The Marx Brothers as Social Critics: Satire and Comic Nihilism in Their FilmsThe Marx Brothers' films are packed with slapstick and obvious jokes, gags, puns, pratfalls, and mimicry. But beneath the laughs is a serious and biting condemnation of American culture. This book examines historical events, political practices, economic conditions, manners and customs, literary subjects, and popular entertainment as satirized in the films and considers the ways in which the films were relevant in their era and remain so today. |
Contents
1 | |
5 | |
The Film Career | 15 |
3 The Writers | 27 |
4 You Can Get Stucco | 40 |
5 Is It Swordfish? | 54 |
6 The SevenCent Nickel | 63 |
7 A Job in the Mint | 72 |
13 Three Hardboiled Eggs | 119 |
14 Ice Water in 318 | 127 |
15 The Main Hungerdunger | 136 |
16 Grand Slam | 145 |
17 A Very Strange Interlude | 152 |
18 A Brace of Woodpeckers | 164 |
19 Upside Down | 171 |
20 Whim Wham | 174 |
8 A Standing Army | 80 |
9 Dear Old Ivy | 89 |
10 A Coed with Two Pair of Pants | 97 |
11 The Whole Wig | 102 |
12 Its Toughon My Suspenders | 113 |
Appendix | 185 |
Chapter Notes | 189 |
199 | |
209 | |
Other editions - View all
The Marx Brothers as Social Critics: Satire and Comic Nihilism in Their Films Martin A. Gardner No preview available - 2009 |
Common terms and phrases
American Animal Crackers appears Arthur Marx attack auction audience bellhops Broadway Broth Captain Spaulding characters Chico and Harpo Chico tells Circus Cocoanuts comedy comic created cultural dance Depression dialogue dressed Duck Soup entertainment expressed Eyles Florida football Freedonia going Grou Groucho asks Groucho Marx Groucho tells Harpo Harpo and Chico Helton Hollywood Horse Feathers humor Ibid Interlude joke Kaufman and Ryskind language Lassparri laugh Margaret Dumont marriage Marx Brothers films Marx Papers ment Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Monkey Business movie Nacogdoches Night in Casablanca offers Opera Paramount Perelman performance piano play plot political popular president produced Races radio reference role romantic love S. J. Perelman satire says scene script sexual Sheekman simply social criticism society song speakeasy speech stage story stowaways studio suggests technique Thalberg theatre there’s thought trying usual vaudeville verbal visual wears writers wrote York Zeppo