SAM WOOD

Bil’s rating (out of 5):  BBBBB

USA, 1935.  Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.  Screenplay by George S. Kaufman, Morrie Ryskind, from a story by James Kevin McGuinness.  Cinematography by Merritt B. Gerstad.  Produced by Irving Thalberg.  Music by Herbert Stothart.  Production Design by Cedric Gibbons.  Costume Design by Dolly Tree.  Film Editing by William LeVanway.  

More Madcap Marxist Madness!  Groucho plays a theatrical impresario who is fired from his production office and decides to go into business for himself. Causing mayhem on yet another cruise liner, he gets in the way of a producer’s plans to star a beautiful young singer (Kitty Carlisle) and a famous tenor (Walter Woolf King) in a grand production in New York. Upon arrival in the Big Apple, Groucho and his brothers do their best to keep the male star out of the show in order to make sure that Carlisle’s sweet boyfriend (Allan Jones) gets the part instead, but of course their method of accomplishing this is scattered at best. Brilliant staging, some of the most inventive gags that the group ever came out with (including the famous crowded stateroom scene) and a terrific performance by Groucho in the lead (who never could be beat) make for a marvelous night at the movies.