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The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection (The Cocoanuts / Animal Crackers / Monkey Business / Horse Feathers / Duck Soup) [Blu-ray]

$17.16

(9 customer reviews)
Last updated on January 26, 2024 12:09 am Details
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The Marx Brothers – Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Zeppo – are the reigning kings of comedy and remain one of the most iconic comic teams of all time. From their early days on Vaudeville and Broadway through their wildly popular motion pictures, the Marx Brothers kept audiences of all ages laughing out loud with some of the most hilarious routines ever imagined. The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection Restored Edition captures the very best of the comedy team and includes the only five movies to feature all four brothers. Filled with unforgettable comedy sketches, musical numbers, witty dialogue and plenty of gags, this must-own collection includes The Cocoanuts, Animal Crackers, Monkey Business, Horse Feathers and their most popular film, Duck Soup.

Specification: The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection (The Cocoanuts / Animal Crackers / Monkey Business / Horse Feathers / Duck Soup) [Blu-ray]

Aspect Ratio

1.33:1

Is Discontinued By Manufacturer

No

MPAA rating

NR (Not Rated)

Product Dimensions

6.75 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches, 7.05 Ounces

Item model number

42927944

Director

Victor Heerman, Norman Z. McLeod, Joseph Santley, Robert Florey, Leo McCarey

Media Format

NTSC, Restored, Subtitled, Widescreen

Run time

6 hours and 48 minutes

Release date

October 18, 2016

Actors

Harpo Marx, Groucho Marx, Zeppo Marx, Chico Marx, Margaret Dumont

Subtitles

French

Producers

Herman J. Mankiewicz

Language

English (DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono)

Studio

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment

Writers

Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby

Country of Origin

USA

Number of discs

3

Photos: The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection (The Cocoanuts / Animal Crackers / Monkey Business / Horse Feathers / Duck Soup) [Blu-ray]

9 reviews for The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection (The Cocoanuts / Animal Crackers / Monkey Business / Horse Feathers / Duck Soup) [Blu-ray]

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  1. Simon Altman

    As a huge Marx Brothers fan I ordered this set as soon as it became available. It has five Marx Brothers’ classics – the Zeppo era, as well as a disk of bonus material. What impresses me most about the collection is the wonderful packaging the disks came in. Beautiful slipcover to hold the disks and the booklet that is incuded. While the booklet isn’t very informative it does have the movie posters for the films (which is a nice treat). There are no commentaries or extras for the movies themselves, but since the people involved in the films are no longer with us this is no surprise.
    What will draw the true fans to buy the collection are the movies themselves. While you should be forewarned the quality of the film transfer and audio are poor by today’s standards, it is quite understandable considering the age of these films. Duck Soup is my favourite Marx Brtoher’s film of all time and Monkey Business and Animal Crackers are also must sees.

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  2. Craig Davis

    Not really. Even Prof. Wagstaff would want this set. A couple extra minutes of Animal Crackers alone is worth the price.

    Beyond that, this set is a marked improvement over the DVD release. Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers are both cleaned up nicely, with scratches and other damage to the film removed, and levels and contrast much improved. Also, floating of the image within the frame is eliminated. However, the worst damage in Cocoanuts – during parts of the auction and party scenes – are still markedly poorer in quality than the rest of the movie. The other notable change is the framing: The Blu-ray set is generally framed so that more of the image at the bottom of the frame is visible. In Animal Crackers, this allows the modern viewer to finally see silverware coming out of Harpo’s sleeve. Unfortunately, an exception occurs in Cocoanuts, again in the auction scene, where the framing is set higher and Harpo is partially cut off as he rows himself off screen. If you are not familiar with the action, you might have difficulty figuring out what’s happening.

    As for the other three films, it’s sufficient to say about the video that it’s typically cleaner and sharper as per a digital remastering. The framing is somewhat different but not significantly. The lighting at the end of Monkey Business is much improved. The extent of the damage to the singing lesson scene of Horse Feathers unfortunately remains the same. Also, for the last 15 minutes or so much of the framing is quite a bit tighter; when the pig jumps out of Harpo’s bag, the viewer’s glimpse of it is fleeting. The audio in Duck Soup does have some distortion during Groucho’s opening song, as noted elsewhere, and Chico’s line “Believe me, he’s one smart dog” sounds less dubbed than on the DVD.

    Overall, this set is a must-have for any devoted Marx fan.

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  3. Ruperto

    Un pack de la Universal (ASIN: B01KHJKAKS) con las 5 primeras películas protagonizadas por los Marx en BLU-RAY, a saber : “Los Cuatro Cocos” (The Cocoanuts), “Pistoleros de Agua Dulce” (Monkey Business), “El Conflicto de los Marx” (Animal Crackers), “Plumas de Caballo” (Horse Feathers) y “Sopa de Ganso” (Duck Soup). A tener en cuenta :

    1/ Es un pack norteamericano, es decir, un Blu-Ray de zona A. Ojo con tu reproductor, porque si no permite esa zona estarás tirando el dinero.

    2/ Las películas se anuncian como “restauradas”, lo cual, unido a que es un blu-ray, debería producir una mejora espectacular en imagen y sonido con respecto a los DVD. Quizá yo sea muy exigente, pero no me parece para tanto. Obviamente existe una mejora (hasta ahí podríamos llegar), pero la calificaría de discreta y digna, nada más.

    3/ Idioma: Exclusivamente inglés, y subtítulos sólo en inglés y francés. (Nada en español en ninguna de las cinco películas). Si no dominas bien uno de ambos idiomas, prepárate a sudar, porque los Marx (en particular Groucho) escupen sus diálogos con la velocidad de balas, y además son adictos a los juegos de palabras y dobles sentidos, bastante difíciles de seguir en inglés.

    4/ Extras : Un comentario de cada una de las cinco películas por parte de los expertos de rigor. Un documental de largo metraje sobre la historia de los Marx (“Hollywood’s King of Chaos”) bastante interesante, subtitulado en inglés, y algunos pequeños extractos (juntos sumarán unos 15 minutos), también subtitulados en inglés, con apariciones de Groucho sobre todo en el programa “The Today Show”, meramente curiosos.

    5/ Se anuncia que “El Conflicto de los Marx” se ofrece con escenas inéditas cortadas en su día ; una de dos : O se cortaron sólo en las copias editadas en USA, o parpadeé y me las perdí ; pero el caso es que he comparado el blu-ray con el viejo DVD editado en España como “El Conflicto de los Marx” (ASIN: B0053C8LKQ) y no veo ninguna diferencia entre ambas a nivel de escenas. Si creemos lo que dice la carátula, el blu-ray tiene 7 minutos más de metraje, pero repito que la película es exactamente la misma de principio a fin, así que no esperéis descubrimientos ni sorpresas.

    6/ En cuanto a las películas en sí, para aquellos que no las hayan visto, constituyen la época más surrealista y alocada de los Marx, claramente diferenciadas con las que siguieron a “Una Noche en la Ópera”, con un humor igualmente caótico pero argumentos algo menos erráticos. Hay quien piensa que estas cinco películas (en especial “Sopa de Ganso”, claramente la mejor del quinteto) representan a los Marx en estado puro y “sin domesticar”. Otros creemos que, aunque tengan más números musicales y menos dosis de locura, las pelis posteriores (con “Una Noche en la Ópera” y “Los Hermanos Marx en el Oeste” a la cabeza) son las de madurez, libres ya del insufrible Zeppo y con los roles de los tres hermanos restantes plenamente definidos. Personalmente considero “Sopa de Ganso” imprescindible, “El Conflicto de los Marx” y “Pistoleros de Agua Dulce” bastante buenas, “Los Cuatro Cocos”, la menos conocida, una curiosidad atractiva para los amantes del musical, y “Plumas de Caballo” sin duda la peor del lote. Pero como todo, es cuestión de gustos.

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  4. mark brisenden

    Fabulous new blu-ray of marx bros movies. Great price for new release sent from US . Condition as described and well packaged.

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  5. Bob Gassel

    PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL EARLIER REVIEWS ARE ABOUT THE DVD EDITION. THESE NEW RESTORED BLU-RAYS ARE A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PRODUCT, FEATURING NEW TRANSFERS, ADDITIONAL FOOTAGE AND MORE BONUS FEATURES. IT IS A MISTAKE THAT UNIVERSAL HOME VIDEO IS GIVING IT THE SAME NAME (“Silver Screen Collection”) AND ARTWORK.

    AS OF NOW, THERE DOESN’T APPEAR TO BE ANY PLANS TO RELEASE THE RESTORED FILMS IN THE DVD FORMAT. SO IF YOU BUY THAT PACKAGE, YOU ARE GOING TO GET THE SAME OLD VERSION WHICH HAS BEEN AVAILABLE FOR YEARS.

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  6. R. Pitchford

    The media could not be loaded.

     I don’t normally write reviews, but I felt compelled by an audio issue that was actually a step back in quality versus the DVD edition released some time ago.
    I was turned on to the Marx Brothers at a very young age…I’ve joked that Groucho was my speech therapist. Needless to say, I was extremely pleased to see a blu ray release of these movies (Warner Brothers…your turn). Animal Crackers stands as my favorite of the films and this new release restores censor cut material that had previously been missing. I cannot complain about the films themselves.

    However, there is a nasty issue with the audio in Duck Soup. Starting with the song “Laws of my Administration” the audio becomes distorted. I thought perhaps it was my blu ray player, but I spoke to my father (who also purchased the set) and he noticed the same trouble. He called it Intermod Distortion. Popping in the older DVD release, the older audio was quite clear and free of distortion.

    I do plan to contact Universal directly to inform them of the difficulty. I have uploaded a clip from my phone of the scene where the trouble begins.

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  7. Anthony Crnkovich

    The Marx Brothers – Groucho, Chico, Harpo and Zeppo – are beyond a doubt one of the most iconic comedy teams in the history of entertainment. Their zany antics, sharp witticism and merciless assault on snobbery have endured for more than a century; from their Vaudeville roots and subsequent success on Broadway, to their rise to stardom in films and radio, then resurgence on television, and finally through mass marketing of their movies on home video.

    The latest incarnation of Marx mayhem is Universal’s Blu-ray set of their five Paramount releases: THE COCOANUTS (1929), ANIMAL CRACKERS (1930), MONKEY BUSINESS (1931), HORSE FEATHERS (1932) and DUCK SOUP (1933). Made during Hollywood’s unbridled pre-Code era, this quintet of comedic masterworks is representative of the Marx Brothers at their most surreal and anarchistic. These essential ingredients made their brand of humor truly unique, and became ‘properly’ compromised under the stricter regulations of the Production Code in 1934. Even the Marx’s first film for MGM, A NIGHT AT THE OPERA (1935), which many consider to be their best, isn’t nearly as free and insane as the Paramounts. A need was felt at the time for the comedy to be grounded by strong storylines, romantic subplots and glossy, musical production numbers. The void caused by the exit of Zeppo as straight man was filled by various capable leading men, but it just wasn’t the same as it was when there were the four brothers running amok and wreaking hilarious havoc.

    This collection was sourced from the best available 35mm elements and remastered in 4K HD resolution for the highest quality presentation. That said, there are still some age related issues one must allow for, such as light scratches and audio hiss, all of which is minimal for the most part. The title that contains the brunt of such anomalies is the Marx’s cinematic debut, THE COCOANUTS, which suffers from the early sound recording technology as well as having footage replaced in spots from lower grade elements. HORSE FEATHERS also still has some missing frames in the scene where the boys are running in and out of Thelma Todd’s apartment. On the plus side is the restoration of a minute and a half of previously censored footage to ANIMAL CRACKERS. This was made possible by Universal acquiring an uncut, duplicate negative of an original release British print. Audiences are now able to enjoy the film as it was first shown 86 years ago. Happily, any digital cleanup was kept at a minimum, thus giving off a pleasing grain configuration that preserves the organic image quality of the source. It can safely be said that these classics have never looked better, and die-hard fans would do well to upgrade.

    Extras include a new documentary, “The Marx Brothers: Hollywood’s Kings of Chaos”, five new audio commentaries by Harpo’s son Bill Marx, film historians Anthony Slide, Jeffrey Vance and Robert S. Bader, film critics F.X. Feeney and Leonard Maltin, the Today Show interviews with Groucho, Harpo and Bill Marx, and an exclusive illustrated booklet on their career.

    Treat yourself to this wonderful collection of some of the flat-out funniest movies ever made. Marx madness is a guaranteed tonic for the humdrum ‘normalcy’ of everyday life.

    My highest recommendation.

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  8. Simon Altman

    Loved these disks. Documentary is excellent too. Ordered from the USA to Australia, playing it on a Panasonic Blu Ray player. All disks play fine on it, with no region restrictions. This is truly a fantastic set of the Paramount films. Would love to see some of their later works get remastered.

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  9. LATAPIE BARBES

    perfect!

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    The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection (The Cocoanuts / Animal Crackers / Monkey Business / Horse Feathers / Duck Soup) [Blu-ray]
    The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection (The Cocoanuts / Animal Crackers / Monkey Business / Horse Feathers / Duck Soup) [Blu-ray]
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