Cocoanut is an empty hotel in Florida run by Mr. Hammer. Things change when the rich Mrs. Potter and her daugher Polly decide to stay at the hotel, which Hammer sees as an golden opportunity. The two clumsy guys, Chico and Harpo, also arrive at the hotel. Hammer, Chico and Harpo help to stop Harvey from stealing Mrs. Potter’s diamond necklace and allow Polly to get her mother’s permission to marry the poor, but honest architect Bob.
“The Cocoanuts” are the first Marx brothers film, and unsurprisingly one of their weaker efforts, a clumsy comedy where nobody was yet sure which path to take, whereas their jokes are also not that inspired to be the high example of their skills. Aggravating the situation further is the boring subplot about a stolen necklace, as well as too much empty walk in the form of superfluous musical and dance numbers, and even one overlong, 3-minute scene of Harpo playing a harp. Nonetheless, Groucho Marx still has some good jokes that save the film. One of the better ones is when Groucho tells Chico to bid higher anonymously at an auction, in order to create hype for the worthless land very few want to buy, but Chico takes this too literally, and just starts bidding with himself: “200 $! 300! 400! 500!” Harpo is also at times funny as the notorious pickpocket: he leans his head onto the cleavage of a lady, only to pull out her silk handkerchief with his teeth; in another moment, Harpo sneaks up and stands right behind a man, who then intends to put the key behind in his pocket, but inadvertently puts it into Harpo’s pocket instead, which is creative. Groucho’s wisecracks are still funny, especially in the scene where the giant Mrs. Potter sneaks up behind Groucho, towering over him, just says: “How do you do?”, but Groucho is so surprised and scared, as he turns around, he says: “Why don’t you whistle at the crossing?” A fun little flawed comedy, but it attests that the Marx brothers crossed into greatness only on two films, “Duck Soup” and “Animal Crackers”.
Grade:++
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