The Cocoanuts

"Why A Duck?" @ marx-brothers.org

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The pages under www.marx-brothers.org/whyaduck/ were originally created by Frank Bland for his site www.whyaduck.com.

Poster art advertising the film

Paramount Pictures - 1929

Written by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind. Directed by Joseph Santley and Robert Florey. Produced by Sam Harris and Monta Bell. Supporting Cast: Oscar Shaw, Mary Eaton, Cyril Ring, Kay Francis, Margaret Dumont, and Basil Raysdael.

This was the Marx Brothers' first movie (if you don't count "Humor Risk," a silent two-reeler that was never released -- by all accounts for good reason) and was one of the earliest sound films ever made (pay attention to scenes where Groucho is showing maps of Florida real estate, and you will notice the maps are soaking wet to avoid overdriving the recording equipment). Groucho plays Mr. Hammer, a Florida hotel owner desperately trying to unload real estate on unsuspecting buyers. Zeppo is the desk clerk (Jamison), Chico is an "idle roomer" and Harpo is his "silent partner." Hammer takes on Chico as his shill to try to up the price of his questionable real estate (prompting the famous Why A Duck? scene), and various gueststry to swindle one another for various reasons.

This film also features music written by Irving Berlin, though not his best material by a long shot. The insipid love song, "When My Dream Comes True," drones on relentlessly through the entire film, and how many of you remember "The Monkey Doodle Doo?" An interesting side note regarding the forgettable music in The Cocoanuts: For years, Groucho teased Irving Berlin about not having been able to give them even one hit song for the show. In his defense, Irving Berlin replied that he had taken a song to Sam Harris and played it for him. Harris listened carefully and said the song would never be a hit. That song was "Always," one of Berlin's biggest hit songs.

Thanks to Flapjack for supplying the graphic for this page.


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The pages under www.marx-brothers.org/whyaduck were originally created by Frank Bland for his site www.whyaduck.com. Frank did kindly give me permission to use the contents of his site.

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