list http://www.spout.com/ Recent community activity around Horse Feathers on Spout Copyright 2005-9 Spout, LLC Spout RSS http://www.spout.com/images/SpoutLogoRSS.jpg http://www.spout.com/ 136 30 http://www.spout.com/films/Horse_Feathers/15916/default.aspx Title: Horse Feathers
Year: 1932
Director: Norman Z. McLeod
Plot: If ever there was an archetypal Marx Brothers comedy, it was the team's 1932 offering Horse Feathers. Groucho Marx is cast as Professor Quincy Adams Wagstaff, the newest president of Huxley College. As he delivers his introductory speech before the assembled student body ("As I look out among your smiling, eager faces, I can readily understand why this college is flat on its back"), he maps out his plans for the future by singing those deathless hits Whatever It Is, I'm Against It and I Always Get My Man. He then has a powwow with his son Frank (Zeppo Marx), who has been a Huxley student for 12 years. Frank tells his old man that Huxley has had a new president every year since 1888, the year the college won its last football game. The only way to save the establishment is to hire a couple of good football players, Mullen and McHardie (Jim Pierce and Nat Pendleton), who hang out at the local speakeasy. With his usual efficiency, Professor Wagstaff signs up the wrong men for the Huxley team: Baravelli (Chico Marx), the ice man/bootlegger, and Pinky (Harpo Marx) the dog catcher. Meanwhile, gambler Jennings (David Landau), who has all his money bet on Darwin College in the upcoming Thanksgiving Day football game, instructs his girlfriend Connie Bailey (Thelma Todd), the college widow, to get her hands on Huxley's secret football signals. This leads to a frenetic four-way courtship in Connie's apartment, as Wagstaff, Baravelli, Pinky and Frank duck in and out of doors and windows to romance the heroine. Later on, Baravelli and Pinky try to kidnap Mullen and McHardie to keep them out of the Big Game, only to end up kidnapped themselves. Miraculously, all four of our heroes show up at the Huxley-Darwin game in time, achieving victory through some of the most creative cheating in gridiron history. Written by such renowned wits as S. J. Perelman, Will B. Johnstone, Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby, Horse Feathers is a comedy smorgasbord, offering generous doses of all four Marx Brothers performing some of their best-ever material. Who could not love a film in which, just before Chico Marx launches into his obligatory piano solo, Groucho saunters up to the camera and growls "I've got to stay here, but that's no reason why you folks can't go into the lobby until this thing blows over"? In addition, this is the film that introduced the semi-satirical romantic ballad Everyone Says I Love You, which was used over six decades later as the title of a Woody Allen picture. Unfortunately, current prints of Horse Feathers are incomplete, with nearly five minutes of comedy material missing; the search goes on for a pristine, uncut negative. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Times Tagged: 9
Number of Lists: 20
Number of blog posts: 6
Number of discussion threads: 3
SpoutRating: 3
]]>Fri, 24 Jul 2009 17:52:10 GMTHorse Feathers1932Norman Z. McLeodIf ever there was an archetypal <a href="/players/P____46152/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Marx Brothers</a> comedy, it was the team's 1932 offering Horse Feathers. <a href="/players/P____46156/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Groucho Marx</a> is cast as Professor Quincy Adams Wagstaff, the newest president of Huxley College. As he delivers his introductory speech before the assembled student body ("As I look out among your smiling, eager faces, I can readily understand why this college is flat on its back"), he maps out his plans for the future by singing those deathless hits Whatever It Is, I'm Against It and I Always Get My Man. He then has a powwow with his son Frank (<a href="/players/P____46160/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Zeppo Marx</a>), who has been a Huxley student for 12 years. Frank tells his old man that Huxley has had a new president every year since 1888, the year the college won its last football game. The only way to save the establishment is to hire a couple of good football players, Mullen and McHardie (Jim Pierce and <a href="/players/P____55898/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Nat Pendleton</a>), who hang out at the local speakeasy. With his usual efficiency, Professor Wagstaff signs up the wrong men for the Huxley team: Baravelli (<a href="/players/P____46155/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Chico Marx</a>), the ice man/bootlegger, and Pinky (<a href="/players/P____46157/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Harpo Marx</a>) the dog catcher. Meanwhile, gambler Jennings (<a href="/players/P____40244/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>David Landau</a>), who has all his money bet on Darwin College in the upcoming Thanksgiving Day football game, instructs his girlfriend Connie Bailey (<a href="/players/P____71178/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Thelma Todd</a>), the college widow, to get her hands on Huxley's secret football signals. This leads to a frenetic four-way courtship in Connie's apartment, as Wagstaff, Baravelli, Pinky and Frank duck in and out of doors and windows to romance the heroine. Later on, Baravelli and Pinky try to kidnap Mullen and McHardie to keep them out of the Big Game, only to end up kidnapped themselves. Miraculously, all four of our heroes show up at the Huxley-Darwin game in time, achieving victory through some of the most creative cheating in gridiron history. Written by such renowned wits as S. J. Perelman, Will B. Johnstone, Bert Kalmar and <a href="/players/P___109219/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Harry Ruby</a>, Horse Feathers is a comedy smorgasbord, offering generous doses of all four <a href="/players/P____46152/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Marx Brothers</a> performing some of their best-ever material. Who could not love a film in which, just before <a href="/players/P____46155/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Chico Marx</a> launches into his obligatory piano solo, Groucho saunters up to the camera and growls "I've got to stay here, but that's no reason why you folks can't go into the lobby until this thing blows over"? In addition, this is the film that introduced the semi-satirical romantic ballad Everyone Says I Love You, which was used over six decades later as the title of a <a href="/players/P____79388/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Woody Allen</a> picture. Unfortunately, current prints of Horse Feathers are incomplete, with nearly five minutes of comedy material missing; the search goes on for a pristine, uncut negative. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide9Taggedy Taggged (6-10)20633http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/t06415c9g3p.jpghttp://www.spout.com/films/Horse_Feathers/15916/default.aspxFilm http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/archive/2009/1/29/40057.aspx Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 1/29/2009 11:01:21 AM
Body: There is a good reason Hollywood continually makes Animal House wannabes and avoids producing films that actually focus on academia. Kids prefer their college movies to be about the fun stuff. And so a movie like Old School grossed $75 million while another Luke Wilson comedy called Tenure currently lacks a distributor. The latter film may also be hilarious, as a satire of the tenure process, but if it doesn’t concentrate more on beer bongs and naked co-eds, it won’t attract as big an audience. And according to some scholars, it may not even resonate with them, because it couldn’t possibly be what the process is really like. Film blogger and associate professor Chuck Tryon was quoted about the film last year as saying, “my ongoing pursuit of tenure typically involves me sitting in front of my laptop until 1 a.m., I don’t know how interesting that would be to watch.” And evident by the scathing reviews from Sundance of John Krasinski’s Brief Interviews With Hideous Men, it appears another film about academia has failed to make a strong case for the subject matter. Too bad for the late David Foster Wallace, whose stories were adapted for the film, that Gus Van Sant wasn’t at the helm. A decade ago, in an interview with Van Sant, Wallace pretty much gushed that Good Will Hunting is the most accurate film about academia ever made. Do we agree with him? Let’s just say there’s not a whole lot of competition for such an honor. But in our attempt to recognize the ten best films about academia, Good Will Hunting doesn’t quite make the top spot. 9. (tie) Elegy (2005) and The Human Stain (2003) Neither of these films is especially great, but it would be criminal for us not to recognize the work of Philip Roth, an author who depicts the academic world perfectly in his novels, particularly The Dying Animal (which is the basis for Elegy) and The Human Stain. The adaptations of these two books fail to capture much of what’s on the page, but each film has its own merit. Elegy, which primarily deals with an affair between a professor (Ben Kingsley) and a student (Penelope Cruz), is worth seeing for the more interesting relationship between that professor and his Pulitzer Prize-winning friend (Dennis Hopper). Rarely is fraternity between two members of the academic intelligentsia portrayed so enjoyably. As for The Human Stain, which also involves a professor (Anthony Hopkins) and his affair with a younger woman (Nicole Kidman), the film deals primarily with the issue of political correctness within academia. The topic is addressed nowhere near as well as it is in Roth’s novel, but it is at least a starting point for discussion, and it’s also worth seeing for an example in how not to cast a movie. 8. Soul Man (1986) If we are to include The Human Stain, it’s just as well we acknowledge this earlier comedy, which also involves ironic situations regarding race and academia. Hardly a brilliant movie, Soul Man is at least as humorous in its examination of racism as the Harold and Kumar movies. Yet it is far less esteemed. And the whole black face thing can no longer be looked down upon now that Robert Downey Jr. has that Oscar nomination for Tropic Thunder. The movie is a worthy lampoon of the politics of affirmative action and their affect on college admissions (as well as an obvious and general look at racism within the student population), but it’s especially entertaining for James Earl Jones as a professor who refuses to favor the masquerading protagonist (C. Thomas Howell) just because he’s black. 7. Back to School (1986) While Soul Man deals with the benefit of being a minority when it comes to getting into college, this film from the same year deals with the benefit of being rich. The idea that anyone with enough money can get into the school of his or her choice is depicted comically in a two-scene setup. In the first scene, a university dean (Ned Beatty) asks millionaire entrepreneur Thornton Mellon (Rodney Dangerfield) how he could possibly admit him as a student when he has no high school degree, no transcripts and no SAT scores. The movie then cuts to the punch-line scene, in which the dean and Mellon are celebrating the groundbreaking of a new business school for the university, named after Mellon, of course. Another favorite jab at academia is with the famous cameo by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., who is hired by Mellon to write a paper about his own work. The paper earns a failing grade. 6. Wet Hot American Summer (2001) You’re probably wondering how a comedy set at a summer camp could possibly be about academia. Well, it’s not specifically about academia, but it does feature a subplot involving a science professor (David Hyde Pierce) that does poke fun of the concept of tenure. This was pointed out by Elaine Showalter, an English professor at Princeton and author of the book Faculty Towers: The Academic Novel and Its Discontents, so you have to accept that it fits the list. Sure, she’s the mother of WHAS star and screenwriter Michael Showalter, but that shouldn’t take away from her observation. 5. The Paper Chase (1973) This film features a plot that could very well lend itself to the other kind of college film, but it focuses its attention on the classroom and the relationship between student and professor rather than the dorm room and social affairs. Of course, the student protagonist (Timothy Bottoms) is getting some action, but it is with the daughter (Lindsay Wagner) of the professorial antagonist (John Houseman, who won an Oscar for the performance), and so even the sex stuff is part of the politics of academia. The best scene is at the end, when Bottoms’ character gives the finger to higher education by not even bothering to look at his final grades. If only the audience was also left unaware of his marks, as the original novel leaves that revelation out. 4. Good Will Hunting (1997) David Foster Wallace may have considered this film to be the best film about academia when he discussed it with Gus Van Sant in 1998, but since that time there have been two more poignant films to deal with the subject. Plus, it never was the best film on academia to begin with. So, as much as he’s right to celebrate the film and in particular the portrayal of Stellan Skarsgard’s character and the issue of professors wanting their students to be brilliant, but not too brilliant, there are three more titles to go. 3. Wonder Boys (2000) Based on Michael Chabon’s novel of the same name, Curstin Hanson’s film cinematically captures the atmosphere of academia as well as Philip Roth does on the page (perhaps Hanson should adapt Roth?). However, one issue with this atmosphere may be that the relationships and characters, though written and portrayed wonderfully, are rather common for such a story. Also, why not change things a bit and have the main character be a film teacher rather than a creative writing teacher, which an overused profession in these kinds of movies. The switch would be more appropriate for the medium, too. Aside from these minor criticisms, though, we can barely take a red pen to this film. It’s terrific. 2. The Rules of Attraction (2002) Probably the most cynical look at higher education ever filmed, Roger Avary’s highly underrated adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ novel shows us just enough of the classroom and professors (i.e. canceled classes and a single professor who accepts sexual bribes) to let us understand that the joke is in how little of that side of academia is actually necessary to a film like this. In that way it kind of does for college what Heathers does for high school. Neither film is a teen sex comedy in the fashion of most high school and college movies. And neither is a satire of education institutions in the way most of the other films on this list are. Rather, they’re mockeries of the whole education system, but only in that they each consider their respective system to be already a mockery of itself. 1. Horse Feathers (1932) Nobody mocks and satirizes better than the Marx Brothers, and in this film they bring their anarchic shenanigans and brilliant puns to the world of academia. At its core is the basic college sports story, but it’s also one of the first films (if not the first film) to deal with the concept of buying students/players. In addition to lampooning that practice, Horse Feathers makes fun of intellectual gatherings and talk, the influence of trustees and nearly every other aspect of scholarship and higher education you can think of, all in the opening scene. After more than 75 years, it’s still the funniest college movie and the greatest film about academia there is. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog
]]>Thu, 29 Jan 2009 16:01:21 GMTSpoutBlogSpoutBlog on spout.com1/29/2009 11:01:21 AMThere is a good reason Hollywood continually makes Animal House wannabes and avoids producing films that actually focus on academia. Kids prefer their college movies to be about the fun stuff. And so a movie like Old School grossed $75 million while another Luke Wilson comedy called Tenure currently lacks a distributor. The latter film may also be hilarious, as a satire of the tenure process, but if it doesn’t concentrate more on beer bongs and naked co-eds, it won’t attract as big an audience. And according to some scholars, it may not even resonate with them, because it couldn’t possibly be what the process is really like. Film blogger and associate professor Chuck Tryon was quoted about the film last year as saying, “my ongoing pursuit of tenure typically involves me sitting in front of my laptop until 1 a.m., I don’t know how interesting that would be to watch.” And evident by the scathing reviews from Sundance of John Krasinski’s Brief Interviews With Hideous Men, it appears another film about academia has failed to make a strong case for the subject matter. Too bad for the late David Foster Wallace, whose stories were adapted for the film, that Gus Van Sant wasn’t at the helm. A decade ago, in an interview with Van Sant, Wallace pretty much gushed that Good Will Hunting is the most accurate film about academia ever made. Do we agree with him? Let’s just say there’s not a whole lot of competition for such an honor. But in our attempt to recognize the ten best films about academia, Good Will Hunting doesn’t quite make the top spot. 9. (tie) Elegy (2005) and The Human Stain (2003) Neither of these films is especially great, but it would be criminal for us not to recognize the work of Philip Roth, an author who depicts the academic world perfectly in his novels, particularly The Dying Animal (which is the basis for Elegy) and The Human Stain. The adaptations of these two books fail to capture much of what’s on the page, but each film has its own merit. Elegy, which primarily deals with an affair between a professor (Ben Kingsley) and a student (Penelope Cruz), is worth seeing for the more interesting relationship between that professor and his Pulitzer Prize-winning friend (Dennis Hopper). Rarely is fraternity between two members of the academic intelligentsia portrayed so enjoyably. As for The Human Stain, which also involves a professor (Anthony Hopkins) and his affair with a younger woman (Nicole Kidman), the film deals primarily with the issue of political correctness within academia. The topic is addressed nowhere near as well as it is in Roth’s novel, but it is at least a starting point for discussion, and it’s also worth seeing for an example in how not to cast a movie. 8. Soul Man (1986) If we are to include The Human Stain, it’s just as well we acknowledge this earlier comedy, which also involves ironic situations regarding race and academia. Hardly a brilliant movie, Soul Man is at least as humorous in its examination of racism as the Harold and Kumar movies. Yet it is far less esteemed. And the whole black face thing can no longer be looked down upon now that Robert Downey Jr. has that Oscar nomination for Tropic Thunder. The movie is a worthy lampoon of the politics of affirmative action and their affect on college admissions (as well as an obvious and general look at racism within the student population), but it’s especially entertaining for James Earl Jones as a professor who refuses to favor the masquerading protagonist (C. Thomas Howell) just because he’s black. 7. Back to School (1986) While Soul Man deals with the benefit of being a minority when it comes to getting into college, this film from the same year deals with the benefit of being rich. The idea that anyone with enough money can get into the school of his or her choice is depicted comically in a two-scene setup. In the first scene, a university dean (Ned Beatty) asks millionaire entrepreneur Thornton Mellon (Rodney Dangerfield) how he could possibly admit him as a student when he has no high school degree, no transcripts and no SAT scores. The movie then cuts to the punch-line scene, in which the dean and Mellon are celebrating the groundbreaking of a new business school for the university, named after Mellon, of course. Another favorite jab at academia is with the famous cameo by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., who is hired by Mellon to write a paper about his own work. The paper earns a failing grade. 6. Wet Hot American Summer (2001) You’re probably wondering how a comedy set at a summer camp could possibly be about academia. Well, it’s not specifically about academia, but it does feature a subplot involving a science professor (David Hyde Pierce) that does poke fun of the concept of tenure. This was pointed out by Elaine Showalter, an English professor at Princeton and author of the book Faculty Towers: The Academic Novel and Its Discontents, so you have to accept that it fits the list. Sure, she’s the mother of WHAS star and screenwriter Michael Showalter, but that shouldn’t take away from her observation. 5. The Paper Chase (1973) This film features a plot that could very well lend itself to the other kind of college film, but it focuses its attention on the classroom and the relationship between student and professor rather than the dorm room and social affairs. Of course, the student protagonist (Timothy Bottoms) is getting some action, but it is with the daughter (Lindsay Wagner) of the professorial antagonist (John Houseman, who won an Oscar for the performance), and so even the sex stuff is part of the politics of academia. The best scene is at the end, when Bottoms’ character gives the finger to higher education by not even bothering to look at his final grades. If only the audience was also left unaware of his marks, as the original novel leaves that revelation out. 4. Good Will Hunting (1997) David Foster Wallace may have considered this film to be the best film about academia when he discussed it with Gus Van Sant in 1998, but since that time there have been two more poignant films to deal with the subject. Plus, it never was the best film on academia to begin with. So, as much as he’s right to celebrate the film and in particular the portrayal of Stellan Skarsgard’s character and the issue of professors wanting their students to be brilliant, but not too brilliant, there are three more titles to go. 3. Wonder Boys (2000) Based on Michael Chabon’s novel of the same name, Curstin Hanson’s film cinematically captures the atmosphere of academia as well as Philip Roth does on the page (perhaps Hanson should adapt Roth?). However, one issue with this atmosphere may be that the relationships and characters, though written and portrayed wonderfully, are rather common for such a story. Also, why not change things a bit and have the main character be a film teacher rather than a creative writing teacher, which an overused profession in these kinds of movies. The switch would be more appropriate for the medium, too. Aside from these minor criticisms, though, we can barely take a red pen to this film. It’s terrific. 2. The Rules of Attraction (2002) Probably the most cynical look at higher education ever filmed, Roger Avary’s highly underrated adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ novel shows us just enough of the classroom and professors (i.e. canceled classes and a single professor who accepts sexual bribes) to let us understand that the joke is in how little of that side of academia is actually necessary to a film like this. In that way it kind of does for college what Heathers does for high school. Neither film is a teen sex comedy in the fashion of most high school and college movies. And neither is a satire of education institutions in the way most of the other films on this list are. Rather, they’re mockeries of the whole education system, but only in that they each consider their respective system to be already a mockery of itself. 1. Horse Feathers (1932) Nobody mocks and satirizes better than the Marx Brothers, and in this film they bring their anarchic shenanigans and brilliant puns to the world of academia. At its core is the basic college sports story, but it’s also one of the first films (if not the first film) to deal with the concept of buying students/players. In addition to lampooning that practice, Horse Feathers makes fun of intellectual gatherings and talk, the influence of trustees and nearly every other aspect of scholarship and higher education you can think of, all in the opening scene. After more than 75 years, it’s still the funniest college movie and the greatest film about academia there is. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog http://www.spout.com/groups/Best_movie_quotes/Re_Best_College_Flick_Quotes/17/38414/1/ShowPost.aspx Post By: Risselada
Post To: Best movie quotes
Post Date: 12/15/2008 5:45:40 PM
Body: [quote user="seely"] Wow... I had no idea college comedies went back that far! I think I ignorantly assumed that it was a genre launched by Animal House in the mid seventies. I'll definitely have to check out Horse Feathers... [quote user="Risselada"] Horse Feathers is a good one Connie: If icky baby don't learn about the football signals, icky baby gonna cwy. Professor Wagstaff: If icky girl keep on talking that way, big stwong man's gonna kick all of her teef wight down her fwoat. [/quote] [/quote] Heh, well it's not exactly in the same vein. I mean it's pretty much the same style as all the other Marx brothers movies, just happens to be set at a college. I think you are right that Animal House certainly set a kind of precident for all the other kinds of movies you named.
]]>Mon, 15 Dec 2008 22:45:40 GMTRisseladaBest movie quotes12/15/2008 5:45:40 PM[quote user="seely"] Wow... I had no idea college comedies went back that far! I think I ignorantly assumed that it was a genre launched by Animal House in the mid seventies. I'll definitely have to check out Horse Feathers... [quote user="Risselada"] Horse Feathers is a good one Connie: If icky baby don't learn about the football signals, icky baby gonna cwy. Professor Wagstaff: If icky girl keep on talking that way, big stwong man's gonna kick all of her teef wight down her fwoat. [/quote] [/quote] Heh, well it's not exactly in the same vein. I mean it's pretty much the same style as all the other Marx brothers movies, just happens to be set at a college. I think you are right that Animal House certainly set a kind of precident for all the other kinds of movies you named. http://www.spout.com/groups/Best_movie_quotes/Re_Best_College_Flick_Quotes/17/38412/1/ShowPost.aspx Post By: seely
Post To: Best movie quotes
Post Date: 12/15/2008 5:26:07 PM
Body: Wow... I had no idea college comedies went back that far! I think I ignorantly assumed that it was a genre launched by Animal House in the mid seventies. I'll definitely have to check out Horse Feathers... [quote user="Risselada"] Horse Feathers is a good one Connie: If icky baby don't learn about the football signals, icky baby gonna cwy. Professor Wagstaff: If icky girl keep on talking that way, big stwong man's gonna kick all of her teef wight down her fwoat. [/quote]
]]>Mon, 15 Dec 2008 22:26:07 GMTseelyBest movie quotes12/15/2008 5:26:07 PMWow... I had no idea college comedies went back that far! I think I ignorantly assumed that it was a genre launched by Animal House in the mid seventies. I'll definitely have to check out Horse Feathers... [quote user="Risselada"] Horse Feathers is a good one Connie: If icky baby don't learn about the football signals, icky baby gonna cwy. Professor Wagstaff: If icky girl keep on talking that way, big stwong man's gonna kick all of her teef wight down her fwoat. [/quote] http://www.spout.com/groups/Best_movie_quotes/Re_Best_College_Flick_Quotes/17/38322/1/ShowPost.aspx Post By: Risselada
Post To: Best movie quotes
Post Date: 12/12/2008 6:24:35 PM
Body: Horse Feathers is a good one Connie: If icky baby don't learn about the football signals, icky baby gonna cwy. Professor Wagstaff: If icky girl keep on talking that way, big stwong man's gonna kick all of her teef wight down her fwoat.
]]>Fri, 12 Dec 2008 23:24:35 GMTRisseladaBest movie quotes12/12/2008 6:24:35 PMHorse Feathers is a good one Connie: If icky baby don't learn about the football signals, icky baby gonna cwy. Professor Wagstaff: If icky girl keep on talking that way, big stwong man's gonna kick all of her teef wight down her fwoat. http://www.spout.com/blogs/christhilk/archive/2008/8/26/34427.aspx Post By: ChrisThilk
Post To: ChrisThilk Blog
Post Date: 8/26/2008 10:01:09 PM
Body: I decided that I needed some good old-fashioned Vaudevillian humor and so dove into Universal’s collection of the first five Marx Brothers movies, The Cocoanuts, Animal Crackers, Monkey Business, Horse Feathers and Duck Soup. It’s funny every time I watch these, which I usually do as a mini-festival like this, that it’s Animal Crackers and Duck Soup that consistently work the best for me. Duck Soup has long been my favorite and there are great bits in the other films but Animal Crackers, it seems to me, is the best distilling of the Marx Brothers format that exists, especially when it comes to their interplay with Margaret Dumont and the entire notion of class divisions. Horse Feathers, on the other hand, is the one in this batch that I can never quite get my head around. While some truly classic moments have come out of this (swordfish in particular) it never jells for me as a whole the way the others do. It’s a slight ebb in the inspired genius between the first three movies and then Duck Soup, but that still makes it better than 80 percent of what’s available. Originally posted on:Chris Thilk
]]>Wed, 27 Aug 2008 02:01:09 GMTChrisThilkChrisThilk Blog8/26/2008 10:01:09 PMI decided that I needed some good old-fashioned Vaudevillian humor and so dove into Universal’s collection of the first five Marx Brothers movies, The Cocoanuts, Animal Crackers, Monkey Business, Horse Feathers and Duck Soup. It’s funny every time I watch these, which I usually do as a mini-festival like this, that it’s Animal Crackers and Duck Soup that consistently work the best for me. Duck Soup has long been my favorite and there are great bits in the other films but Animal Crackers, it seems to me, is the best distilling of the Marx Brothers format that exists, especially when it comes to their interplay with Margaret Dumont and the entire notion of class divisions. Horse Feathers, on the other hand, is the one in this batch that I can never quite get my head around. While some truly classic moments have come out of this (swordfish in particular) it never jells for me as a whole the way the others do. It’s a slight ebb in the inspired genius between the first three movies and then Duck Soup, but that still makes it better than 80 percent of what’s available. Originally posted on:Chris Thilk http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/archive/2008/8/26/34417.aspx Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 8/26/2008 6:01:05 PM
Body: I never went to a normal college, never lived in a proper dorm or experienced fraternity hazing or even rush week from an inside viewpoint. I went to an urban art school and then a commuter school. And though I grew up in a college town and later worked on the campus of another college I didn’t attend, I feel like I don’t have the proper perspective with which to judge most college movies and college kid characters as being true to life. This probably explains why I enjoy so many bad movies set in colleges and/or involving college students. I bet I could even check out a double feature of The House Bunny and College and have a good time at the movies. Of course, I do have some semblance of good taste, and I also recognize that none of the following movies are anywhere near the quality of my favorite college movies (including Harold Lloyd’s The Freshman, the Marx Brothers’ Horse Feathers and the Frat Pack’s Old School), or even the beloved Animal House, which I regrettably find to be highly overrated (no, that doesn’t mean I dislike it or think it’s bad or unfunny). The ten movies on today’s list are merely guilty pleasures that I can’t stop appreciating no matter how hard I try or how old I get. Teen Wolf Too - Certainly basketball is overused in high school and college sports movies, but following hoops with boxing gloves was an odd choice for this Teen Wolf sequel. It was almost as bad as having the popular jock character be on the wrestling team or, worse, a diver (see Back to School below). But despite the change of sport, the repeat of plot and the unfortunate recasting of the character “Stiles”, Teen Wolf Too has at least one enjoyable element: Jason Bateman. Even before he won our favor with Arrested Development and roles since, Bateman was quite a likable presence here. Sure, it’s not as good as the first movie, but does it really deserve that paltry 2.6 rating on the IMDb? Back to School - Having gone back to college after a long hiatus, I have a very special place in my heart for this movie. But I’ve had multiple levels of appreciation since first seeing it 22 years ago. Originally, as a kid, I just liked Rodney Dangerfield. In high school, my favorite character was “Derek,” the freaky friend played by Robert Downey Jr. Later, I got into Oingo Boingo/Danny Elfman and favored their appearance. And almost finally, when Kurt Vonnegut became my favorite writer, his cameo was the coolest thing in the world (as an added bonus: Keith Gordon, who plays Dangerfield’s son in the movie, went on to direct an adaptation of Vonnegut’s “Mother Night”). In a way, the movie isn’t too underrated; it has a decent 6.1 rating on the IMDb and a very good 87% on Rotten Tomatoes. Still, I’m always shocked that more people aren’t huge fans. PCU - I’ve already claimed my pre-hip appreciation for Jason Bateman (I even loved Valerie/Valerie’s Family/The Hogan Family, so there!), and now I must admit to having been a fan of Jeremy Piven since the beginning, too (Lucas has always been one of my favorite teen movies). I don’t know how often it’s watched these days, but looking back on it now, PCU seems to be a great souvenir from its time. Also, I’ll always remember it as the movie that taught me not to wear a band’s t-shirt to their concert and informed me of the fact that at any given time, there’s either a Michael Caine or a Gene Hackman movie being aired on television. Midnight Madness - I know it’s considered a cult classic now, but it truly deserves to be an actual classic. Is it not as popular or as widely seen as other college movies because it involves a college activity that isn’t centered around drinking or sex (there is at least the Pabst brewery)? When I first went away to college, I was nailed to the X (meaning I was straight-edge and didn’t drink or do drugs), so I would have loved it if there’d been scavenger hunts instead of keggers (actually, where I went, there wasn’t either), even if I’d already been arrested while participating in a hunt in high school. By the way, speaking of underrated scavenger hunt movies, where’s the DVD release of Scavenger Hunt already? Up the Creek - I guess not everyone has an appreciation for movies featuring Stephen Furst, despite his prominence in the king of college movies, Animal House. He followed that by appearing in both of my beloved scavenger hunt movies (see #4) and then later reuniting with his Delta brother Tim Matheson in this movie, which as a kid I always thought of as like a live-action, R-rated remake of Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown. Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise - It lacked the boobs and the bush, and its premise was pretty weak, even for being something of a redo of the first film’s plot. However, if you’ve ever seen the subsequent sequels, it’s clear that it could have been worse. Personally, I like the parts with James Hong, Bradley Whitford (always a well-played snake) and the song “No on 15″ (see the video above). Higher Learning - I tend to hate movies that so categorically divide the supposed social hierarchies of high school and college — maybe I just went to an abnormal high school, but it never seemed that distinct to me — and I don’t especially like the way this movie defines people by the music they listen to, but I have as much appreciation for Higher Learning as I do for The Breakfast Club and Crash, each of which I consider to be more about using thin characters as vehicles for ideas rather than about real people and a narrative story. Happy Together - No, I’m not referring to the Wong Kar-Wai film. Rather, the 1989 movie starring Patrick Dempsey and Helen Slater. Maybe it’s just the fact that my only college roommate was a girl. But that was intentional, unlike the scenario of this movie. Prior to its relevance to my life, though, it was merely great for featuring Supergirl (and Billie Jean) topless. Pumpkin - After so many high school and college movies in which the handsome guy or pretty girl ultimately falls for the “ugly” guy/girl, it was quite an interesting concept to have the “ugly” one be a mentally handicapped, as well as socially handicapped, person. Road Trip - Thanks to Martin Lawrence and Raven-Symone, I now have to specify that I don’t mean College Road Trip. I also have to note that I think it would be a much better movie if Tom Green wasn’t in it. Also, compared to Old School, which was also written by Scot Armstrong and Todd Phillips and directed by Phillips, it’s got about a tenth of the laughs, if even that much. Surprisingly, however, Andy Dick is actually tolerable in Road Trip and not in Old School. Is it just me, or should DJ Qualls be doing better for himself these days? Originally posted on:SpoutBlog
]]>Tue, 26 Aug 2008 22:01:05 GMTSpoutBlogSpoutBlog on spout.com8/26/2008 6:01:05 PM I never went to a normal college, never lived in a proper dorm or experienced fraternity hazing or even rush week from an inside viewpoint. I went to an urban art school and then a commuter school. And though I grew up in a college town and later worked on the campus of another college I didn’t attend, I feel like I don’t have the proper perspective with which to judge most college movies and college kid characters as being true to life. This probably explains why I enjoy so many bad movies set in colleges and/or involving college students. I bet I could even check out a double feature of The House Bunny and College and have a good time at the movies. Of course, I do have some semblance of good taste, and I also recognize that none of the following movies are anywhere near the quality of my favorite college movies (including Harold Lloyd’s The Freshman, the Marx Brothers’ Horse Feathers and the Frat Pack’s Old School), or even the beloved Animal House, which I regrettably find to be highly overrated (no, that doesn’t mean I dislike it or think it’s bad or unfunny). The ten movies on today’s list are merely guilty pleasures that I can’t stop appreciating no matter how hard I try or how old I get. Teen Wolf Too - Certainly basketball is overused in high school and college sports movies, but following hoops with boxing gloves was an odd choice for this Teen Wolf sequel. It was almost as bad as having the popular jock character be on the wrestling team or, worse, a diver (see Back to School below). But despite the change of sport, the repeat of plot and the unfortunate recasting of the character “Stiles”, Teen Wolf Too has at least one enjoyable element: Jason Bateman. Even before he won our favor with Arrested Development and roles since, Bateman was quite a likable presence here. Sure, it’s not as good as the first movie, but does it really deserve that paltry 2.6 rating on the IMDb? Back to School - Having gone back to college after a long hiatus, I have a very special place in my heart for this movie. But I’ve had multiple levels of appreciation since first seeing it 22 years ago. Originally, as a kid, I just liked Rodney Dangerfield. In high school, my favorite character was “Derek,” the freaky friend played by Robert Downey Jr. Later, I got into Oingo Boingo/Danny Elfman and favored their appearance. And almost finally, when Kurt Vonnegut became my favorite writer, his cameo was the coolest thing in the world (as an added bonus: Keith Gordon, who plays Dangerfield’s son in the movie, went on to direct an adaptation of Vonnegut’s “Mother Night”). In a way, the movie isn’t too underrated; it has a decent 6.1 rating on the IMDb and a very good 87% on Rotten Tomatoes. Still, I’m always shocked that more people aren’t huge fans. PCU - I’ve already claimed my pre-hip appreciation for Jason Bateman (I even loved Valerie/Valerie’s Family/The Hogan Family, so there!), and now I must admit to having been a fan of Jeremy Piven since the beginning, too (Lucas has always been one of my favorite teen movies). I don’t know how often it’s watched these days, but looking back on it now, PCU seems to be a great souvenir from its time. Also, I’ll always remember it as the movie that taught me not to wear a band’s t-shirt to their concert and informed me of the fact that at any given time, there’s either a Michael Caine or a Gene Hackman movie being aired on television. Midnight Madness - I know it’s considered a cult classic now, but it truly deserves to be an actual classic. Is it not as popular or as widely seen as other college movies because it involves a college activity that isn’t centered around drinking or sex (there is at least the Pabst brewery)? When I first went away to college, I was nailed to the X (meaning I was straight-edge and didn’t drink or do drugs), so I would have loved it if there’d been scavenger hunts instead of keggers (actually, where I went, there wasn’t either), even if I’d already been arrested while participating in a hunt in high school. By the way, speaking of underrated scavenger hunt movies, where’s the DVD release of Scavenger Hunt already? Up the Creek - I guess not everyone has an appreciation for movies featuring Stephen Furst, despite his prominence in the king of college movies, Animal House. He followed that by appearing in both of my beloved scavenger hunt movies (see #4) and then later reuniting with his Delta brother Tim Matheson in this movie, which as a kid I always thought of as like a live-action, R-rated remake of Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown. Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise - It lacked the boobs and the bush, and its premise was pretty weak, even for being something of a redo of the first film’s plot. However, if you’ve ever seen the subsequent sequels, it’s clear that it could have been worse. Personally, I like the parts with James Hong, Bradley Whitford (always a well-played snake) and the song “No on 15″ (see the video above). Higher Learning - I tend to hate movies that so categorically divide the supposed social hierarchies of high school and college — maybe I just went to an abnormal high school, but it never seemed that distinct to me — and I don’t especially like the way this movie defines people by the music they listen to, but I have as much appreciation for Higher Learning as I do for The Breakfast Club and Crash, each of which I consider to be more about using thin characters as vehicles for ideas rather than about real people and a narrative story. Happy Together - No, I’m not referring to the Wong Kar-Wai film. Rather, the 1989 movie starring Patrick Dempsey and Helen Slater. Maybe it’s just the fact that my only college roommate was a girl. But that was intentional, unlike the scenario of this movie. Prior to its relevance to my life, though, it was merely great for featuring Supergirl (and Billie Jean) topless. Pumpkin - After so many high school and college movies in which the handsome guy or pretty girl ultimately falls for the “ugly” guy/girl, it was quite an interesting concept to have the “ugly” one be a mentally handicapped, as well as socially handicapped, person. Road Trip - Thanks to Martin Lawrence and Raven-Symone, I now have to specify that I don’t mean College Road Trip. I also have to note that I think it would be a much better movie if Tom Green wasn’t in it. Also, compared to Old School, which was also written by Scot Armstrong and Todd Phillips and directed by Phillips, it’s got about a tenth of the laughs, if even that much. Surprisingly, however, Andy Dick is actually tolerable in Road Trip and not in Old School. Is it just me, or should DJ Qualls be doing better for himself these days? Originally posted on:SpoutBlog http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/archive/2007/12/18/22918.aspx Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 12/18/2007 12:01:06 PM
Body: Leave it to George Clooney to make a football movie that actually looks good to people like me. And by people like me, I mean people with no interest in American football whatsoever (I attend Super Bowl parties exclusively for the 7-layer dip). Yahoo! is hosting the trailer for Leatherheads, Clooney’s much-anticipated directorial follow-up to Good Night, and Good Luck, and the romantic sports comedy looks like the most appealing football flick — particularly for women and also guys like me — ever produced. Part of the appeal for me, though, is those old uniforms, which bring me back (cinematicaly — I’m not that old) to the football fields of Horse Feathers, Harold Lloyd’s The Freshman and that famous still of Ronald Reagan from Knute Rockne All American. Then, of course, there’s the appeal of Clooney in old-timey clothes, ala O Brother Where Art Thou? Considering how much Clooney resembles Cary Grant in both appearance and acting style, it’s no wonder that I prefer him in stories that take him back to periods in which Grant was a big star. Okay, so Leatherheads is actually set in the 1920s, before Grant and his silly accent made it to the big screen, but I’m willing to ignore that little historical inaccuracy (just as the Coen Bros. ignored a lot of historical fact with O’ Brother). Had sound films come about earlier than they had, Cary Grant could have been wooed by Hollywood much sooner than he was. (more…) Originally posted on:SpoutBlog
]]>Tue, 18 Dec 2007 17:01:06 GMTSpoutBlogSpoutBlog on spout.com12/18/2007 12:01:06 PM Leave it to George Clooney to make a football movie that actually looks good to people like me. And by people like me, I mean people with no interest in American football whatsoever (I attend Super Bowl parties exclusively for the 7-layer dip). Yahoo! is hosting the trailer for Leatherheads, Clooney’s much-anticipated directorial follow-up to Good Night, and Good Luck, and the romantic sports comedy looks like the most appealing football flick — particularly for women and also guys like me — ever produced. Part of the appeal for me, though, is those old uniforms, which bring me back (cinematicaly — I’m not that old) to the football fields of Horse Feathers, Harold Lloyd’s The Freshman and that famous still of Ronald Reagan from Knute Rockne All American. Then, of course, there’s the appeal of Clooney in old-timey clothes, ala O Brother Where Art Thou? Considering how much Clooney resembles Cary Grant in both appearance and acting style, it’s no wonder that I prefer him in stories that take him back to periods in which Grant was a big star. Okay, so Leatherheads is actually set in the 1920s, before Grant and his silly accent made it to the big screen, but I’m willing to ignore that little historical inaccuracy (just as the Coen Bros. ignored a lot of historical fact with O’ Brother). Had sound films come about earlier than they had, Cary Grant could have been wooed by Hollywood much sooner than he was. (more…) Originally posted on:SpoutBlog http://www.spout.com/blogs/risselada/archive/2007/12/4/22541.aspx Post By: Risselada
Post To: Risselada Blog
Post Date: 12/4/2007 1:04:46 PM
Body: Horse FeathersI looooooove the Marx Brothers. All their stuff gets top ratings from me, well all of them I've seen at least. I haven't gotten to the last few which I heard might not be as well. But Horse Feathers fits in just wonderfully amongst their best.Like usual hilarious wordplay and well played visual gags, especially on the football field. Football games always seem prime fodder for all kinds of visual gags. When they try to pull off Harpo's shirt and it just keeps getting longer and longer. It might be about the simplest, stupidest joke you could come up with, but it's absolutely side-splitting.I'm always surprised when I remember how short some of these movies are though. This one is only 1 hour and 8 minutes. And it's the same running time for my favorite of their movies, Duck Soup.Just one more thing, does anyone out there have any idea what the phrase "horse feathers" even means? Does it have anything to do with football? Or is it just nonsense? Leave me a comment if you know.Rating: 10/10
]]>Tue, 04 Dec 2007 18:04:46 GMTRisseladaRisselada Blog12/4/2007 1:04:46 PMHorse FeathersI looooooove the Marx Brothers. All their stuff gets top ratings from me, well all of them I&#39;ve seen at least. I haven&#39;t gotten to the last few which I heard might not be as well. But Horse Feathers fits in just wonderfully amongst their best.Like usual hilarious wordplay and well played visual gags, especially on the football field. Football games always seem prime fodder for all kinds of visual gags. When they try to pull off Harpo&#39;s shirt and it just keeps getting longer and longer. It might be about the simplest, stupidest joke you could come up with, but it&#39;s absolutely side-splitting.I&#39;m always surprised when I remember how short some of these movies are though. This one is only 1 hour and 8 minutes. And it&#39;s the same running time for my favorite of their movies, Duck Soup.Just one more thing, does anyone out there have any idea what the phrase &quot;horse feathers&quot; even means? Does it have anything to do with football? Or is it just nonsense? Leave me a comment if you know.Rating: 10/10 http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/archive/2007/8/20/18431.aspx Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 8/20/2007 12:00:45 PM
Body: Bob at Forward to Yesterday informs us that yesterday was the 30th anniversary of the death of Groucho Marx. If you’d like to honor the godfather of motor-mouthed, self-reflexive comedy by watching Horse Feathers or Duck Soup, you need look no further than YouTube. I’ve embedded the speakeasy scene from the former above, and as a bonus, you get a chunk of Zeppo singing “Everybody Says I Love You.” Originally posted on:Spoutblog
]]>Mon, 20 Aug 2007 16:00:45 GMTSpoutBlogSpoutBlog on spout.com8/20/2007 12:00:45 PM Bob at Forward to Yesterday informs us that yesterday was the 30th anniversary of the death of Groucho Marx. If you’d like to honor the godfather of motor-mouthed, self-reflexive comedy by watching Horse Feathers or Duck Soup, you need look no further than YouTube. I’ve embedded the speakeasy scene from the former above, and as a bonus, you get a chunk of Zeppo singing “Everybody Says I Love You.” Originally posted on:Spoutblog http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/sex/MemberTagFilms.aspxsex
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