THE COCOANUTS (1929)

The Old Split-screen Routine

Boo

That's All Folks!

Title: The Cocoanuts
Year: 1929
Director: Joseph Santley / Robert Florey
Format: Blu-ray
Label: Arrow Academy

Notes:

THE COCOANUTS is the first talkie made by the Marx Brothers and for a first go at the emerging medium it's actually pretty good. Groucho Marx's dialogue and performance are the obvious stars of the show although Chico holds his own and there are several memorable skits involving the two of them.

It's also clear that Harpo Marx was an accomplished clown who knew how to work the stage and screen. There are four more films in the Marx Brothers box set from which this blu-ray came - it will be interesting to see if Harpo's shtick wears thin by the end. By contrast, Zeppo Marx is almost anonymous in THE COCOANUTS.

The film is effectively a combination of comedy routines and song and dance numbers. I didn't mind this really - the musical elements serve as a refreshing break between the jokes and zaniness.
Unfortunately it's clear that some of the female vocals are too high a pitch for the sound recording technology of the time, with some ugly distortion present on what is otherwise a pretty clear soundtrack.

There's not masses of visual invention on display here. The high point is the connected room split-screen scene shown above but this was nothing new - I've seen it in Buster Keaton's 1921 short THE 'HIGH SIGN' and it was probably done by someone else before then. The film's pacing is a little off and feels about 10 minutes too long. It also never really escapes it's origin as a theatrical work and having the Brothers break the fourth wall by posing for applause at the end doesn't exactly help.