The_Movie_Cat Taken as the final Marx Brothers movie, then Love Happy can't help but disappoint. But the enjoyment contained in this pleasant diversion of a film is perhaps directly proportionate to how you approach it. Really the film, based on a story by Harpo, is a solo Harpo Marx vehicle, and the first one in which his character shares the same moniker as his stage name since Monkey Business. I've reviewed three Marx Brothers movies on the IMDb over the last decade or so, and in some of them I've been pretty mean about Harpo's character. As a relative Marx Brothers novice (though, as said, I've still been watching them for around a dozen years now) maybe it took me a while to get used to him, or maybe he really is just more likable in this one? Certainly his affectations around women seem more genuinely innocent and charming than the would-be sex pest of the earlier vehicles. Though this is, of course, the whole point: the Harpo Marx in this film isn't really the uncontrollable force of nature from earlier ventures, but a more passive and selfless man played by an actor now in his sixties. You're no longer watching THE Harpo, but A Harpo. One inconsolable issue I've always had with the character is that the inner beauty he allows us to see during his harp solos isn't reflected in the regular persona. So the sweet and gentle look in Harpo's eyes comes from a different place to the guy causing violent mayhem or female harassment. By the time of Love Happy, both sides of the character finally meet in the middle, as Harpo begins to embrace the kind of naked sentimentality so beloved of Chaplin, particularly towards the end of his career. (And as Harpo ages, he begins to bear more than a passing resemblance to Chaplin, particularly as Charlie played other characters with his own white hair during the 50s).So, if we can take this film on its own terms, and lower expectations accordingly, it becomes more palatable. Then we factor in that it has a minor role for Chico. The brothers had previously come out of a five- year retirement for A Night In Casablanca (6) reputedly to help clear Chico's gambling debts. Chico doesn't get away with this scott free, as in Casablanca and this movie he's forced to take parts in scenes that involve him gambling. Love Happy even has him losing, with a "There goes my coat". And in an age of product placement, then the mark of the financial backers is even sent up, with Harpo amusingly using most of the advertising billboards during the climax as makeshift fairground rides.With all this in mind, it's a likable enough movie that features the final film performance of Harpo Marx, with a guest appearance from his brother. Except, by this stage, the financial backers want the obvious and Groucho is also drafted in. Yet Groucho isn't properly integrated into the narrative, and just does introductory monologues/voice-overs and gets to share hardly any screen time with his brothers at all, not even being seen on screen with Chico even though they're supposed to be in the same scene. Even worse, Groucho couldn't make his disinterest any clearer if he'd tried. While he appeared reinvigorated for Casablanca - for my money, better than any film they took part in since A Day At The Races – here he's just there to help out his brothers, a deeply bored man sans greasepaint, more interested in his TV quiz show than this "not really a Marx Brothers" movie.Certainly even less of a Marx Brothers movie is an endeavour they all did eight years later – Irwin Allen's The Story of Mankind (5), featuring all three brothers playing minor roles in vignettes where they do not meet. A film that looks part epic (thanks to reused stock footage), part cheap episode of Star Trek, it has some amusing moments for a once-again-trying Groucho, a "blink and you'll miss it" secondary part for Chico and two minutes of Harpo as Isaac Newton. The only time they were shot in colour – in this case the lovably dated and garish Technicolor – you finally get to see them in their splendour, although Groucho once again appears without his make-up, and all three are pushing seventy. It's by no means a great film, and by no means a Marx Brothers movie, though it's probably better than its reputation, even if only by default.So for the final three Marx Brothers pictures after their return from retirement, we're left with the unsettling prospect that only one of them can genuinely be regarded as a Marx Brothers movie. Love Happy, then. It's a terrible Marx Brothers movie. But as a movie in its own right, it's really quite charming.

JohnWelles "Love Happy" (1949) was the Marxs brothers final film. Most Marxs brothers fans dismiss it, which is doing the movie a great wrong. Of course, its not up to the standard of their other pictures but there are some really funny moments in the film such: The climatic chase across roofs, the villains trying to find out where the jewels are from Harpo and Groucho's virtual cameo has some good one-liners. The musical numbers are generally good, even if Harpo's serenading of Vera-Ellen with a harp is rather irritating. There is all so a good segment with Harpo stealing food early on in the movie. As you may have noticed, Harpo seems to do a lot of the pictures best bits, and this is mainly because he gets the most screen time. On the whole, a much better film than most people say.

Joe Migliore LOVE HAPPY was originally intended to be a solo effort by Harpo, but he couldn't get backing. It was Mary Pickford who suggested that Groucho and Chico become involved, then she, one of the original United Artists, would finance it. So The Marx Brothers ended their cinematic career with an atypical feature, but an improvement over THE BIG STORE.Groucho shares barely any screen time with his brothers, serving mostly as narrator. This is because he was host of the popular television show YOU BET YOUR LIFE, and had only a couple of days available for filming. (He even wears his real moustache instead of the grease paint one he sported for the previous features!) Chico fares better, easily falling into the patter he long ago perfected.Obviously, this is not the film to introduce someone to The Marx Brothers. (That would be DUCK SOUP or MONKEY BUSINESS anyway.) Instead, this entry is dessert for the viewer who has already viewed the other dozen Marx Brothers features, but is still hungry for more.

Baravelli_the_ice_lady I've been a die-hard Marxist for several years now. After I watched their first seven films to the point where my tapes were in tatters, I sought out their later films, the lesser productions Room Service thru Night in Casablanca. After that, I still wanted more, so I finally gave in and watched the one film that I KNEW would be painful: Love Happy. Virtually every review has smeared this film and ripped into it with full claws, so I braced myself and bought the DVD.Now let me tell you something: this movie is great. Of course it's not in the ballpark of the Paramounts, but it fits nicely with their later films, and is a real delight. So why the negative rap? Well, this movie was originally intended as a solo vehicle for Harpo Marx. Chico joined on when he needed money to get out of debt. Groucho was never supposed to be in this film, but the sponsors said that they wouldn't release it unless he was, so that they could bill it as a "Marx Brothers" picture. So footage of Groucho narrating parts of the story were shoehorned into the finished product. The result? Chico and Harpo are just as enchanting as ever, and Groucho--despite being displayed prominently on the movie posters--is relegated to a commentator. Since most Marx fans are Groucho fans first, Chico/Harpo fans second, this setup comes as a slap in the face, and the film gets trashed.As such, if you watch the Marxes mainly to see Groucho's witty quips, this movie will bore you stiff. However, if you--like me--love the others just as much as Groucho (for me, Chico will ALWAYS be the funniest Marx Brother!) you'll be surprised at how good Love Happy really is. I'd go into the plot, but with a Marx movie, who really cares about the plot? It's our boys we're after. Chico plays an uproarious piano/violin duet, lusts after Ilona Massey, has some "tootsy-frootsy ice cream" and does some flawed mind-reading; Harpo tumbles through a washing machine, turns his fingers into candles, pulls a dog out of his coat and lusts after Ilona Massey. And Groucho narrates, searches, quips, ponders the situation, and...lusts after Ilona Massey. Oh!--and did I mention this film started the career of a young Marilyn Monroe? In short, to a Chico/Harpo fan, this movie is as good as (and often better than) At the Circus or A Night in Casablanca. To a Groucho fan...well, that's why we have remote-controls.