Monkey Business

Another Marx brothers film, containing their signature archaic mixture of puns, slapstick, and physical action comedy. If not quite as intense as Duck Soup, it contains all the same familiar themes (though perhpas more of a love interest, for both Zeppo and periodically Groucho). The Brothers play well off the supporting cast, who are more than mere cyphers in this work, and the plot, deliberately hammy as it is, has a certain amount of drive. Let's see how the Brother's, individually, get on.
Chico; The punmaster, second string as a wise guy behind Groucho. Probably necessary for balance and for Harpo to play off, but rarely much entertainment on his own.
Groucho; The most modern (and famous) of the jokesters, his fast talking style is the definition of hit and miss. Physically, he is always excellent, the unexplained absurdities delightful.
Harpo; an incredible character, utterly sinister and malevolent in his mute mania. The unexplained chasing of the women is the funniest part of the production. Always a kind of sick curiousity surrounds him, Samuel Beckett is right here.
Zeppo; the pointless brother. It was likely for the best he did not feature in all the films, he truly is not able to adapt to a comic persona.
A word should also be given to the music performances, Chico's exhillarating piano and Harpo's sweetly beautiful harp, unexpected in its tenderness and given further import by its place in the otherwise most postmodern, imagistic, frenzied and kaliedoscopically inverted form of filmaking.
Again, we repeat; the Marx Brothers do not make us laugh, but the structure, the haunting chaos of the piece (wonderfully offset by the above mentioned music) leads to viewing experiences that are compelling, and stay with the viewer. True works of art.