Love Happy is the final movie that features the three Marx brothers (Groucho Chico Harpo) in top billing and as the stars. Once again they do the occasional musical performances. This time Frank Tashlin co-writes the script (bringing, I'd imagine, some pure cartoonish brilliance to it, in fits and starts). And it's OK... ish. Actually Harpo is better than OK, but when isn't he? This isn't even his premier work and he's delightful to watch in scenes that should be rote like when the actress asks Harpo to be his manager and he mimes becoming a "big shot" with his feet up on a can of rubbish in a park, miming as well being on the phone with many agents. It's what he was made for as a performer, moments like this.The main problem for me is a major lack of the brothers interacting with one another - Groucho barely appears in the first half for Pete's sake, and only through limited 4th wall breaks - yet there are a lot of legitimately entertaining musical numbers (really, there isn't a dull one, including a number where a woman sings about being frustrated with motherhood). There's once again another loony but half-baked crime plot, here involving stolen diamonds in a can of... sardines I think, Chico on piano, and a musical that is on thin ice as far as being produced. Objectively this isn't as good a movie as I'm rating it, but I'm being generous because when these guys do click in their scenes they are just that funny. In other words it's better than Room Service (oddly enough this has the storyline that it's closest to), but not by much.It's also uncanny seeing Groucho without his grease-paint mustache as a movie character with the brothers.

LOVE HAPPY was originally intended to be a solo effort by Harpo, but he couldn't get backing. It was Mary Pickford who suggested that Groucho and Chico become involved, then she, one of the original United Artists, would finance it. So The Marx Brothers ended their cinematic career with an atypical feature, but an improvement over THE BIG STORE.Groucho shares barely any screen time with his brothers, serving mostly as narrator. This is because he was host of the popular television show YOU BET YOUR LIFE, and had only a couple of days available for filming. (He even wears his real moustache instead of the grease paint one he sported for the previous features!) Chico fares better, easily falling into the patter he long ago perfected.Obviously, this is not the film to introduce someone to The Marx Brothers. (That would be DUCK SOUP or MONKEY BUSINESS anyway.) Instead, this entry is dessert for the viewer who has already viewed the other dozen Marx Brothers features, but is still hungry for more.

Unfortunately, this movie was my first Marx Brothers movie. (I saw it in December 1977.) It really isn't a good introduction to the comic mayhem of the Marx Brothers because it was never intended to be a Marx Brothers movie in the first place! It was originally a Harpo Marx movie. But Chico had some debts to pay so he was worked into the script. Since you cannot have Harpo and Chico without Groucho, Groucho was also added to the script. Groucho didn't have that much of a part. But Groucho was so unique that he could generate laughs by saying anything! "Love Happy" was the movie that marked the end of the Marx Brothers as a single comedy act. (It would also be the movie that started Marilyn Monroe's career.) The movie was very entertaining and it provided more than enough comedy and laughs to qualify as a good comedy. Harpo was great, doing what he was best as doing. The chase was a riot.For those who were saddened over this movie being the end of the Marx Brothers as a comedy act, this movie also marked the beginning of the Marx Brothers as individuals who would each enjoy his own level of success with Groucho being the most successful with his TV show "You Bet Your Life" in the 1950s and a comeback in the 1970s, touring the country.After "Love Happy", Harpo would make 9 appearances plus 15 as himself. Chico would make 6 appearances plus 7 as himself. and Groucho would make 13 appearances plus 29 as himself and he would also enjoy success as a writer and one shot as director. That's not bad.The real tragedy was the 3 Stooges' "Kook's Tour" which really marked the end of the 3 Stooges as an act by featuring them in retirement. "Kooks' Tour" was cut short by Larry's stroke and it marked the end of the 3 Stooges (except for a few personal appearances by Moe as a member of the audience in the 1973 movie "Dr. Death Seeker of Souls" and as himself on "The Mike Douglas Show".)

This day being the one Groucho Marx died 30 years ago, 3 days after Elvis, I decided to watch some of his movies that I either have on tape or just checked at the library. Love Happy, I taped 12 years ago from AMC. This movie came 20 years after Groucho and his brothers' talkie debut in The Cocoanuts. His participation is limited here which is just as well since he doesn't have many funny lines except with the villainous Ilona Massey and, in her brief part, a well-endowed Marilyn Monroe. Says Groucho to her, "Is there anything I can do for you? (turns to audience as he see-saws his eyebrows) What a ridiculous statement!" The story mainly concerns Harpo, as himself, as he steals plenty of sardine cans as they're being thrown at him unknowingly by Eric Blore. One Blore doesn't throw but has stolen unbeknownst from him by Harpo has some valuable diamonds. There's also a plot about a musical show with dancer Vera-Ellen and singer Marion Hutton (Betty's sister) that's for the birds. Best parts of those segments concern Chico's piano playing with violinist Leon Belasco though there's also a sexy Vera-Ellen number that got my temperature rising. Worst parts for me were Chico's wooing of Ms. Massey and Vera-Ellen's constant crying in front of Harpo. Most interesting part was the chase sequence at the end where Harpo rides on lots of billboards in one of the rare instances of product placements of the period. Many of those gags probably came from former animation director Frank Tashlin, a co-writer of the script. While there's one scene with Groucho and Harpo, the one with Chico at the end probably was shot on separate occasions since they don't share that scene together, just a cut to Chico after Grouch calls out to him. So, technically, this isn't really a "Marx Brothers" picture, just Harpo starring with Chico in support and Groucho in an extended cameo. Having not seen The Big Store, I reserve judgment on whether this is the worst movie of their career but Love Happy is certainly one of their lesser ones. P.S. Raymond Burr is one of the henchmen.