The Cocoanuts Overview:

The Cocoanuts (1929) was a Comedy - Musical Film directed by Robert Florey and Joseph Santley and produced by Jesse L. Lasky, Walter Wanger and Monta Bell.

SYNOPSIS

The first, and widely regarded to be the zaniest, of the Marx Brothers' films. The film takes place in a Miami hotel during the land boom, and the Marxes hilariously oversee the arrival and departure of herds of comical millionaire travelers. The brothers freely reign ad-lib and riff on the Kaufman script. Florey was better known for his expressionist horror films.

(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).

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The Cocoanuts (1929, Robert Florey and Joseph Santley)

By Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 7, 2018 From The Stop Button

The only stand-out sequence in The Cocoanuts comes at the end, when Chico is playing the piano. One of the directors?or both of them?finally had a good instinct and cut to a close-up of Chico?s hands playing. It overrides the first shot of the piano playing, which doesn?t show Chico?s hands at all a... Read full article


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Quotes from

Mrs. Potter: Get out of this room, or I'll scream for the servants.
Hammer: Let the servants know! Let the whole world know! About us!
Mrs. Potter: You must leave my room. We must have regard for certain conventions.
Hammer: One guy isn't enough, she's gotta have a convention.


Bob Adams: Oh Mr. Hammer, there's a man outside wants to see you with a black mustache.
Hammer: Tell him I've got one.


Hammer: What would you like? Would you like a suite on the third floor?
Chico: No. I'll take a Pollack in the basement.


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Facts about

Although his character is not named in the credits, in one scene Harpo is referred to as "Silent Red."
Although Irving Berlin didn't produce a hit song for this show, it wasn't his fault. Berlin wrote his perennial classic "Always" for this score and submitted it to the show's author George S. Kaufman, who admitted he knew little about music. Kaufman commented that he disliked the opening line 'I'll be loving you, Always" given the numerous stories about men leaving their wives for younger women. He suggested that Berlin use the line "I'll be loving you, Thursday". Although the suggestion was made in jest, Berlin pulled the song and gave it to his wife as a present. The substitute song "A Little Bungalow" was not very successful.
A musical number featuring Groucho Marx and Margaret Dumont, "A Little Bungalow" was deleted after the previews. In the stage play, it was originally sung by the characters Polly Potter and Robert Adams (the romantic leads). Instead, Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby wrote "When My Dreams Come True" especially for this film as a love theme.
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Also directed by Robert Florey




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Also produced by Jesse L. Lasky




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Also released in 1929




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More "Pre-Code Cinema" films



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