Brilliant or Blasphamy... You Decide

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Rob Farr
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Brilliant or Blasphamy... You Decide

Postby Rob Farr » Sat Jan 25, 2014 3:42 am

Over on the Marx Brothers Council of Facebook page, member Bob Gassel offered up a version of Night at the Opera as if it had been produced by Paramount. It now runs 68 minutes. He did more than just lose the deadliest musical munbers (tho he did keep Alone), he cut the pauses for laughs and some of the scenes that make even the heartiest Marx lovers cringe: Harpo being beaten and Groucho's descent down the stairs. And wait'll ya get a load of the new theme music. For what it's worth, here it is: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1P8Tal ... view?pli=1
Rob Farr
"If it's not comedy, I fall asleep" - Harpo Marx

Rob Farr
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Re: Brilliant or Blasphamy... You Decide

Postby Rob Farr » Sat Jan 25, 2014 3:54 am

I for one like Gassel cut. It's never going to replace the NATO we all know and love, but it is fun to see Night with all the Thalberg drained out of it.
Rob Farr
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Re: Brilliant or Blasphamy... You Decide

Postby Gary Johnson » Sat Jan 25, 2014 11:56 pm

Makes me all the more sadder for their studio move.

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Re: Brilliant or Blasphamy... You Decide

Postby Joe Migliore » Sun Jan 26, 2014 3:30 am

It is an interesting experiment...and a better choice than THE BIG STORE. Imagine what futile effort that would be.

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Re: Brilliant or Blasphamy... You Decide

Postby Rob Farr » Sun Jan 26, 2014 10:02 am

MGM, where all great comedians went to die. Thank God W.C. Fields wasn't signed by MGM after the success of Copperfield (not that they wanted him). We never would have had The Bank Dick or Sucker.
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Re: Brilliant or Blasphamy... You Decide

Postby Richard M Roberts » Sun Jan 26, 2014 10:18 am

Having time now to take a look at it, apart from shortening it I don't see much difference. MGM is a state of mind, not just pacing and musical numbers. The fact that the Marxes give a damn about Allan Jones and Kitty Carlisle is MGMing right there. Besides, OPERA is not the problem, it is a good mix of Marx and Metro, take a shot at DAY AT THE RACES sometime, I still think that's the worst Marx MGM vecause it's a total rehash of OPERA, just longer and slower.


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Re: Brilliant or Blasphamy... You Decide

Postby Gary Johnson » Sun Jan 26, 2014 10:51 am

.....and Groucho is given umpteen variations on how pretty Maureen Sullivan's eyes are.
That's when Kalmar & Ruby really began being missed.

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Re: Brilliant or Blasphamy... You Decide

Postby Joe Migliore » Sun Jan 26, 2014 6:41 pm

Rob Farr Wrote:
Thank God W.C. Fields wasn't signed by MGM after the success of Copperfield (not that they wanted him). We never would have had The Bank Dick or Sucker.


Thank God too that Universal didn't need to force other comedians to make Abbott & Costello movies. That was a very fortuitous move.

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Re: Brilliant or Blasphamy... You Decide

Postby Richard M Roberts » Sun Jan 26, 2014 8:22 pm

Joe Migliore wrote:Rob Farr Wrote:
Thank God W.C. Fields wasn't signed by MGM after the success of Copperfield (not that they wanted him). We never would have had The Bank Dick or Sucker.


Thank God too that Universal didn't need to force other comedians to make Abbott & Costello movies. That was a very fortuitous move.



Well, there was some coarsening and corruption of W. C. Fields' character in the move from Paramount to Universal, he was so upset about not being able to shoot scenes that made his character sympathetic in YOU CAN'T CHEAT AN HONEST MAN that he walked off the picture. Field's Universal's trade surreal gagging for more human qualities most of the time, and sadly, the one picture there he had total control of, THE BANK DICK, was a flop.

That said though, I have always said that Universal was in many ways the other last refuge for Comedians and Comedy Industry Veterans in the late 30's and early 40's, apart from Columbia. Clyde Bruckman was commuting between those two studios then, and apart from Field and A and C, they also made feature comedies with Olsen and Johnson, The Ritz Brothers, Hugh Herbert, Slim Summerville, Leon Errol and Joan Davis, as well as those interesting Michael Fessier/Ernest Pagano productions like SAN DIEGO I LOVE YOU, HER PRIMITIVE MAN, THAT'S THE SPIRIT, FRONTIER GAL, etc.


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Re: Brilliant or Blasphamy... You Decide

Postby Gary Johnson » Sun Jan 26, 2014 10:26 pm

Pagano had an interesting, if short, career (died young).
I always saw his name on the credits of RKO features in the Thirties (Astaire & Rogers -- separately and together), but I see
he started as a gagman in shorts -- among them Keaton's early Educationals and many Arbuckle-directed talkies, including the
faddishly popular BRIDGE WIVES (32).
Did I mention SPITE MARRIAGE? That looks like one of his earliest features. He and Keaton must of had some kind of kinship
together as Pagano got him work in his 40's productions when no one else would hire him.


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