Groucho, Harpo, Chico and sometimes Zeppo

I love the Marx Brothers and I have loved this book for years, returning to it time and time again for healthy doses of cheerful disrespect.

Please don't get me wrong; this guy is a fan. However, he's not a my-Marx-Brothers-right-or-wrong kind of fan. This is someone who writes lyrical recountings of what they got right, bewildered and funny analyses of what didn't work (believe me, the Marx Brothers could miss, big time), and throughout, he is as bemused as the rest of us in a resigned, parent-of-teenagers way. You couldn't do much about the Marx Brothers; they just kind of happened to you, I guess.

With biographical backgrounds on each brother (even Gummo), a chronicle of the creation of each of their stage shows and movies, and some show more pretty nifty pictures, you have a painless guide for the uninitiated, and an essential tool for the hard core Marx aficionado. show less

Reading about the Marx Brothers isn't quite as much fun as watching them, but this book does a great job in showing how they came to be an indelible part of movie history. Each brother gets his due--even Zeppo. Think about it...were the Marx Brothers movies ever as good once Zeppo left and someone else had to play the equivalent role? There is lots of great dialog quoted here as well, and it is still hysterical. Why a Duck, after all.

When this book came out in 1973 I was in college, and practically every dorm room had Marx Brothers (and W.C. Fields) posters on the wall. The college showed their movies in a lecture hall on movie nights and books about them were in every bookstore. Students loved the Marx Brothers-probably because of their wild, hysterical, and irreverent attitude and seemingly anti-establishment stance. I saw the Brothers films countless times, still watch them, and had just finished watching the Paramount films (I have always thought they were their best films), when I thought that it has been a very long while since I read anything about the Brothers.
I picked the Adamson book because it had been written at the time they were at their popularity show more peak and I thought it would be the best choice. I had read it way back then, but didn't remember much of it at all. I came away from reading it rather disappointed though.
The book has very little biographical material about the Brothers (which was what I was really looking for) and not really much in the way of movie synopsis's or descriptions. It seems more to me like I was sitting at a table chatting with someone about Marx Brothers anecdotes and bits about their films. The author also tries to inject his own humor into the book, which doesn't really work at all. The best parts of the book are the chapters about their pre-film stage work in vaudeville and on Broadway, probably because the author (young at the time of book publication) had to rely on interviews and histories rather than personal viewing. On the cover of the book it reads "A celebration of the Marx Brothers", and maybe that was the authors intention, not a history of the Brothers or their films.
I will have to dig around for a more recent and updated bio of the Brothers, most of my books about them are older and more about their films alone.

And on a personal note: Adamson calls Zeppo one of the "9 worst things about the Brothers". Look, he was obviously more of the straight Brother, but he WAS a Marx Brother. And as I said above, I consider the Paramount movies with Zeppo much better than any others..."Duck Soup" may be the funniest film ever made (perhaps tied with W.C. Fields "It's a Gift")... show less

Read a long time ago and though I was never a fan, they were a bright group.