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

[the Marx Brothers are chasing each other through Mrs. Potter's suite]
Hammer: This hotel not only has running water. It has running guests!


Hammer: Believe me, you gotta get up early if you want to get out of bed.


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.


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Facts about

According to Marx Bros. biographer Joe Adamson, the Marxes were so appalled by this film version of their hit Broadway show that they offered to buy the negative from Paramount so that they could burn it.
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.
During the day, the Marx Brothers worked on this movie. At night, they were starring in "Animal Crackers" on the stage.
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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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