Love Happy (1949)

By no means vintage Marx, but worth savoring for two reasons: The second is that it was the Brothers' last film (even if Groucho's role is smaller and he meets up only fleetingly with Harpo and has but two short scenes with Chico). The first reason is Groucho's encounter with Marilyn Monroe. There is an unexpected knock on the door of his seedy office while he is in the middle of his sand-in-the-hourglass scene with "Ivan". Groucho opens the door and who should be standing there in a white, off-the-shoulder evening gown? She saunters in. "I want you to help me," she pleads. This is a cue for a typical leering question from Groucho. "Some men are following me," she explains - an amazing camera set-up in which she exits, smiling radiantly, knowingly, right into the left hand side of the screen. Groucho ushers her to the door. She undulates innocently, seductively, teasingly - a superbly contrived performance in which her charismatic attraction is undimmed no matter how many times you run the scene backwards and forwards. Groucho's performance, on the other hand, becomes more and more mechanical. All the same, this is one of the all-time great scenes in film history. Add it to your list of the great hundred, joining McDonald directing Bells of Rosarita and Cagney dancing his elative "Give My Regards to Broadway".Ilona Massey fans will also find Love Happy of uncommon interest. They may bridle at finding their idol stooging for Harpo, but Ilona plays the grand lady as if to the manner born, yet slinking and vamping most appealingly in some of the lowest-cut costumes ever seen in a Hollywood film. Nice to notice Raymond Burr as one of her henchmen, and Melville Cooper traipsing amusingly through his scenes as the harassed manager.Musically, Love Happy provides not one but two piano interludes for Chico. Firstly he partner's Leon Belasco's violin interspersing his usual deft playing with clever wise-cracks. Secondly he does the "Marche Militaire" with some delightful comic business in popping diamonds. Harpo has his usual solo, and Marion Hutton (Betty's one-year-older sister) gets to sing a typical Hutton number, "Mama Wants To Know", which she does most effectively if less stridently than her famous kid sister. (Chico played piano for a more elaborate Hutton production number, "Willow Weep For Me", which was deleted before release. You can still see the cut early on in the film where the clumsily substituted dissolve transition doesn't make visual sense. It was probably thought that a surplus of musical numbers would bore the audience. Unfortunately this leaves Vera-Ellen with very little to do. Newcomer Paul Valentine has more dancing than Vera, who is even robbed of a climactic number as we cut to the sporadically amusing but overlong roof-top scene.)Despite its faults (the script is often, despite the strenuous efforts of all the players, stubbornly unfunny. The comedy scenes and business are usually extended way beyond their capacity to amuse, and one of the "straight" plots - the struggling-to-Broadway-on-a-shoestring-players - has little interest), Love Happy was enormously popular, enjoying a second lease of life when Paramount re-issued their vintage Marx comedies in the mid-fifties.For a fuller account of Harpo's on-screen capers in this film - he wrote the story I would guess primarily to showcase Chico and even more particularly himself (Groucho's role reads like an afterthought) - I warmly recommend "The Marx Brothers: Their World of Comedy" by Allen Eyles, published by Tantivy Press, London, 1966. Oddly, Harpo himself doesn't even mention this film in his autobiography, "Harpo Speaks".

"Love Happy" (1949) was the Marxs brothers final film. Most Marxs brothers fans dismiss it, which is doing the movie a great wrong. Of course, its not up to the standard of their other pictures but there are some really funny moments in the film such: The climatic chase across roofs, the villains trying to find out where the jewels are from Harpo and Groucho's virtual cameo has some good one-liners. The musical numbers are generally good, even if Harpo's serenading of Vera-Ellen with a harp is rather irritating. There is all so a good segment with Harpo stealing food early on in the movie. As you may have noticed, Harpo seems to do a lot of the pictures best bits, and this is mainly because he gets the most screen time. On the whole, a much better film than most people say.

i'm a big marx bros fan and love most of their films, especially the early paramounts and a day at the races and most of the others so thats pretty much all of them i guess. Room service is the weakest of their output as far as i can tell..If I was mainly a Groucho fan, which most of the reviewers of Marx Brothers films seem to be, I'd be giving this movie between 1 & 3 stars. His part is minimal, not very funny and is mainly famous for the scene with Marilyn Monroe in one of her first speaking roles (which lasts a few seconds)...I've just read a review for this film calling it unfunny. Maybe they were watching a different movie? I am completely fed up with reading the nonsense that's been written about this film by people who probably haven't even watched it...I'm a Harpo fan.........I really think he's a true screen genius, the greatest one of his kind. When he's on screen for me its pure magic.This film has a special place in my heart.. The screenplay is based on a Harpo story and he is the main star (originally the film was to be a solo vehicle for him). Chico's and Groucho's appearance was an afterthought..Chico performs well and the scenes when he's with Harpo are great and are the equal to any other marx movie. Harpo doesn't disappoint with so many great hilarious scenes that were mainly devised and performed by himself (he did most of his own stunts)...quite amazing considering he was in his early 60's at the time....The story revolves around a theatre production called 'love happy' and a missing diamond necklace in a sardine tin. The other cast members perform well and the songs are not too cheesy. Chico does a great piano duet with a violinist and harpo plays the harp as beautifully as ever..If I was hoping to see and hear Groucho in his element, i'd be very disappointed with Love Happy. But, on every other level its a classic. So please, give it a chance - its worth it............

Although this movie is not one of the real Marx Brothers classics, it is a must-see for the fans of the biggest humor icons of all time.Harpo is the main character, and he is also the most amusing brother. There are plenty of good Harpo gags, and the chase at the end is quite good.Groucho appears without make-up, which may seem strange, but that is a natural choice since he had become a superstar in TV. Face it, Groucho was at the very top of his career here, and had mostly left the movies behind him. We see so little of him that it is quite obvious that he was a "guest star". "The odds were a thousand to one that I wouldn't make it, but here I was, back on the trail" - isn't that Groucho commenting his own participation?The only brother that really disappointed me was Chico. Either I didn't get his jokes or there weren't any. Pity, since Chico's "foreign man" character was always very funny. His acting is quite OK, he does his character, but he isn't funny... until he does his obligatory piano act (this time with a fiddler landlord).The plot is simple, and is carried pretty well by some quite slimy bad guys - especially the leading bad woman (Ilona Massey). Perfectly fine for a comedy plot.The total impression is somewhat lowered by a confused and even badly cut ending. Well, at least Groucho got the last word, but I guess his participation was an afterthought, so they wrote him into the ending too quickly.It doesn't stand out as one of the better Marx movies, definitely not the one to see first (as one writer had), but it is not without fun moments. While Chico is weak and Groucho too brief, Harpo is just great. Low-budget, but a must see at least for us who have seen all the classics, and anyone who likes Harpo.