Groucho, Harpo, Chico and sometimes Zeppo

The best of the Marx books by far, it is the book that one of the brothers SHOULD have written. Exhaustively researched and written with wit and style, it is the one book you should own if you are a Marx Bros. fan. Don't miss it, under any circumstances. It's funny enough to be a must-read for anyone, not just Marx fans.

Get this book! A must for Marx Brother fans. Great stuff. Joe hits all of the Marx Brother's movies in detail. He also includes quite a bit of pre-1929 info. Joe is right on the money with rise and fall of the Marx Brothers movies. Chapter vi "Joy Becomes Laughter", page 349 is the best single page on "The Age of Heroic Comedy" (Marx Bros., Buster, Llyod etc.) ever written!

It's rare for a book on a specific subject to be so extremely well-written that it's worth recommending to people on that basis alone. This is a book which would be entertaining and even hilarious to people who aren't Marx Brothers fanatics. Even the classic anecdotes that Marxophiles have read a thousand times are told with such wit and energy that they feel new. Adamson's work has served to greatly enhance my already fanatical interest. And yes, even the footnotes are funny.

If you could only read one book about the Marx Brothers and their films, this one should be it. Incredibly complete and detailed, extremely well-researched; but also, hilariously written (even the footnotes are amusing). I cannot reccomend this title highly enough. Adamson reviews the Marxes films scene-by-scene, as well as providing details of how the films came to be written and produced, plus a good deal of biographical information about the Brothers. A new edition is, I'm told, in the works and LONG overdue

Adamson does more than just write a biography of the Marx Brothers -- he legitimately thows how their early lives influenced their movies, and then goes full circle to show how the movies influenced their lives. Most of the book is a literary critique of the movies, in which Adamson shows keen insight. A key point that he drives home is that the boys were best when unencumbered by a plot, and that they lost nearly all of their appeal when asked to do a script not specifically written for them. Much attention is given to the other people in their lives, especially Margaret Dumont (who really DIDN'T get the jokes on her, quite often!) and Irving Thalberg