Just Released

A Century of the Marx Brothers

An essay anthology edited by Joseph Mills

with a chapter by Marc DiPaolo:

"'Italians' Know Nothing of Love: The Marx Brothers as Guardian Angels of Young Couples in Jeopardy"

In ten of the Marx Brothers' thirteen films, the comedians came to the rescue of financially strapped young couples. They saved the lovers from hostile future in-laws, gangsters, and corrupt bureaucrats.  My essay focuses on these young couples, explains how they are sometimes interesting figures, why they are often considered annoying by Marx Brothers fans, and what justifications the films offer for why the wacky trio of Groucho, Harpo, and Chico are interested in giving them a helping hand.

Introduction by Joe Mills, plus Table of Contents

Book Description

In 1905 Julius Marx began his vaudeville career with the singing group The Leroy Trio and was abandoned in the middle of the tour. It was an inauspicious start for the person who would become 'Groucho.' A hundred years later, the Marx Brothers have permeated our culture from the plastic noses and glasses worn at parties to a Smithsonian exhibition which explains DNA recombination using A Night at the Opera. Although they completed relatively few films together, the brothers have become icons, recognizable even to people who have never seen their movies. Most scholarly work on the Marx Brothers has focused on biographical aspects of their careers and lives; A Century of the Marx Brothers suggests a myriad of other useful approaches to their film and stage productions. The collection's eleven essays examine the Marx Brothers' work from a number of critical perspectives ranging from reader-response theory to film semiotics. The contributors include international scholars in a variety of fields, such as literature, cultural studies, performance studies, and film history.

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Press

A Century of the Marx Brothers