Room Service (1938)

Really Surprised!

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

One of Lucy's early, credited roles. She had been in hollyood for five years, but mostly in uncredited or deleted roles. It's a fun, typical Marx Brothers film... lots of antics, an act trying to stay in a hotel, with the hotel manager always after them for not paying the bills. The awesome, clever Marx brothers had been making about one film a year, and this time they brought in Ann Miller (who appears to be only 15, if you do the math!), Lucy, and Frank Albertson. And of course Donald MacBride, as the gullible hotel manager. They must pretend there's a major illness, so the hotel can't possibly evict them, but maybe they will anyway. The usual silliness and shenanigans. It's pretty good. a required viewing for Marx Brothers fans. and of couse, an early Lucy film. Its Fun! not their best, but its good old fashioned comedy from the vaudefille days. and who can pass up watching the Marx Brothers run around in circles, playing with clever word phrases ? It IS on dvd, but it shows on Turner Classics now and then.

Jumping Butterballs, it's another Marx Brothers free for all! If you go by other reviewers' comments of the film here on IMDb, this is one you're probably not supposed to like but I didn't think it was so bad. Granted, when I place the picture in my list of Marx Brothers films and rank them by voter preference here on IMDb, it comes up near the bottom just ahead of "The Big Store". So maybe it's a matter of mining the picture for those little nuggets of gold that don't necessarily jump right out and hit you in the face.For starters, there's Lucille Ball, who if I had been a betting man, would have lost on whether she ever appeared in a Marx Brothers flick. So that was surprise number one for this viewer. That hotel dinner scene where Miller (Groucho), Benelli (Chico) and Faker (Harpo) finally get to chow down with Leo Davis (Frank Albertson) is a pretty frantic affair, with good comedic timing as Chico gets his arm entangled in Harpo's staccato-like fork frenzy.And say, right here with the Motion Picture Production Code in full effect, it appeared to me the film makers managed to sneak a doozy past the movie censors when the bamboozled Doctor Glass (Charles Halton) frustratingly denounces his description by Groucho's character as the house detective when he proclaims "I'm not a dick, I'm a doctor!" Looking on the bright side, I thought the line might have been an inspiration for Dr. McCoy on one of those future 'Star Trek' TV episodes.Anyway, I think you can give this one a try even if you're not a die-hard Marx Brothers fan. My timing in catching the picture turned out to be an unusually well placed one. Having watched it yesterday, it was a rather unique and novel surprise to see my annual Thanksgiving Day turkey show up in a Marx Brothers flick.

Okay I really like some of the Marx Brothers movies and there are some I don't like so much. As you can see from summary I am not thrilled with this one. It is okay but I personally did not laugh to many times. The best I can say is tried, true, but cute. They do the usual routines, running around trying to pull off a play that has no financial backing, the cast of 22 free loading at the hotel along with the Brothers and a couple of others, and then there is the company man who has come out to straightened the hotel out and finds that they have run up a $1200 debt. They were allowed to get credit because the manager is Groucho's brother in law. Groucho's sister is played by Lucille Ball but her role has no humor in it, she just plays it straight.

Room Service might not be the most famous film comedy starring the Marx Brothers, but it's worth a watch. Based on the 1937 play of the same name by Allen Boretz & John Murray. Less frenetic and more physically contained than their other movies, the plot revolves around getting a stage play, Hail and Farewell, to be produced and funded by mysterious backer Zachary Fisk, while evading paying the hotel bill. The Marx Brothers are trying to fund this play. They have assembled the cast and crew of the play in the hotel ballroom, Gordon Miller (Grocho Marx) try to skip out of the hotel without paying before Gregory Wagner (Donald MacBride), the owner of the hotel finds out. MacBride is just as funny as the Marx Brothers as Wagner the efficiency expert, is really the stiff that the Marx Brothers are trying to tear down with their anti-authority hijinks. MacBride tends to shock out his catch phrase throughout the movie, that can be annoying. MacBride and the Marx Brothers work well with each other, as the scenes between them are just funny. Miller doesn't skip yet, after receives word that one of his actresses, Christine Marlowe (Lucille Ball) has arranged for a backer. Lucille Ball doesn't give much to the movie, as she plays second-banana, her comedic side really doesn't show in the film. She fades into the background. I felt that she could have been use more. It seems at the time, she was mostly use for eye-candy. Now Miller and the other Marx Brothers must keep his room, and hide his crew until the meeting with the backer can happen. Problems continue to happen, when the author comes to stay with them. Author, Leo Davis (Frank Albertson) is a Mickey Rooney's Andy Hardy type character, that can be annoying at times, but Miller finds a way to use Davis to keep their room at less for the moment. The movie is an uneven but entertaining blend of traditional stage farce and Marxian madness. There are the same types of humor that you see in other Marx brothers films are in this film just in a limited area, because of that, the room becomes somewhat a character developing area. It's nice to see a movie with little cut scenes and one location. It gives the movie a small time feel, and how importation the place is. William A. Seiter's direction keeps the brothers limited to the area, gives the audience the best performance you ever saw in a hotel bedroom. Nearly the entire movie is filmed within two adjoining hotel rooms. There's no musical number except a few bars of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot. That means no Harpo playing the Harp or Chico playing the piano. Still it wasn't needed. There are a number of funny supporting cast that continues to be gags throughout the film. The man from the collection agency, the man representing the financial backer for the play, the Russian want-to-be actor, and the doctor each pop up in one or two scenes to move the plot and supply the set up for a couple gags. Several high quality visual and verbal gags are included. This Marx Brothers film might not live up to Night of the Opera, or Duck Soap, but still it's worth noticing. Watch it.