{"id":18991,"date":"2011-07-30T21:25:56","date_gmt":"2011-07-31T04:25:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=18991"},"modified":"2021-01-10T00:36:35","modified_gmt":"2021-01-10T07:36:35","slug":"cocoanuts-the-1929","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=18991","title":{"rendered":"Cocoanuts, The (1929)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;When the necklace is found missing, someone has got to be blamed &#8212; why not them?&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Cocoanuts-Poster.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Cocoanuts-Poster-193x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"193\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-62691\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Cocoanuts-Poster-193x300.png 193w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Cocoanuts-Poster-660x1024.png 660w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Cocoanuts-Poster-82x128.png 82w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Cocoanuts-Poster-174x270.png 174w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Cocoanuts-Poster.png 721w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 193px) 100vw, 193px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nAt a struggling Florida hotel owned by Groucho Marx, the sole paying guest (Margaret Dumont) tries to convince her daughter (Mary Eaton) to marry a more socially acceptable man (Cyril Ring) than the hotel clerk (Oscar Shaw) she&#8217;s in love with &#8212; not knowing that Ring is actually in cahoots with Kay Francis to steal Dumont&#8217;s valuable diamond necklace, and then place the blame on two new visitors at the hotel (Harpo and Chico Marx).\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Comedy<\/li>\n<li>Kay Francis Films<\/li>\n<li>Marx Brothers Films<\/li>\n<li>Musicals<\/li>\n<li>Play Adaptations<\/li>\n<li>Thieves and Criminals<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary\u2019s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nPeary recommends that you &#8220;forget the necklace storyline&#8221; of this Marx Brothers debut film (made while they were busy performing <em>Animal Crackers<\/em> on Broadway), and simply watch them presenting &#8220;some of the funniest&#8230; dialogue and Harpo magic found in their movies&#8221;. He notes that while &#8220;critics often complain about the film&#8217;s theatricality and static stretches&#8221; (not to mention the poor quality of existing prints, despite DVD restoration), it nonetheless provides &#8220;non-stop hilarity&#8221; whenever &#8220;Groucho, Chico, and Harpo are on the screen&#8221;. I&#8217;m in agreement with Peary on this one. While the &#8220;slow stretches&#8221; are indeed of negligible worth (you&#8217;ll pretty much yawn as soon as either Eaton or Ring open their mouth to sing Irving Berlin&#8217;s songs), the surrounding material is nearly always consistently amusing; the one exception is the final banquet scene, which left me oddly unimpressed. Regardless, Peary is right to state that &#8220;one can only wonder how audiences who had never seen the Marx Brothers before reacted&#8221; to this first presentation of their work on-screen, which remains worthy viewing today, despite its flaws. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Note:<\/strong> Watch for Kay Francis&#8217;s strikingly butch hairstyle &#8212; and listen for Harpo&#8217;s lovely solo, a truly worthy introduction to his musical talents. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Many classic, still highly enjoyable Marx Brothers routines<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Cocoanuts-Groucho-Chico.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Cocoanuts-Groucho-Chico.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"540\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-18996\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Cocoanuts-Groucho-Chico.png 720w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Cocoanuts-Groucho-Chico-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Cocoanuts-Groucho-Chico-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Cocoanuts-Dual-Rooms.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Cocoanuts-Dual-Rooms.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"540\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-18997\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Cocoanuts-Dual-Rooms.png 720w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Cocoanuts-Dual-Rooms-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Cocoanuts-Dual-Rooms-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Harpo&#8217;s lovely harp solo<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Cocoanuts-Harpo-Solo.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Cocoanuts-Harpo-Solo.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"540\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-18993\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Cocoanuts-Harpo-Solo.png 720w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Cocoanuts-Harpo-Solo-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Cocoanuts-Harpo-Solo-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Creative opening credits<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Cocoanuts-Opening-Credits.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Cocoanuts-Opening-Credits.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"540\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-18994\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Cocoanuts-Opening-Credits.png 720w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Cocoanuts-Opening-Credits-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Cocoanuts-Opening-Credits-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, though it&#8217;s worth a look for its historical importance as the Marx Brothers&#8217; first film, and certainly must see for fans of the Brothers. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0019777\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1929\/05\/25\/archives\/the-screen.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thespinningimage.co.uk\/cultfilms\/displaycultfilm.asp?reviewid=2094&#038;aff=13\">Spinning Image Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/71161\/the-cocoanuts#articles-reviews?articleId=87777\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/dvdsavant\/s1436marx.html\">DVD Savant Review <\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/movies\/the-cocoanuts\">Time Out Capsule Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;When the necklace is found missing, someone has got to be blamed &#8212; why not them?&#8221; Synopsis: At a struggling Florida hotel owned by Groucho Marx, the sole paying guest (Margaret Dumont) tries to convince her daughter (Mary Eaton) to marry a more socially acceptable man (Cyril Ring) than the hotel clerk (Oscar Shaw) she&#8217;s in love with &#8212; not knowing that Ring is actually in cahoots with Kay Francis to steal Dumont&#8217;s valuable diamond necklace, and then place the&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=18991\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18991"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18991\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62693,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18991\/revisions\/62693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}