Monkey Business

"Monkey Business" is the Marx Bros. third film, released in 1931. It marks the first film as not being based on a Marx Bros. broadway play, and is the first not to have Margaret Dumont in it. Instead, Thelma Todd plays Dumont's role, only more seductively, which is what the producers were looking for in this film.

In "Monkey Business" the Marx Bros. play stoways aboard a luxery liner. The opening scene has the boys singing "Sweet Adelide" while hidden in large barrels, until they are overheard by one of the ship's crew. Once discovered, the Maex Bros. play a game of cat and mouse with the crew, trying to avoid capture, and always staying one step ahead of them.

While fleeing, Zeppo encounters a young woman, Mary Helton, played by Ruth Hall. He quickly falls head over heels for her, only to discover that she is the daughter of Joe Helton, played by Rockcliff Fellowes, a notorious gangster who is returning to the states, and has plans of announcing, or introducing, his daughter - a common custom of many years passed.

As the love interest intensifies between Zeppo and Mary, so too does the game of cat and mouse. Groucho, trying to avoid one of the crew slips into the stateroom of Lucille briggs, played to perfection by Thelma Todd. Instantly Groucho's concern for being caught is subsided, as he focuses his energy on Lucille. She is married to Alky Briggs, played by Harry Woods. He is aboard the ship with the intent to kill Joe Helton before he reaches the states, so that he might take over his gang. After Groucho and Chico stumble onto his scheme, Briggs hires them to kill Joe; and rather than be killed themselves, they accept. This is only a ploy to escape, however; for, after they are given guns, they quickly drop them into a water bucket.

As the ship docks, the Marx Bros. must find a way to slip off, without anyone discovering they are onboard as stowaways. They do so by impersonating Maurice Chevalier, each in their own unique style. However, this fails, and as pandemonium erupts, they give the crew the slip once more and successfully depart the ship via another means.

It is at this juncture of "Monkey Business", after the Marx Bros. are off the ship, that many people feel the movie slows down and becomes boring. In certain respects it does slow down; but by no means becomes boring. The boys make their way to the house of Joe Helton and help prevent Alky briggs from killing him. There is no violence; for it is a Marx Bros. film, not a gangster film. And one of Groucho's most famous lines is uttered toward the end when, while fighting the bad guys in a barn, and rolling around a a pile of hay, he says, "I wonder where all those farmers daughters are?"

With their third film, the Marx Bros. have brought another delightful comedy to the screen, and one which may be watched over and over without ever becoming stale.