Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Recently I watched LOVE HAPPY, the last Marx Brothers film, on Amazon Prime. When I read up on the production history of it, I learned the film ran into some financial difficulties and almost was not completed. The only way to finish the movie, by raising the extra funds, was to invent a rooftop scene where Harpo is chased by some crooks.And as Harpo runs around during that sequence (which lasts for more than five minutes), he whizzes past billboards that flash product information in bright lights. About half those companies are still in existence today. So whoever worked for Wheaties' ad department made a smart decision, because every time that film is seen from 1950 into infinity, Wheaties continues to get on-going advertising from it.As for the finished product, this is not a terrible Marx Brothers effort. Nor is it one of their best. But I think most people will enjoy Harpo's antics.

"Love Happy" has been classified as a Marx Brothers movie. Well, I guess it is, considering Harpo, Chico, and Groucho all appear in it. But most of the focus is on Harpo - Chico and Groucho have very small parts, which possibly explains why Chico and Groucho don't seem to be going all out in most of their limited scenes. Harpo, on the other hand, does go all out; he's in fine form, though his enthusiasm may be because he also wrote the movie's story. With that in mind, and that the legendary Frank Tashlin was one of the writers of the finished screenplay, one would probably expect the movie to be pretty funny. There are some chuckles spread throughout, and the movie does move from scene to scene pretty quickly that ALMOST hides the fact that there isn't a terrible amount of plot. Still, it's a far cry from the brothers' movies from the previous decade. While Groucho's disowning of the movie upon seeing it may have been a somewhat harsh reaction, I would only recommend the movie to serious Marx Brothers fans. But I'll admit it's a lot better than the brothers' last movie collaboration, "The Story Of Mankind".

Despite the heavy advertising of Marilyn Monroe on the cover for any of the videos, she only has a small walk-on role. That's only one of many disappointments awaiting the person who rents this movie. The Marx Bros. were filmed separately - they have no scenes together - so there's no chance to capture that manic comic energy. Harpo plays the harp often, with the movie grinding to a halt every time this happens. Groucho literally phones his scenes in - he's in an office with a phone and nearly everything he does happens here. Meanwhile, nothing funny happens anywhere. A sad final note in what was otherwise a hilarious and illustrious career by one of the greatest comedy film teams ever.

Because I like the Marx Brothers I am willing to give this film a 5. If it had starred Wheeler and Woolsey or the Ritz Brothers, I might have given it a 2.After ROOM SERVICE, only A NIGHT IN CASABLANCA had any real merit among the final Marx Brother films. In the case of these two films, the former was based on a successful Broadway farce (which is still produced occasionally), and the latter had some planning involved in it as well (a novelization of the complete screenplay - certain parts were edited out of the final film - was published). The other four are mediocre at best. And LOVE HAPPY is the weakest.Yeah, Harpo gets some nice moments, like him riding the neon lit "Pegasus" on a rooftop sign. He and Chico have one or two good sequences together (one of those patented "Chico-verbally-interpreting-Harpo's-mimed-message" sequences is good). Chico also has a wonderful moment when he tries to be romantic to Ilona Massey, promising to cover her in sardines. But these are so few and far between that the weaknesses in the film are shown.Yeah, Groucho is an afterthought. He has that one famous moment with Marilyn Monroe, but that's it. It looks like much of Groucho's material ended up on a cutting room floor. His "Watson" figure is Eric Blore (an interesting combination of comic talents there), but Blore too is only briefly seen. One wishes to know what more there was to that sequence.But even if we discount shortchanging Groucho, what is left is nothing to shout about. It is a disappointing film, especially as it was the last real Marx Brother feature film. The following movie the brothers were all in was THE STORY OF MANKIND, and each was in a separate segment. There were three television shows they were in together (though one was with other Hollywood comics like Ernie Kovacs), but none of these had the strengths of their best nine movies.