Marx Madness

marxbros04

The Aero Theater out in Santa Monica is running a Marx Brothers festival. Even as I type this, I'm missing A Night at the Opera and Room Service. That's one of my favorite Marx films and one of my least favorite.

The more interesting shows are tomorrow night and Saturday night because those are full digital restorations and I'm told these movies have never looked better — including maybe the way they looked when they first came out. Friday is the double-feature of Duck Soup and The Cocoanuts. Saturday is Animal Crackers and Monkey Business. Then on Sunday, they have the digital restoration of Horse Feathers and a plain ol' 35mm print of A Day at the Races. The restoration of Animal Crackers includes a little more than a minute of footage that you've probably never seen because it was deleted from most prints back in the thirties.

I'm too busy to get out there for any of these but if you aren't and you're local, these films — good as they are — are even better when seen with a good audience. And the Aero usually gets great audiences.