I apologize for not giving you more advance notice but today, Turner Classic Movies is running a Groucho Marathon — just about every movie in which he ever showed his face except Copacabana, Love Happy, A Night in Casablanca and Skidoo. Here's the timetable. These are all Eastern times so you probably need to subtract three hours for Pacific Time. I have marked what I consider the five best films with asterisks…
- 6:00 am: Sunday Night at the Trocadero (1937)
- 6:30 am: Double Dynamite (1951)
- 8:00 am: A Girl in Every Port (1952)
- 9:30 am: Room Service (1938)
- 11:00 am: At the Circus (1939)
- 12:30 pm: Go West (1940)
- 2:00 pm: The Big Store (1941)
- 3:30 pm: The Dick Cavett Show (1969)
- 4:30 pm: The Cocoanuts (1929)
- 6:15 pm: Animal Crackers* (1930)
- 8:00 pm: Monkey Business* (1931)
- 9:30 pm: Horse Feathers* (1932)
- 10:45 pm: Duck Soup* (1933)
- Midnight: A Night at the Opera* (1935)
- 2:00 am: A Day at the Races (1937)
- 4:00 am: The Story of Mankind (1957)
Sunday Night at the Trocadero is a short in which Groucho is seen briefly. Double Dynamite and A Girl in Every Port are pretty weak features with Groucho added to the cast for comedy relief…which he occasionally provides. The episode of The Dick Cavett Show needs no explanation (you can probably figure out that Groucho is on it) and The Story of Mankind is a bloated episodic spectacle in which Groucho, Harpo and Chico all play cameo roles in separate scenes. The few moments they're in there do not justify sitting through the rest of the film. It really feels you are watching The Story of Mankind…in real time.
The rest all have Groucho, Harpo and Chico, and some have Zeppo along to do very little. For what it's worth, if you have kids and you want to introduce them to the Marx Brothers with one of these films, I'd try Horse Feathers on them or maybe Go West.
Sorry I didn't post this sooner and I'll end this so you can go turn on TCM or maybe set your DVR. Because at this very moment, you may be missing something you'd like to see or record.