Description

The Marx Brothers’ fourth film sees them creating havoc on campus in a high school college comedy. The new president of Huxley college, Professor Quincy Adams Wagstaff (Groucho) soon sets about attending to important school business; namely, winning the school their first football game since 1888. On the advice of his son (Zeppo), he enters a local speakeasy, intending to bribe a couple of professional players to make the college team. What he ends up with instead are inept dog catcher Harpo and ice delivery man Chico. However, the duo prove invaluable when Wagstaff becomes romantically involved with the scheming Connie Bailey (Thelma Todd), a college widow who is secretly in league with Huxley’s chief rivals, Darwin! Imagine Groucho as the president of a college and Harpo and Chico as football players. It doesn’t get much wackier than this. Horse feathers, indeed. Groucho is hilarious to watch as a hip professor. He’s at his most rebellious singing “Whatever it is, I’m against it.” Thelma Todd does some of her best vamping to help fix the big football game, which Harpo and Chico are supposed to throw. Naturally, the brothers have other ideas. For sheer laughter, this has to rate almost as high as Duck Soup, with the memorable speakeasy sequence, and the funniest football finale of all time, complete with banana peels and a chariot. — Bill Desowitz