Marx Bros.

by Duncan

"The surprising thing about this film was that I succeeded in not going crazy," said director Leo McCarey about working with the manic Marx Brothers on "Duck Soup". The madcap antics of Groucho,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 3822822191
• ISBN13: 9783822822197
• Release Date: November 2007
• Publisher: Taschen
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.8" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Excellent Photos in a Smaller Format

For some reason I thought this paperback would have a larger format, but for $9.99 that was probably unreasonable. (I overlooked Product Details which gives its dimensions as 7.7 x 5.7 x 0.6 inches, though the large photo of Groucho on the cover gives the impression of a coffee-table-sized book.) The brief opening essay ("The Marx Brothers: Insanely Funny) as well as every caption is in three languages - English, French and German - but the publisher, Taschen, handles this creatively. The bulk of the book is the Visual Filmography (pages 22-177), and the photo selections from The Kobal Collection are of the highest quality. There are a few color features including reproductions of movie posters and ads, though the vast majority is in black and white. It concludes with a very short chronology (one page dates of significance: births, deaths, movie release dates); a two page filmography (with the names of all the characters played by the brothers) along with the directors; and a bibliography, which is a half page. The book was printed in Italy and, as paperbacks go, it's a good quality primer on the Marx Brothers and would make a fine, inexpensive gift to any Marx Brothers fanatic, especially paired with their early movie collection The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection. While it's a beautiful little book, one can imagine an even more attractive hardcover large format edition.