Love Happy
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| Love Happy | |
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| Directed by | David Miller |
| Produced by | Mary Pickford David Miller |
| Written by | Mac Benoff Frank Tashlin Harpo Marx (story) |
| Starring | Groucho Marx Harpo Marx Chico Marx Ilona Massey Vera-Ellen Marion Hutton Marilyn Monroe |
| Music by | Ann Ronell |
| Cinematography | William Mellor |
| Editing by | Basil Wrangell |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
| Release date(s) | 3 March 1950 |
| Running time | 85 min. |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Love Happy (1950) was the 14th (including Humor Risk), and virtually the last, Marx Brothers movie (they would return to the big screen in 1957 for brief, separate appearances in The Story of Mankind).
The film stars Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, and, in a smaller role than usual, Groucho Marx, plus Ilona Massey, Vera-Ellen, Marion Hutton, Raymond Burr, Bruce Gordon, and Eric Blore, with a memorable walk-on by a young Marilyn Monroe. It was directed by David Miller, and written by Frank Tashlin and Mac Benoff, based on a story by Harpo.[citation needed]
The film was produced by former silent film star Mary Pickford and released by United Artists. Although shooting began in August 1948, the film was not released until 3 March 1950. The production ran out of money during shooting, so they came up with a unique form of product placement (rare for the time): a rooftop chase around advertising billboards.
Harpo is up to his usual antics when he steals a tin of sardines and accidentally bags the Romanoff diamonds. The film was originally conceived as a solo film for Harpo, but Groucho often said the brothers did the film to help Chico pay off gambling debts. Once Chico was in, the producers refused to finance the film unless all three Marx Brothers were.
Groucho appears without his usual greasepaint moustache and thick eyebrows. He is rarely in the same scenes as his brothers, and mainly provides an encompassing narration to explain things in the film when the necessary sequences for a coherent narrative were unavailable. Groucho avoided mentioning it at all in his autobiography Groucho and Me (1959), apparently at that time considering A Night in Casablanca their last film together, but did acknowledge the film 17 years later in The Groucho Phile: An Illustrated Life (1976). Because of the encapsulated nature of Groucho's scenes, it had been assumed that his presence was an afterthought. However, recently discovered letters from Groucho show that he was to have been part of the project from its earliest stages in 1946-47.
This movie is regarded by some as the worst Marx Brothers movie; other Marx Brothers fans, particularly Harpo's, do not hold such a negative opinion of the film. The IMDb rates The Story of Mankind lower, but that movie was not specifically produced as a Marx Brothers vehicle.
The film has a musical score and lyrics by Ann Ronell, with a lively film noirish dancing version of Sadie Thompson (Vera-Ellen) and US Marines on a South Pacific Island.
[edit] Musical numbers
- Love Happy
- Who Stole the Jam?
- Sadie Thompson Number
- Gypsy Love Song
- Swanee River
- Polonaise in A-Flat
Chico plays a duet on "Gypsy Love Song" with actor-musician Leon Belasco as Mr. Lyons, the owner of the stage props and costumes. Belasco, on violin, starts playing many fancy trills until Chico says, "Look, Mista Lyons, I know you wanna make a good impression — but please, don't play better than me!"
[edit] Cast
- Groucho Marx as Detective Sam Grunion
- Chico Marx as Faustino the Great
- Harpo Marx as Harpo
- Ilona Massey as Madame Egelichi
- Vera-Ellen as Maggie Phillips
- Marion Hutton as Bunny Dolan
- Raymond Burr as Alphonse Zoto
- Melville Cooper as Lefty Throckmorton
- Paul Valentine as Mike Johnson
- Bruce Gordon as Hannibal Zoto
- Marilyn Monroe as Grunion's Client
- Leon Belasco as Mr. Lyons
- Eric Blore as Mackinaw
- Otto Waldis as Ivan
[edit] External links
- Love Happy at the Internet Movie Database
- Love Happy at the TCM Movie Database
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