Unlike the real great flicks they made like 'Duck Soup', 'A Night at The Opera, 'The Big Store' etc., this one seriously lacked comedy as well as joyful music to hype it up. It was in my Region 1 Warner collection and all the other 5 films in it are either good or fabulous but I won't watch this one again.
shareEveryone's entitled to their own opinion. I have both their Paramount collection and their Warner collection. This movie is the one I rewatch the most. I rewatch it quite often in fact.
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Replying to both of you. The Marx Brothers were never at Warner Bros. They were at MGM. Turner bought the MGM, Warner Bros and Universal collections, and the movies of several studios were morphed into one. Room Service, for some reason, was made at RKO. Go figure. However, Room Service is, by far, not their worst movie. I have never been able to sit through Go West. If you read the book, The Marx Brothers at the Movies, Groucho talks about this being a mistake because it was a proven script (and I've seen 3 stage productions of varying success of the stage version, the last in New York, off Broadway, which was done on a thrust stage and was the wrong setting for a door-slamming comedy). Still, as a screen version of an earlier success, it's not that bad. Beyond that, you have Ann Miller, Lucy and Frank Albertson in the cast while they were so young. It's a terrific movie!
shareI have not watched Duck Soup at this time, but Room Service currently is my favorite Marx film.
Much better than Day At The Races which I just thought was OK but nothing special
My response is: watch Duck Soup. Duck Soup is vastly better than this. And I agree with you about Day At The Races. To me it is really the movie where the Marx Brothers jumped the shark. In my opinion, the two best were Duck Soup and Horse Feathers.
Room Service is quite good. Not their best work, but there are hysterical moments within. Personally, I consider Love Happy the worst flick the boys were in.
shareWell, I have to disagree with you. I'm no big fan of Room Service, I consider it one of their lessor works. But it can't compare with 'Go West' for being utterly unwatchable. It even has a line from Groucho late in the film that shows that even *he* knows it's awful (which is the best line in the picture!)
It's as if the Marx's had suddenly gone sane - and rather boring, really. Gone is the surreal edge and most of the jokes are obvious and sort of timid. Worse yet, there isn't a single truly hilarious scene in the film to balance out the stuff that falls flat; Groucho may wink to the audience with his eyebrow all he wants, but that alone does little to help his mostly lame'ish oneliners sound any better. Apparently, they only made the movie cuz Chico needed money (?) and it's their first film based on material not specifically written for them... so I guess there's the reason why it ended up being the way it is.
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It feels like a more conventional comedy that just happens to star the Marx Brothers, rather than a comedy made by the Marx Brothers. Room Service has hints of their greatness, but it's like they're on a leash.
shareI slightly disagree with, in the sense that it's the worst Marx film. For me, that dubious honor rests with Love Happy. Aside from a young and fresh Marilyn Monroe having a bit part in that film, there is no reason to ever watch it again.
Room Service, is not a bad film. However, it is a bad Marx Brothers film. Making this play into a film and casting the brothers in it was like trying to fit square pegs into round holes. It needed more work to make it work suitably for their humor, and the adapters failed in this regard. The nicest thing I can say about is that it's an interesting experiment. A failed experiment, but a curious one nonetheless.
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