THE COCOANUTS - The Marx Brothers' Debut© John Vincent Brennan
Jul 10, 2000
In 1929, The Marx Brothers signed with Paramount to film a talkie of their Broadway hit THE COCOANUTS. As they were currently performing on Broadway in ANIMAL CRACKERS, they made the film at Paramount's Long Island studio in Astoria, New York, filming on days when they didn't have matinee performances.
The film, as seen today, is a patchwork print from several sources, some of them obviously in bad shape. The Marxes themselves seem at times unsure of their dialogue (the silent Harpo obviously excepted) and frequently stumble or hesitate during lines, so much so that you begin to wonder why director Robert Florey didn't ask for a retake. And more than any other Marx Brothers film except for A DAY AT THE RACES (1937), THE COCOANUTS stops frequently for intrusive musical interludes. In RACES, the songwriters and filmmakers were so undecided what song they should promote as the hit, they shoved four or five of them into the film. (They had so many, they actually had to cut two of them, one a hilarious Groucho number called "Dr. Hackenbush"). In THE COCOANUTS, it is obvious which of Irving Berlin's songs was being pushed - the dreary "When My Dreams Come True". It is sung or played so many times in the film that you either develop an odd affection for it (like I have), or you may start feeling like the killer in Peter Bogdonavich's TARGETS - ya just want to get out and hurt some people until the pain goes away. Well, maybe it's not *that* bad, but I imagine Irving Berlin himself would have probably liked to forget it. As Joe Adamson said in GROUCHO, HARPO, CHICO AND SOMETIMES ZEPPO, "Irving Berlin didn't have a hit song in THE COCOANUTS, and this was it."
When the film is not stopping to plug "When My Dreams Come True", it is stopping to explain the plot, and explain it again. So much is made of a stolen necklace, a mysterious map to a certain plot of land, and a detective snooping around (for reasons unknown), midway through the film you may start feeling guilty about not caring a whit about any of it. Here's the deal - the bad guy and girl want in on the rich woman's dough, so they frame her daughter's boyfriend so that the good daughter will marry the bad guy. That's it. Now bring on the Marx Brothers.
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