An exercise in zany humour and wit, Horse Feathers is the fourth Marx Brothers film. With Groucho, Harpo, Zeppo, and Chico, this comedy classic ought to be required viewing for anyone with even a passing interest in cinema or farce. Jam-packed with one-liners, sight gags, surreal humour, musical numbers, and slapstick, Horse Feathers exemplifies the vaudeville roots of the Marx Brothers to perfection. In fact, many of the gags were taken from the Marx Brothers’ stage comedy Fun in Hi Skule.
The film’s screwball plot is secondary to the non-stop barrage of uproarious gags. Groucho is Quincy Adams Wagstaff, the new president of Huxley College. Zeppo plays his son, Frank Wagstaff. Frank convinces his father to recruit professional football players to help the luckless Huxley College football team win some games. The elder Wagstaff goes to a local speakeasy to recruit the professional players, only to inadvertently recruit Baravelli (Chico) and Pinky (Harpo) instead.
As new football players, Baravelli and Pinky must becomes students at Huxley. Enrolled in classes, comic chaos ensues as the new president and his two new students engage in what can only be described as non-stop tomfoolery. There’s a love interest of sorts, too, as Thelma Todd plays Connie Bailey, the college widow dating Frank. Connie becomes involved with each character in some fashion. There is also a plot about kidnapping football players from a rival school and, as expected, it goes horribly and side-splittingly off beam.
Ruminating about the plot is almost a pointless affair, as Horse Feathers picks it up and puts it down so many times that it becomes a prop in this grand comedy. In essence, the audience is treated to the lawlessness of the Marx Brothers. Pandemonium reigns as Groucho spouts one witty riposte after another. His moustache, painted on and evermore iconic, gives him a paternal approach to Zeppo’s Frank. Yet he lacks every fatherly inclination, instead giving way to continuous disarray and incessant enjoyment.
Zeppo plays the “straight man” of the picture, but he does so in a way that is undoubtedly tacky. Much has been made about Zeppo’s refinement in contrast to the bedlam of his brothers and Horse Feathers provides copious examples of this. In many ways, Zeppo mirrored film clichés. He mirrors and amplifies the stereotype of the “college man.” He is dating the college widow, for instance, and he plays her the straight verse of “Everyone Says I Love You.”
Article comments
1 - El Bicho
My favorite sequence with Chico
Baravelli: You gotta brother?
Mullen: No.
Baravelli: You gotta sister?
Mullen: Yeah.
Baravelli: Well-a, you sister, she's a very sick man, you better come with us.
Mullen: Yeah? What happened to her?
Baravelli: She hadda accident in her automobile.
McCarthy: Ah, she has no automobile.
Baravelli: Well-a, maybe she's-a fall off-a horse. I don't-a look very close. Come on, we take you in our car.
Mullen: You will, eh? Well, I have no sister.
Baravelli: That's all right. We no gotta car. Come on.