Highly Overrated But Still Good

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Not one of the Marx Brothers' best films. The main fault is the script. It concentrates too much attention on a rather corny plot (although it does provide plenty of lines for our favorite villain Douglass Dumbrille). Its gags and comedy situations are not particularly witty and in fact are often rather strained. Proceedings are further dampened by two unmemorable songs for Tony Martin, including a tedious finale called "Tenement Symphony". The Marx Brothers have one number, "Sing While You Sell", which has a catchy chorus and is fairly well staged with Groucho swooping along in front of the counters - but it falls quite short of their 1930's standard. Generally, the Brothers make a game attempt to overcome mediocre dialogue and so-so situations. That they are partly successful is due as much to their experience as their natural gifts (but even they can do little with a particularly trite scene with Henry Armetta). The direction is no more than competent, though the timing may have originally been sharper than Nervig's inept film editing makes it appear. For some reason, Charles Lawton has gone all out for soft focus photography - though why he bothered to do this for such a charmless couple as Tony Martin and Virginia Grey is a mystery. Production values are otherwise good.

My least favorite Marx Bros movie. And yes, I'm counting "The Story of Mankind." I didn't laugh once the whole time. This has none of the flavor of the better Marx Bros movies. No memorable dialogue or creative gags. It's a generic cookie cutter B-level comedy of the 1940's that just happens to star the Marx Bros. The only life in the film comes from Douglas Dumbrille and the lovely Virginia Grey. The Marxes, Groucho in particular, seem to just be parodying themselves. Collect that paycheck boys! The great Margaret Dumont, in her last Marx movie, goes through the motions but is clearly having no fun. Tony Martin's insipid songs make me long for Zeppo. Be prepared to fast-forward through all musical numbers as they are just dreadful. There are some very generous reviewers here on IMDb who seem to like this one. To each their own but in my opinion this one really is the pits.

Just to say to all those who think it's not funny: My 16 year old daughter, who had not seen it before, thought it was hilarious from beginning to end.So did I - even though I had to look up a couple of period references. After all we all still enjoy Shakespeare despite not quite understanding a few of the 16c gags.Despite a slight yawn during Tenement Symphony, the musical numbers were also entertaining - especially Harpo's duet with himself in the mirrors.What one misses is seeing these films at the cinema - as they were intended to be seen - on a large screen with several hundred other people all enjoying the moment. That's why some of the gags seem a bit laboured as there is often a calculated pause for the audience laughter, so that the next gag won't be missed.

By 1941, Groucho didn't want to make any more movies. The Brothers continued to do so just to keep oldest Brother Chico afloat, due to his gambling habits.Someone commented earlier about Virginia O'Brien, the deadpan singer in the "rockabye" sequence. The deadpan delivery was her "shtick", and predated a similar approach taken by Keely Smith some years later. Legend has it that the first time a spotlight fell on Ms. O'Brien for an on-stage solo, she froze, an delivered her song with a pre-Botox facial paralysis. The audience thought it was part of the act and roared approvingly with laughter. From then on, Ms. O'Brien sang no other way. (She also sings a few bars of the Jerome Kern song, "A Fine Romance" in the semi-bio, "'Til The Clouds Roll By".) The big store is best remembered (and viewed) for the rousing "Sing While You Sell" piece about 38 minutes into the movie.