OK....Is Harpo singing Sweet Adeline or not?? You decide! In the opening scene, the First Officer says that here are FOUR stowaways..because they are singing Sweet Adeline! And the 1931 soundtrack is JUST crummy enuff that you cant tell wether there are three...or four! The legend is now growing that here is,in fact, FOUR singers...with the strangulated tenor left at the end...Harpo!!
shareTo me it sounds like four. But I'm not an expert. And the soundtrack ain't good enough to tell...by the way, who do you think is the main singer in the 'Sweet Adeline' harmony. The one who sings 'In all my dreams, your fair face beams' before the other repeat? Cos the scriptbook says it's Zeppo, but I could have sworn it was Chico. It sounds kinda Italian.
shareI've been wondering myself but I, too, suggest that there are only three voices in this scene. The intro must have been sung by Chico, it's that somewhat hoarse voice and the touch of Italian accent that could have impossibly been done by Zeppo let alone by any other of the foursome.
Sometimes it sounds like four voices (the 1931 soundtrack makes it nearly impossible to tell), but since Harpo doesn't take part in the chorus in "Animal Crackers" or any other visible chorus scene, it seems only plausible that he doesn't sing along.
Harpo might have been singing along, thinking he wouldn't get caught...
We obviously need a chorus expert. And several chorus girls.
One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas I'll never know.
It's hard to say. I agree with Irving Thalberg that they somewhat ruined Harpo's character in A Day At The Races by making him be unable to speak, rather than just not speaking (the scene where he's trying to show Chico that Groucho's being framed). I don't know who came up with that idea or how long they had it (since Day At The Races was six years after Monkey Business).
If things were my way, I'd have Harpo whistling along. It would mean he contributed, but didn't break his silence.
I think Harpo is singing.
By the way Harpo and Chico both had thick NY accents. Groucho and Zeppo appeared to have lost the accents. Chico covered up his accent with a fake one.
My theory is that just like the Chavalier scene, Harpo is playing a record of someone else singing Sweet Adeline and the others are just singing along. But that is just my theory.
shareI always thought he had the record playing as well.
Narrator: I am Jack's raging bile duct.
I'm about 99% sure that we hear four. I think Zeppo is leading (though I'll grant it does sound a bit like Chico - but comparing the voice to Zep's in Horse Feathers makes me pretty sure it's the youngest brother). Methinks the tenor is Groucho, and I'm pretty sure that leaves two voices left, singing approximately in the same range - Harpo and Chico. Impossible to tell for sure, but my sister's a voice specialist, and she tells me that when she listens, she thinks she can hear four. That's good enough for me.
shareThere are four singers, all four brothers are indeed singing the song.
This is confirmed by the trivia section of this movie, it states that this is the only time Harpo's voice is heard on film.
This is one of my favorite movies of all time!
This is confirmed by the trivia section of this movie, it states that this is the only time Harpo's voice is heard on film.The same trivia section where any meatball can submit an update... :)
I really do think Harpo was singing. Just one more way of the Marxes putting one over on the audience.
I have to believe that with all the sophisticated audio equipment out there today that a sound engineer could slice & dice this track well enough to determine what's going on. Of course, that would mean that someone would care enough to take the time and spend the money to do so. It would be fun to prove it, don't you think?
I wonder if there exists ANY film, such as home movies, where Harpo's voice is captured? I remember seeing the Edward R. Murrow visit with Harpo and his family, and Harpo, of course, kept silent while his wife did all the talking.
In Allan Sherman's autobiography, "A Gift Of Laughter," he describes Harpo's retirement from show business announcement (the two were neighbors in California, and Harpo performed on the same live bill with Sherman when Allan Sherman was "hot" -- in fact, Harpo's parties were one of the main reasons Sherman made it big, as the parties gave Sherman a chance to try out his parodies in front of an audience. Sherman describes Harpo's announcement to the audience, with comments from Harpo like "say, I LIKE this talking business!" and, when Sherman began crying onstage, "Allan, you're too emotional!" I wish someone would have been around to record it; but as I recall, Harpo's announcement was meant to be "spontaneous" because he didn't want anyone to make a fuss.
If one really CAN meet five people in heaven -- and assuming I make it -- Harpo Marx is definitely on my list.
It would be fun to prove but I don't know if it would be technically possible... Harpo's and Chico's voices were very similar... He might have been singing here perhaps because it's only the third Marx Brothers movie and his silence hadn't reached that mythical status yet... It would be much more unlikely in A Night at the Opera. Of course in the early stories he could speak but simply didn't, whereas later he was made a mute. (Another brilliant move by Thalberg) So technically he could sing.
What I like is that he never gave into the pressure to speak in some later movies, he was offered a lot of money and they knew it would be the biggest attraction for an otherwise bland movie. But he never gave in.
Chico laughs at the end of the song as the loud strangulated voice it finishing off - in my opinion Harpo is singing
shareIt's hard to prove if Harpo sings in that scene because we don't really know what he sounds like in the first place.
:D~
Here's a 5 second video I found on YouTube that shows Harpo saying, "You gotta do the talking" and "Honk, Honk". To me, he sounds alot like Chico.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9Ewf6PamZ4
http://www.dvdaficionado.com/dvds.html?cat=1&sub=All&id=squid_vicious
I always thought that it was Zeppo singing the intro to the song ("In all my dreams...", ect.); it certainly sounds more like him than Chico, at least to ME. (And I'm pretty sure that "strangulated tenor" you mentioned is Groucho.) I seriously doubt Harpo was singing; even if he was, it's pretty much impossible to tell, considering our lack of first hand knowledge of what Harpo's voice sounded like, AND the crappiness of the sound track.
"Dumont wasn't a fixed part of the team. She wasn't in the next movie either. I don't believe she was seriously considered for Thelma Todd's role in Monkey Business, let alone dropped for not being "sexy" enough. Later Groucho missed working with her and wanted her for Duck Soup, but it took some convincing to get her to come from New York to Hollywood."
I have to agree with you. Can anyone here really see Margaret Dumont being SERIOUSLY considered for the Thelma Todd role?
I also think it is Zeppo who sings the main lead. When you hear the lead voice sing, "Your fair face beams," it is a younger voice and it sounds just like Zeppo's crooning in Horsefeathers. The very next line, "You're the idol of my heart," ends with both the "strangulated tenor" (probably Groucho) and a very flat, slightly accented (almost croaking) voice on the words "my heart" - this to me sounds just like Chico's voice (although, admittedly, he and Harpo were reputed to sound alike). After hundreds of listens to the soundtrack I can't tell if there are four or three voices but it does sound much like the harmonizing from Animal Crackers (which does not include Harpo), and after the song is done, but before the brothers pop up out of the barrels, there is a solitary honk from Harpo's horn, almost as a coda. Maybe that represents his aural contribution to the tune?
shareHow funny! I logged onto this board specifically to ask the exact same question as the one asked on this thread.
To my untrained ear, it sounds like four voices. I also think (95% certain) that Zeppo is singing the lead... and the solo voice you hear at the very end of the sequence is Harpo... All three of the other brothers can be plainly heard singing solo later in this film as well as in other films, and all three have fairly distinct voices... the voice at the end sounds like neither Zeppo, Chico or Groucho.
http://www.dvdaficionado.com/dvds.html?cat=1&sub=All&id=squid_vicious
Up to and including the line "Your fair face beams" there are definitely only three voices.
From then on it's very hard to tell because they're purposefully singing out of time with each other. I'll keep listening to it though.... yes I'm very bored this evening :D
Whilst it's not the same as hearing Harpo speaking (or singing) an intelligible utterance, I believe it is fair to say that one hears Harpo's voice in "A Night at the Opera" when he is playing the paper and comb while he and Chico are in the brig on the ship.
shareOne would assume Harpo is singing since the Marxes apparently did a lot of singing together in their vaudeville act, both with Gummo and Zeppo as the "fourth."
BTW, I once came across an excerpt from a BBC Radio interview Harpo did in the late 50's. He actually tells a VERY (for the time) dirty joke. And he sounds remarkably like Groucho, only higher pitched.
And has anyone ever heard Chico speak without the Italian accent?
TELL US THE JOKE, you scallywag!
:)
Zeppo is the lead, Groucho does the joking voice at the end, Harpo isn't singing.
Harpo's voice can be heard sneezing---actually saying the words "Ah-Chooo!" in At The Circus and "barking" like a seal in A Night In Casablanca. He also spoke a noise in a 1950s TV appearance or two, like he does in the newsreel clip where he says "Honk honk."
And he did record some stories when he was working on his autobiography, as well as sing some of "Peasie Weasie."
This thread reminds me of something I've always wondered about. In the puppet show scene, Harpo does make ALMOST articulate sounds. And also in that scene, the purser starts choking the puppet he thinks is Harpo, and a panicky voice shouts at him to stop. Even though I guess it's supposed to be the puppeteer saying that, could that voice have been done by Harpo himself?
shareOne question, urish- How the hell could you POSSIBLY know for sure whether or not Harpo is singing?
My DVDs http://squid-vicious.dvdaf.com/owned?rc=1
I think Harpo is singing, it sounds like it, but then again who knows?
shareI was wondering this too the other night when watching the movie,so I watched it again,
The first voice sounds like it may be Chico's
the second sounds like Groucho
the third sounds like the voice of Zeppo
then there is kind of a naselly voice that joins in
and that could be Harpo.
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