For their final film, the Marx Brothers are featured in Love Happy which while it has some flashes of brilliance, does not come any kind of close to what they were doing in the Thirties. As a sign of the times. Groucho disdains the false mustache and wig and grows his own upper lip coverage, making him look more like the Groucho Marx I first knew, as the host of You Bet Your Life.
In fact Groucho is thrown into this film almost as an after thought. Until the end, he does not interact at all with Chico and Harpo. He narrates and plays detective Sam Grunion who is on the trail of a valuable diamond necklace that spider woman like villainess Ilona Massey has smuggled into the country in a specially marked can of sardines worth a Maltese Cross.
But the plans go up the spout as Harpo in his capacity as shoplifter, takes all kinds of food from the delicatessen that the sardines were delivered to. The food is for the cast members of a show that is struggling. Dancing ingénue Vera-Ellen gets the valuable sardines though she doesn't know it and the necklace goes on quite an adventure.
Harpo gets the best moments for the brothers in Love Happy. His pantomime skills are at their very best here. I do love that telephone call to Chico when Ilona Massey and henchmen kidnap him and later on when he plays charades with Chico trying to give him a message of danger. Unfortunately it's not enough to carry the film by itself.
Marion Hutton is the singer in the cast and she's Betty's younger sister and former vocalist with Glenn Miller. She had a fine voice, but her style was too similar to her sister and she never really established any individuality after leaving the Miller Orchestra.
Compared to their work for Paramount and MGM in the previous decade, Love Happy just doesn't hit the mark.
In fact Groucho is thrown into this film almost as an after thought. Until the end, he does not interact at all with Chico and Harpo. He narrates and plays detective Sam Grunion who is on the trail of a valuable diamond necklace that spider woman like villainess Ilona Massey has smuggled into the country in a specially marked can of sardines worth a Maltese Cross.
But the plans go up the spout as Harpo in his capacity as shoplifter, takes all kinds of food from the delicatessen that the sardines were delivered to. The food is for the cast members of a show that is struggling. Dancing ingénue Vera-Ellen gets the valuable sardines though she doesn't know it and the necklace goes on quite an adventure.
Harpo gets the best moments for the brothers in Love Happy. His pantomime skills are at their very best here. I do love that telephone call to Chico when Ilona Massey and henchmen kidnap him and later on when he plays charades with Chico trying to give him a message of danger. Unfortunately it's not enough to carry the film by itself.
Marion Hutton is the singer in the cast and she's Betty's younger sister and former vocalist with Glenn Miller. She had a fine voice, but her style was too similar to her sister and she never really established any individuality after leaving the Miller Orchestra.
Compared to their work for Paramount and MGM in the previous decade, Love Happy just doesn't hit the mark.