(from "The Groucho Phile") “One unintentional laugh was Tony Martin singing ‘Tenement Symphony.’ It was the most godawful piece of music I’d ever heard.”
I agree wholeheartedly. Definitely a scene to skip over.
Wow! You are not kidding. I just watched the movie and that was Tony Martin at his corniest. Don't get me wrong,I like the Marx Bros movies and I like Tony Martin but this piece of music was extremely overdramatic and it was as if Tony Martin was forcing himself to sing it. I think that whole musical piece would induce a bowel movement in a constipated person. Sorry to be so crude,but that's my opinion. It ruined the whole movie.
"The more people I meet,the more I prefer the company of my dogs."
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It was the worst Marx Brothers movie I've seen yet (by a margin of 4/10 stars) and that scene definitely didn't help.
But I don't really think any of the music in the Marx Bros. movies is very good (except for the stuff played by the Bros. themselves - Harpo going back in time was one of the few bright spots in this one) so the Tenement Symphony didn't stand out too much for me.
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If you think his Tenement Symphony in 4-Flats is bad, wait until you hear the one in 3-Sharps! (Yes, it spoils the pun...even so...)
Someone had a bad case of "Gershwinistis", I think....
But I don't really think any of the music in the Marx Bros. movies is very good (except for the stuff played by the Bros. themselves
I personally thought it better than "Go West," which was practically laugh-free. Can't compare with the early efforts, but it wasn't their worst.
shareAfter watching it today for the umpteenth time over the past 4 decades, I realized that the song is an attempt to capture the urban elegance of "Rhapsody in Blue," in which jazz is presented in a "classic" style of music.
It's awful. Even the name "Tenement Symphony" blatantly overstates the composition's intentions, unlike the surrealistic abstract title of Gershwin's masterpiece.
The images conjured up by both the lyrics and the music are absurd. That one line about the kid singing about "the supper he didn't get" is particularly ridiculous (and one that I remember from the first time I saw this movie back in 1970).
I had a book called "The Marx Brothers at the Movie" whose endpapers had old advertisements from Marx Brothers movies. Among them was one for "The Big Store" which said "Romantic Tony Martin sings!" As the years have gone by and I learned exactly who Tony Martin is/was and saw his interview on Turner Classic Movies where he said he was in "Ziegfeld Girl" with Judy Garland, Lana Turner and Hedy Lamar, I realize what a career killer "The Big Store" must have been.
Why Louis B. Mayer promoted Tony Martin by having him perform in a big budget musical surrounded by 3 of MGM's top female stars, then cast Martin as the leading man in a comedy with the Marx Brothers who were in an obvious decline is beyond me.
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