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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BlogHub Articles:

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

Hammer: Three years ago I came to Florida without a nickel in my pocket. Now I've got a nickel in my pocket.


Hammer: All along the river, those are all levees.
Chico: That's the Jewish neighborhood?
Hammer: Well, we'll pass over that.


Hammer: Why, it's the most exclusive residential district in Florida. *Nobody* lives there.


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Facts about

All paper used as props is soaking wet. This was done to prevent overloading the early sound equipment with paper-crinkling noise.
Harpo's red wig looks black in this movie. For all subsequent movies, he wore a blonde wig to make it look lighter on film. In some of those films (e.g. Animal Crackers) Harpo is referred to as a redhead.
The only Irving Berlin musical that did not spawn a "hit" song.
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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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More "Slapstick" films



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