Go West *** (1940, Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, John Carroll, Diana Lewis) – Classic Movie Review 7574

The Marx Brothers go forth for director Edward Buzzell’s 1940 Go West, their fourth movie at MGM studios.

Go West is a rickety cowboy comedy movie which sees their zaniness on remote control, but the funny moments are properly hilarious. The clever opening at the booking office and the final train chase, during which they destroy the train to get wood for fuel, seem more than the allotted 80 minutes apart, for surely the West just is not part of the urban Marx world of sophisticated slapstick.

The character names are certainly up to the mark: Groucho Marx stars as S Quentin Quale, with Harpo Marx and Chico Marx as Joseph and Rusty Panello.

Irving Brecher writes the original screenplay.

Also in the cast are John Carroll, Diana Lewis, Walter Woolf King, Robert Barrat, June MacCloy, George Lessey, Iris Adrian, Lee Bowman, Edgar Dearing, Fred Warren, Harry Tyler, Lew Harvey, Frederick Burton, Clem Bevans, Tully Marshall, Slim Lewis, Henry Sylvester, Al Duval, Edward Gargan, Billy Wayne, Harry Wilson, Arthur Housman, Joan Woodbury and Joe Yule.

However, unforgiveably, there is no Margaret Dumont, Groucho’s regular stooge.

Groucho Marx plays guitar and sings, like he does in Horse Feathers (1932).

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7574

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