Okay, bot as good as the Marx Brothers' earlier efforts, especially A Day At The Races and A Night At The Opera. Has hints of the brilliant slapstick they were capable of, but is mostly confusing, and unfocussed.

A sentimental favorite of mine, as it was probably the first Marx Brothers film I saw, long ago. Of course, as a kid, I was most impressed with the climactic slapstick chase around the department store. But, I have come to appreciate the humor and music of various other segments of the film. The plot centers around the greedy store manager, Mr. Grover(Douglass Dumbrille), trying to cook the books to make the department store look profitable, while trying to kill the partial owner Tommy Rogers, and marry the other partial owner(played by Margaret Dumont). Of course, the boys try to help prevent both of these events. Groucho's last name in the film: Flywheel, is derived from a radio show he once did with Chico. His first name: Wolf presumably refers to his compulsive skirt chasing. Also, I noticed that Chico's pseudonym for this film: Ravelli, was also used in "Animal Crackers": the first Marx Brothers film in which they were given pseudonyms, but not in other films. Perhaps this name was resurrected because this was supposed to be their last film together. As things turned out, they all appeared together in 3 more films over the next 16 years. This includes "A Night in Casablanca",'46, "Love Happy" '49. and "The Story of Mankind", '57, by which time they were 65-70 years old. However, they didn't appear as a team in the last one, and were not first billed, and Groucho was barely in "Love Happy", mostly as the narrator.There's more than the usual amount of music here, both instrumental and singing. In fact, one reviewer suggested that perhaps it should be considered a musical, with comedy included. I suspect this is the main reason that this film is generally considered one of the lesser Marx Brothers' films. People mostly came to laugh; not to listen to and watch second-rate musical numbers. There are two rather long musical productions included: one being "Sing While You Sell", led by Groucho, but including sections featuring "The Six Hits and a Miss", "The Four Dreamers" and "Frozen Face" Virginia O'Brien. Virginia was a professional singer, who developed her deadpan delivery to distinguished her from other singers. It sounded crazy, but it worked! In films, she was always treated as a novelty act, never a leading lady. Here, she sings "Rock-a-bye-Baby" as part of the "Sing While You Sell" production.Tony Martin was a professional singer and sparsely-used actor. He's fine here as the romantic interest of Virginia Gray, who really wanted Clark Gable, whom she dated in the mid- late '40s and was bitterly disappointed when he married someone else. Tony sings "If It's You" while in the record department, where Virginia is. Later, he is the lead singer in the protracted "The Tenement" production, which included Harpo on the harp, and Chico on the piano. Several reviewers voiced disgust at this production, if not the music as a whole. I can understand that some people won't like Tony's singing style or choice of songs. But, especially in "The Tenement", he's OK by me.This is the only Marx Brothers film in which Harpo plays his harp twice. It's also the only film where Chico and Harpo play the same piano at the same time. Some want to know if Harpo's harp playing and Chico's piano playing were dubbed. The answer is NO!(although they probably often prerecorded their performances) Harpo also had some familiarity with the piano, clarinet and mouthorgan. When Chico and Harpo were boys, Chico would get a job playing piano, then later have Harpo take his place, while he was playing somewhere else. Harpo was self taught in mastering all these instruments. In playing the harp without accompaniment by other instruments, he was unusual. For further information about Harpo's musical and painting side, see the web site entitled "Harpo Marx: Musician and Artist".In one of Harpo's harp-playing gigs, there are 2 supposed mirror images of him playing the harp, while dressed in Georgian era formal wear. Later, one of these images changes to playing a violin, while the other changes to playing a base.Groucho mistakes the prospective buyers of the store for a couple of goons in the employ of the crooked manager. As a detective, he handcuffs them to a post. When convinced he was mistaken, he responded with "You certainly do look like crooks".There is a long segment in the bed department. When Groucho wants to show a particular bed, he says "It's over by the davenport. The customer queries "Where is the davenport? Groucho answers: "It's in Iowa. That was a $9. question.

The final 15 minutes saved this VHS from being traded in for something else, as most of the film is not up to the Marx Brothers lofty status. I guess by the 1940s, the boys were in a decline, for various reasons. One of them is the writing. There were always a ton of jokes and sight gags in the MB films and most of them were dated and corny......but still funny, even 70 years later. However, the jokes in here - and the songs - are so dated and not much to start with that they simply aren't funny. That, and the songs are likewise, not really appealing.As mentioned, the only thing I personally enjoyed here was the hectic last 15 minutes with a chase through a department store. That was classic slapstick material and it still works. Unfortunately, the rest of it did not work. For much of this film, the store was "closed" for (Marx Brothhers) business.

While I disagree with the conventional wisdom about the Marx Brothers' film made before The Big Store, Go West (1940), believing it to be yet another one of their many masterpieces, I have to agree with the conventional wisdom about The Big Store. It has the feeling of a contractual obligation film. One, two or all three of the Marx Brothers are absent for long periods of time. The story is often confusing. The film doesn't flow very well. Some of the material featuring other performers simply doesn't work. Even when it does work, it's never as good as the Marx Brothers' material, and even their work is too often strangely flat.The Big Store is really the story of Tommy Rogers (played by famed pop singer Tony Martin). Rogers has just gained partial ownership of the Phelps Department store with the passing of a relative. However, he's not interested in the store, so he plans to sell and use the money to build a state of the art music conservatory in conjunction with his friend, Ravelli (Chico Marx). Unfortunately, not everything at the Phelps store has been on the up and up, and surviving store manager Mr. Grover (Douglass Dumbrille) is worried about buyers discovering their creative bookkeeping. So they try to off Tommy, which leads to hiring private detective Wolf J. Flywheel (Groucho Marx) and his assistant, Wacky (Harpo Marx), who happens to be Ravelli's brother. At the same time, Mr. Grover is courting Martha Phelps (Margaret Dumont), Tommy's aunt, with machinations of eventual ownership of the store.In terms of meatiness, that's far more of a plot than I usually relay, but all of that is presented in the first 10 - 15 minutes of the film. The remainder involves playing out those threads. The problem is that the above is way too complicated, especially for a Marx Brothers film. The Marx Brothers style was that plots were really secondary to their anarchic, madcap skits. In truth, the two were usually well integrated in their films, with meatier plots than the conventional wisdom has it, and the skits relatively seamlessly enmeshed in the plots.Here, the plot is often difficult to follow, and when you do manage to follow it, it just isn't that interesting. Despite this, there are still a number of fabulous set pieces. The scene where we first meet Groucho and Harpo in Groucho's private eye office is hilarious. The bedding department scene is good. The climax, featuring an extended chase through the department store, is a lot of fun, including its cartoonish use of wire stunts and camera tricks.But there just isn't enough of that stuff, and one of the Marx Brothers' strongest points--Groucho's verbal bantering, is oddly flat just as often as it isn't. Even the usual musical sequences are problematic, unlike their sublime charm in Go West. Only Harpo's musical sequence and a brief duet with Chico on the piano are worthwhile. Groucho is given a schmaltzy "big musical production number" that goes on too long, is supposed to be funny and isn't, and ends up with Groucho doing little else but mugging and doing his trademark walk while other characters we're not familiar with sing the song.Tony Martin has a song early on in the film that's okay, but doesn't exactly fit the tone of the film, and later, he does another "big musical production number", called "The Tenement Symphony", that is bizarre, to say the least, but not particularly funny. Instead, it's a strange mish-mash of styles that is strongly derivative (in a negative way) of George Gershwin.While Marx Brothers completest certainly can't avoid The Big Store, it's difficult to imagine this being anywhere near the top of the list for any Marx Brothers fan. It's also not a great way to introduce anyone to their work (as they're likely to not be very interested in seeing more), and there are far better films for casual viewers who are not particularly interested in the Marx Brothers.The few hilarious scenes could easily be excised and work just as well (if not better) in isolation, as "random" skits. But the film is very slightly recommendable for them.