The first time the Marx Brothers were given a big production to go with their lunatic sketches, and it paid off with a huge success which undoubtedly extended their career in the cinema by several years – all, that is, apart from Zeppo, who absented himself from here on in.  The team would go on to make one more arguable classic, A Day at the Races, before the magic started to wane.

Halliwell described the brothers in the Filmgoer’s Companion as -

‘A family of Jewish-American comics whose zany humour convulsed minority audiences in its time and influenced later comedy writing to an enormous extent.’

LH also awarded them a ‘rosette’, for outstanding contribution to the cinema, with this dedication:

‘For shattering all our illusions, and making us love it.’

Year: 1935