Copacabana (1947)

Copacabana showcases the unlikely pairing of Groucho Marx and Carmen Miranda in a musical melange concerning Carmen playing two different singers in the famous nightclub. The gags are fast and funny and the songs tuneful. Andy Russell and Gloria Jean are along to add to the music quotient and Steve Cochran is on hand to oversee the nightclub. The Copa gals are gorgeous and are given the opportunity to show off their personalities a bit. Louis Sobel, Earl Wilson and Abel Green, all real-life collumnists from the era make cameo appearances. This is definitely a forties musical with all the trappings. The musical numbers, choreographed by Larry Cebellos, are fun to watch, and look good in the restored black-and-white print. Purists may prefer a Marx Brothers comedy or a Carmen Miranda Technicolor musical from Fox, but this is a delightful way to spend an hour and a half. For me, the seemingly strange combination of Groucho and Carmen works and becomes a unique musical comedy experience.

Groucho Marx is a little older and a tad slower in "Copacabana", but many of his one-liners still score, and he made me laugh out loud more times than I can remember. Carmen Miranda manages to keep up with him every step of the way, and she is also funny and entertaining. There is a little too much of the sugary-sweet Andy Russell and Gloria Jean (don't get me wrong, Jean is quite lovely, but her overextended fantasy / musical number somewhere in the middle definitely slows the movie down a lot), and maybe not enough of the real Copa Girls themselves, who are simply wonderful: beautiful, radiant and personable. But my absolute favorite moment in this film is a very small one, where Groucho and his then-wife (playing the "Cigarette Girl") exchange eyebrow raises! On the whole, "Copacabana" is about on the level of a lesser Marx Brothers movie (like "Go West" or "The Big Store"), and certainly preferable to their worst one, which is probably "Room Service". **1/2 out of 4.

One would have expected the combination of Carmen Miranda and Groucho Marx to give this production a little more of a spark. What comes out is a tame picture that appears to have been done by numbers. The two stars have some good moments, but those are only few and far between."Copacabana" directed by Alfred E. Green, probably was much better in the planning stage than in the actual filming. The screenplay by Lazlo Vadnay feels flat most of the times. Maybe for the time where the movie was made it made more sense to the people behind the project than what the finished product turned out to be.This is a story about show biz about a pushy would-be-agent, Lionel Q. Deveraux, out on his luck, whose only asset is the talented Carmen Navarro, a Brazilian singer trying to break in the New York scene. The Copacabana night club was the top place in the entertaining world of the city. Lionel tries on a scheme where Carmen does her Brazilian shtick and double as Mlle. Fifi, a French chanteuse.Carmen Miranda was a natural for comedy, this is not one of her best screen appearances though. Even the musical numbers don't add any luster to the film. Groucho Marx does what he was famous for, but without his brothers, he is not that funny, as he proves here. Others in the cast are Steve Cochran, Andy Russel, and Gloria Jean. Three prominent New York newspaper columnists are on hand, Earl Wilson, Louis Sobol and Abe Green to add a bit of nostalgia to that era in which they wrote about who was who in the business.

Copacabana marked Groucho Marx's attempt to go it alone without his brothers and it had mixed results.He co-stars here with Carmen Miranda of the tutti-frutti hat. They are a duo act, but decide they'd be better as a solo with he her agent. Through a comedy of errors, inspired by Groucho's eagerness to show he has more than one client. He convinces Steve Cochran at the Copacabana to sign Carmen and one Madamoiselle Fifi. Fifi is French Moroccan and per her religion and nationality, keeps her face covered with a scarf. And Carmen in her Fifi incarnation speaks with a French accent that's a cheap imitation of Ann Codee.Even though this is only one Marx Brother, it's still an exercise in the absurd. But I find it hard pressed to believe that no one realized that there was only one woman involved. Carmen Miranda is kind of distinctive even with a false accent. Well if everyone could get fooled by Clark Kent putting on a pair of glasses, who am I to question.Groucho gets a comedy number himself, written by Harry Ruby and Bert Kalmar called Go West Young Man. It's strictly comedy patter for Groucho, but Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters made a record of it in 1947 as a straighter version. Groucho guested on Crosby's show several times over the years and I'd be willing to bet Crosby recorded it as a favor to Groucho to plug the film.Carmen Miranda is nothing less than Carmen Miranda. With the way she mangles the English language, Groucho must have thought she was Chico with breasts. But Carmen is always entertaining in any situation.Crooner Andy Russell and a grown up Gloria Jean also contribute musically and to lend authenticity to the proceedings, Louis Sobol and Earl Wilson columnists, and Abel Green of Variety make appearances.Copacabana is dated simply because the era of the nightclub is just a memory. But at least the Copa got immortalized by Barry Manilow and they still have them in the tinsel world of Las Vegas.