Love Happy

Technically, this 1949 picture is the final Marx Brothers movie, but it's really a vehicle for Harpo, with only token appearances by Groucho and Chico. A tepid musical farce directed by David Miller, Love Happy is set against the backdrop of a Broadway revue that pretty Maggie (Vera-Ellen) and her enthusiastic young pals are trying to put on despite a lack of funds. Harpo plays a mute hobo (named Harpo) who supplies the troupe with food purloined from a high-class grocery store. The plot kicks in when a stolen can of sardines turns out to contain a priceless necklace that the evil Madame Egelichi (Ilona Massey) has smuggled into the country—a piece of jewelry that she and her henchmen are determined to retrieve. Chico is Faustino, a phony mind-reader who joins the show (and performs a delightful backstage duet with a violinist, in contrast to Harpo's soporific harp solo to “Swanee River”), while Groucho pops up occasionally as narrator Sam Grunion, a goofy detective on the trail of the necklace. The big finale has Grunion and the villains pursuing Harpo across the rooftops in Times Square, with flashing signs advertising everything from Wheaties to Kools as props. While there are some bright moments in Love Happy (plus a cameo by Marilyn Monroe), the humor carries none of the anarchic bite of the Marx Brothers' earlier films and the tale drifts too often into saccharine sentimentality. Boasting a fine transfer, this will be a must for Marx completists, and a strong optional purchase elsewhere. (F. Swietek)