BACKSTORY: The Marx Brothers (Groucho, Chico, Harpo, and for a time, Zeppo) are pretty much my favorite comedians from the golden age of Hollywood. Starting out at Paramount with “The Cocoanuts” in 1929, they moved to MGM in 1935 for “A Night at the Opera.” Under the tutelage of Irving Thalberg, they created two of their slickest comedies. When Thalberg died, Louis B. Mayer had no interest in promoting the zany brothers and they withered on the vine at the studio with their last MGM production being “The Big Store” (1941). They made a few more films together sporadically over the years, but never topped the genius of their earlier films like “Duck Soup” and “A Day at the Races.”
