I thought this film was a pretty good Marx Bros. film. I don't know why everyone says it's their worst. I wouldn't say that. Love Happy (1949) may be their worst. Don't forget this movie was adapted from a stage play, so the boys couldn't act as they usually would. This is one of my favorites of theirs.
You've got the brain of a four year old child. I bet he was glad to get rid of it.
-Groucho Marx
This is my least favourite Marx Brothers movie. I've seen all of them except for "Love Happy" and "The Story of Mankind" Their first movies "The Coconuts" and "Animal Crackers" were also adapted from plays and were far funnier than "Room Service". I recently came across this review from Halliwell's Guide to the Best Comedies 1994 which I agree with completely
Claustrophobic Broadway farce unsuitably adapted for the Marx Brothers, who are constrained by having to play characters with a passing resemblance to human beings.
I think the last twenty minutes or so of Room Service are hysterical, but the rest of it is very...let's say...stiff, maybe. Awkward. It just doesn't gel.
The Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers were adapted from plays, but the plays were written specifically for the Marx Brothers. The brothers themselves also tweaked and retooled those scripts, fleshing them out to find out what worked and what didn't. They couldn't do that with Room Service. They were playing somebody else's characters.
And incidentally, I think Love Happy is way better than Room Service. And I think they're both better than The Big Store.
"And now, I'm going back in the closet...where men are empty overcoats..."
What is interesting is that the last part of the film is different from the stage play. We see the play being performed in the theater, but not in the original play. Also, there is a character they took out-Senator Blake.
share I really enjoyed this film which was a unique offering by Groucho,Chico and Harpo.In fact, I liked it so much that I bought a copy of this film several years ago.It is admittedly a little tamer for the team,but they pull it off with it being refashioned for them by Morrie Ryskind.The Character actor Donald Macbride is screamingly funny as the tyrannical Wagner who is the chief antagonist in this film.Macbride had played this same part in the play when it was on the stage.Hail And Farewell!
To Better Days,
BRAD
I actually like Room Service rather a lot. It's not their best, but still good. I don't understand why people only talk about the last 20 minutes of the film, the previous time is equally as good
Lime: "Computers are my forte!"
(Brazil)
I like this one very mutch.However,everybody looked like they were on their own islands of which they had to play around with their piece of the pie.
The writer carrictor was just plain annoying...Lucille and Ann were very good despite small screentime.To me,Chico was the best one of the bunch (THE MOOSE HEAD!What a hoot!)..Harpo had stuff 'invented'(I love Harpo,though).And Groucho?Well,let's just say,he's great no matter what.
You got IT...and you can keep IT.
-Chico(Monkey Business).
I saw this movie over 40 years ago when I was a teenager. I liked it very much. The plot was iffy but as my wife said they were all good at coming up with ideas to outwit the hotel supervisior(Wagner). Trying to keep from being throw out of the room by using the Davis(the writer) as being a sick patient or at the end commiting suicide to keep the play going. Getting a meal from the waiter for a part in the pay. Harpo was funny chasing the turkey around the room. Grocho was his old self finding ways to keep the whole play afloat. IN the end they suckered Wagner in being the backer of the play when they find out the check they got from Zachary Fisk was being stopped. It was not their best but it was the small subtle things they did to keep the play going. Otherwise this movie would have ended as soon as it started. As chico said in the show said "The rehearsal is a good, I think it's a terrible play but the rehersal is a good"
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the biggest laugh is when chico fakes his suicide with the note attached to his chest that the hotel owner who had drove him to it just as he did the other guy.
That was Harpo, not Chico.
shareRoom Service isn't Hillarious and is hardly funny, but it's Sooo Great! It started out slow, but then got really good by the end.
8/10
I saw it again today and loved it. They were playing 'real' people instead of the insane characatures they normally portray. Also, a reason it didn't do well at the time, people didn't get the usual Marx antics. No Margaret Dumont for Groucho to try to seduce, no piano or harp musical numbers. People back in the 30's came out saying 'thats not a marx brothers movie', and it got a bad rep. It is very funny in its own right. I wonder, who was it written for, if it wasn't intended for them?
shareI've always enjoyed this film. Maybe a little slow but still fun/funny. I think Harpo in particular is great in this.
shareYou know it's going to be a really bad Marx Brothers movie when the Groucho character has a normal sounding name.
Although I haven't seen Love Happy, I don't know how it could be any worse than this snooze-fest. It's as if the Marx Brothers got put into a Three Stooges short (a really long short) by mistake. The difference is that if the Three Stooges were cast in Room Service, it might actually have gotten a few laughs. It's pretty obvious that the Marx' don't really have a clue as to what they're supposed to be doing in this turkey.
Of particular note is the grating Donald MacBride. He's okay in stuff like Here Comes Mr. Jordan and The Killers, but his constant yelling, "Jumping Butterballs!" has got to be one of the most contrived, unfunny lines ever uttered in a movie. I can't imagine even Sig Ruman being able to make a line like that funny.
The worst part about this movie is how painfully obvious it is to Marx' fans that their talents were squandered. Even the Louis B. Mayer Marx' movies that were made after this one (after Irving Thalberg died) have a few funny moments. I can't think of a single one in this movie and didn't laugh once.
Trust me on this - Love Happy is diabolical, it makes a Night in Casablanca look like A night at the Opera.
shareTrust me on this - Love Happy is diabolical, it makes a Night in Casablanca look like A night at the Opera.A Night in Casablanca is severely underrated for a Marx Bros movie. It is by far their most even movie throughout without any of the boring, romantic musical interludes. In fact, Chico on the piano and Harpo on the harp in ANIC offers a couple of their best, most entertaining performances. Likewise, Groucho has some of his best lines. ANIC may not have any truly 'classic' bits like those in A Night at the Opera or A Day at the Races, but it surely beats the other, so-called 'classics' made at Paramount.
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Yes, Love Happy wasn't even supposed to have all of them to begin with. It was just supposed to be Harpo, who created the story, and Chico came in because he needed dough and Groucho was asked to do it so it would get funded. Room Service is not that bad. It does have some good moments. I think the thing is that after awhile, the Marx Bros. gimmicks were overused in too many films. It is like overkilling the goose that lays golden (and silver) eggs.
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