Watched the Marx Brothers'
A Night in Casablanca [1946] for the first time in about 20 years or so. It's still a deeply unsatisfying movie. Sure, this is the Brothers well past their prime and looking it, and likely only made because Chico needed to pay off gambling debts.
"Plot", such at it is, involves Nazis hiding in postwar Morocco enroute to South America. All that, however, feels like it's from a cheap TV drama with the Marxes' scenes randomly slotted in. Sig Ruman, a superb antagonist in the mighty
Opera and the troubled
Races, is just a hammy villain with plenty of malice (I mean, he is playing a Nazi) but none of the knowingness he displays in the films of a decade earlier. Despite 10 minutes or so of exposition of the start, interrupted only by two short but clever Harpo gags (one legendary), I never found myself caring much for the romantic leads and the "twist" in the final third is utterly underwhelming.
But we're not watching these things for the story, are we? It's the comedy that matters, and at least I can say they try. So much promising stuff is set up, then either fails to deliver, or just peters out. It's clear that certain sequences were inspired by earlier films and there's a variant of the stateroom scene from
Opera, the mirror sequence from
Duck Soup, and even the ice routine from
Horse Feathers. Audiences at the time wouldn't have immediate access to these earlier films, and there's nothing wrong in acts adapting material for new projects but through either poor direction and editing or just lack of setup they just don't work.
For all that, though, glimpses of past glories shine through. Groucho's standout scene is his indignant refusal to give a couple called Smith a room, all because "Mr Smith" referred to him as clerk (20 years ago the entire routine was lost on me). When his one liners work, they work really well. It's also refreshing to see Chico get one over on Groucho in a brilliant payoff to an interrupted-romance sequence that misleadingly repeatedly fails to build or gather momentum until the final, fantastic and unexpected (or fantastic because it's unexpected) punchline. Even the Harpo-plays-Charades-to-a-confused-Chico-to-move-the-plot-along part that should be cringeworthy due to its overuse causes joy eventually. Musically, Chico gets a reasonably decent piano solo demonstrating his technique , and Harpo's bit includes some funky late-40s beats.
When watching it, I increasingly felt that perhaps it would work better as stage show. The Brothers clearly need energy to feed off, and feel cramped by the restraints of the direction. There's so much stuff in it that could work, and we know that in their younger days they would pull it off easily. But I don't walk away from it as annoyed as I do with
Go West (all you need is the first sequence and the final one - the rest is instantly forgettable), and I can well imagine that an audience returning to the act after the five years of war between
The Big Store and this would have been more appreciative than someone today. It's a reunion, not a reinvention.