit like borrowed suits, and Harpo and Chico have far less room for their usual routines. Watch it as a curiosity, not as a sample of what makes them great, and not before the films above.
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The Big Store (1941)
6.5/10on IMDb
Released
Their last MGM film, and the place where the studio formula finally swamps them. Groucho is detective Wolf J. Flywheel, hired to protect a singer who has inherited a department store from its crooked manager, and Margaret Dumont returns as the client who hires him.
There are flashes of the old spark, but the picture belongs as much to Tony Martin, whose "Tenement Symphony" is a big, earnest ballad that stops the comedy dead. For completists only; first-timers lose nothing by skipping it.
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A Night in Casablanca (1946)
6.9/10on IMDb
Released
Five years after The Big Store, the brothers reunited for an independent production released by United Artists, with Groucho as Ronald Kornblow, the new manager of a luxury hotel in postwar Casablanca where a ring of Nazis is trying to recover stolen treasure.
It is better than its reputation, with Harpo especially lively, though age shows in everyone's timing and the plot leans on thriller machinery. A pleasant late visit for fans; a confusing first impression for anyone else.
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Love Happy (1949)
5.8/10on IMDb
Released
Their final film together is really a Harpo picture, built on his own story idea, with Groucho as a detective named Grunion and Chico along for the ride. The plot follows young Broadway hopefuls who get tangled up with gangsters over a tin of sardines hiding the Romanoff diamonds.
Harpo's silent clowning still charms, and a very young Marilyn Monroe turns up briefly as Grunion's client. But a film shaped around one brother misses the team chemistry that is the whole point of watching them. Leave it for last, as a footnote rather than a farewell.
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