A Night at the Podcast Recording for Committed Marxists

In introducing a recent edition of The Marx Brothers Council podcast, Matthew Coniam, author of indispensable books on Jane Austen, Egyptomania and Abbott and Costello, read from a pair of press clippings that cast a jaundiced eye on the doings of Groucho, Chico, Harpo, and sometimes Zeppo. With a wink and a nod, Mr. Coniam cadges a turn of phrase from one of the reviews, using it to describe the podcast’s modus operandi as “truffling for tedium.” Whereupon follows ninety minutes of discussion about members of the family Marx to which, it can be reasonably stated, the majority of mankind has never given a second thought. Well, maybe, stage mom Minnie and hapless dad, “Frenchy,” but peripheral figures like Aunt Hannah and Cousin Polly? Only the most committed Marxist could claim interest, and over the course of ninety podcasts, Mr. Coniam, along with an inveterate New Yorker of many talents, Noah Diamond, and “displaced Chicagoan” and television editor, Bob Gassel, have done their utmost to nook-and-cranny the lives and work of the comedy troupe. “We split hairs and wallow in minutiae for its own sake,” Mr. Coniam avers. For Marx Brothers diehards such truffling is a must-listen.Mssrs. Coniam, Diamond and Gassel will be on hand this Sunday April 12 at the Museum of the Moving Image to do a live recording of the podcast directly after a screening of Norman Z. McLeod’s “Horse Feathers” (1932). This Marxian take on academia, college sports, and the vagaries of dog catching isn’t as well-known in the popular imagination as Leo McCarey’s “Duck Soup” (1933) or Sam Wood’s “A Night at the Opera” (1935), both of which are typically cited as the Brothers’ finest films. McLeod’s unruly 67-minute opus is, for many of us, just as stellar.“Horse Feathers” takes place in a universe wherein no one blinks an eye at the appointment of an uncredentialed, cigar-smoking grotesque as the president of a university. But there he is, Groucho Marx — or, rather, Professor Quincy Adams Wagstaff — at the induction ceremony, wielding a cudgel and regaling a cadre of stuffy academics with a ditty that is both a philosophical rebuff and a statement of purpose, “Whatever It Is, I’m Against It.”It’s not the only tune written by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby featured in the picture; so is “Everyone Says I Love You,” a number that each of the brothers takes a stab at. Zeppo turns in a relatively straight rendition, Chico’s version involves the versification of flypaper, Harpo renders it on his harp, and Groucho waxes cynical about love whilst in the company of the doomed platinum blonde actress, Thelma Todd.Todd was a gifted comedienne — she’s particularly capable when sparring with Groucho — and her character, Connie Bailey, figures into a memorably frenetic scene in which the Brothers run rampant through her boudoir. Bailey is “The College Widow,” an outdated term connoting a woman who made it her business romancing the male student body, and it’s not the only turn of phrase that will be lost on contemporary audiences. A reference to calomel, a mercury-laden medicine once used to alleviate a variety of ailments, spurs a run of terrible puns in what is likely the most famous sequence from “Horse Feathers”: Groucho attempting to enter a speakeasy whose security checkpoint, Chico, ain’t having it.Stray archaisms in no way hobble the movie’s momentum. McLeod proved himself an amenable collaborator by setting up the camera and then getting out of the way. Less an auteur than a ringleader, McLeod knew well enough to let the talent on hand take precedence. His run of great comedies, including some of the best work by W.C. Fields, Bob Hope, and Red Skelton, are proof positive that he was right to do so. “Horse Feathers” is a free-for-all. Let’s hope the hosts of The Marx Brothers Council podcast have the wherewithal to follow up on it.

A Night at the Podcast Recording for Committed Marxists

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