This is truly one of the Marx Brother’s best films (Can you name all 4?1). I love a good movie that even 75+ years after it’s made, it still can make anyone young to old laugh. I had a teenager and several adults laughing with me as we watched these silly, witty men do what they did best. Comedy!
What strikes me as odd was how true this movie is today. This is a policital comedy made in 1933. Yet, I could hear echoes of the bankrupt Feedonia today. Haven’t we all heard about the money woes of GM and the big auto companies, AIG and the banks and even our own government?
I found it even more interesting when a rich widow decides to loan the poor bankrupt country bail out money. Is this the US government, now freshly widowed from a free market into the world of socialism2, bailing out the big companies? Or is this China, being the largest holder of US bonds, bailing us out? Maybe I’m pushing my creative license just a bit.
Even politics aren’t spared Groucho’s witty remarks. Groucho as Rufus T. Firefly is the only person capable of saving Freedonia, at least according to the rich widow. Is this the sound of November 2008? Was there only one man that could bail out the Unites States? Maybe it’s not fair comparing Grouch to President Obama. Groucho isn’t around to defend himself. I’m kidding!3 I do have to admit I had a good laugh when Grouch with his large eyebrows and even larger cigar sang, “If you think this county is bad off now. Just wait until I get through with it.”
We are all doomed!
1 Groucho, Chico, Harpo, Zeppo
2 That is what the talking heads on several news programs have claimed.
3 Go Obama!
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Thanks for posting about this, I would love to read more about this topic.