Mar. 20, 2004 - 4:52 pm
this sounded hilarious when i heard that it was a Marx Brothers adventure on the "high seas." i was anticipating a sort of pirate movie where they are involved, but unfortunately it takes place on a modern cruise ship. it's still some hilarious stuff though.
it starts out with them hiding as stowaways in barrels of pickeled herring and they quickly get into trouble with the captain and crew. while on board, they come across two different gangsters who seem to want to kill each other. both of the men recruit the Brothers to try to kill the other one. after the voyage is over, there is a fancy dinner/costume party and a kidnapping where the boys are forced to come to the rescue.
one of the funniest scenes of this film is when the brothers are trying to sneak past customs with a faked passport of Maurice Chevalier. each one attempts to sing a song of his in order to convince the customs officials of his "true" identity. since Harpo doesn't talk, he uses a phonograph (of Maurice Chevalier singing) strapped to his back and he mouths the words to the song. when the phonograph starts to slow down, he gets a very very sour look on his face and he sings really slowly. that had me rolling.
anyway, an excellent comedy and i'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys the Marx Brothers. if you haven't seen any of their films, why not start with this one? or my favorite, Duck Soup (1933)