The Big Store
Encyclopedia
The Big Store is a Marx Brothers
comedy film
in which Groucho
, Chico
and Harpo
work to save the Phelps Department Store, owned by Martha Phelps (Margaret Dumont
). Groucho plays her detective and bodyguard Wolf J. Flywheel, a character name originating from the Marx-Perrin radio show Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel in the early 1930s.
It was advertised as their last ever film, and it was the last of five films made under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
. However, they would return to the screen in A Night in Casablanca
(1946) and Love Happy
(1949).
The Big Store co-starred long-time Marx Brothers' foil Margaret Dumont
as well as the love interests, Tony Martin
and Virginia Grey
. The Big Store was Dumont's final film with the Marx Brothers. The "heavy" was Mr. Grover, played by Douglass Dumbrille
, who had played a similar role in A Day at the Races
.
In 2011, Rowse Honey used the musical number played by Chico and Harpo on the piano, Mamma Yo Quiero, in their TV advert.
Tagline: "Where everything is a good buy. Goodbye!"
The film has two extended scenes, one of them in the store's bed department, which has all kinds of novel beds that come out of the walls. An Italian family walks in with 12 children, and Groucho asks the father (Henry Armetta
) what other hobbies he has got. Six of the kids promptly disappear in a set of bunk beds. While the father pleads for the return of his children, three more large families, a Swedish one with a dozen blond children, another with Chinese children and finally Native American children, arrive, and soon all is chaos.
The second lengthy scene takes place near the end of the film: Groucho, Chico and Harpo escape their pursuers during a madcap chase through the entire store, using the elevator, a staircase, chandeliers, roller skates, a mail chute and a bicycle. This chase involves an unusual amount of Mack Sennett
-type slapstick
stunts for a Marx Brothers movie.
There is one gag which breaks the fourth wall
, during the "Sing While You Sell" sequence: while Groucho is narrating a fashion show, he asides "This is a bright red dress, but Technicolor
is so expensive." Later in the film, Groucho breaks the fourth wall again when he comments "I told you in the first reel [Grover] was a crook."
's original music. Also of note is that this is the second film in which an instrumental version of "Cosi-Cosa" off "A Night at the Opera" can be heard (playing during the moving bed scene); the first being "A Day at the Races."
Marx Brothers
The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act, originally from New York City, that enjoyed success in Vaudeville, Broadway, and motion pictures from the early 1900s to around 1950...
comedy film
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
in which Groucho
Groucho Marx
Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx was an American comedian and film star famed as a master of wit. His rapid-fire delivery of innuendo-laden patter earned him many admirers. He made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born...
, Chico
Chico Marx
Leonard "Chico" Marx was an American comedian and film star as part of the Marx Brothers. His persona in the act was that of a dim-witted albeit crafty con artist, seemingly of rural Italian origin, who wore shabby clothes, and sported a curly-haired wig and Tyrolean hat.As the first-born of the...
and Harpo
Harpo Marx
Adolph "Harpo" Marx was an American comedian and film star. He was the second oldest of the Marx Brothers. His comic style was influenced by clown and pantomime traditions. He wore a curly reddish wig, and never spoke during performances...
work to save the Phelps Department Store, owned by Martha Phelps (Margaret Dumont
Margaret Dumont
Margaret Dumont was an American comedic actress. She is remembered mostly for being the comic foil to Groucho Marx in seven of the Marx Brothers films...
). Groucho plays her detective and bodyguard Wolf J. Flywheel, a character name originating from the Marx-Perrin radio show Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel in the early 1930s.
It was advertised as their last ever film, and it was the last of five films made under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
. However, they would return to the screen in A Night in Casablanca
A Night in Casablanca
A Night in Casablanca was the twelfth Marx Brothers movie, starring Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, and Harpo Marx. The picture was directed by Archie Mayo and written by Joseph Fields and Roland Kibbee, and is generally considered one of the better of the Marx Brothers' later films.-Plot:Set in...
(1946) and Love Happy
Love Happy
Love Happy was the 14th and last starring feature for the Marx Brothers. The film stars Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, and, in a smaller role than usual, Groucho Marx, plus Ilona Massey, Vera-Ellen, Paul Valentine, Marion Hutton, Raymond Burr, Bruce Gordon , and Eric Blore, with a walk-on by Marilyn Monroe...
(1949).
The Big Store co-starred long-time Marx Brothers' foil Margaret Dumont
Margaret Dumont
Margaret Dumont was an American comedic actress. She is remembered mostly for being the comic foil to Groucho Marx in seven of the Marx Brothers films...
as well as the love interests, Tony Martin
Tony Martin (entertainer)
Tony Martin is an American actor and singer.-Career:Tony Martin was born on Christmas Day, 1913 as Alvin Morris in San Francisco, California to Jewish immigrant parents. He received a saxophone as a gift from his grandmother at the age of ten. In his grammar school glee club, he became an...
and Virginia Grey
Virginia Grey
Virginia Grey was an American actress.She was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of director Ray Grey. One of her early babysitters was movie star Gloria Swanson. Grey debuted at the age of ten in the silent film Uncle Tom's Cabin as Little Eva...
. The Big Store was Dumont's final film with the Marx Brothers. The "heavy" was Mr. Grover, played by Douglass Dumbrille
Douglass Dumbrille
Douglass Dumbrille was a Canadian actor and one of the Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood.-Life and career:...
, who had played a similar role in A Day at the Races
A Day at the Races (film)
Further reading* Elisabeth Buxbaum: Veronika, der Lenz ist da. Walter Jurmann – Ein Musiker zwischen den Welten und Zeiten. Mit einem Werkverzeichnis von Alexander Sieghardt. Edition Steinbauer, Wien 2006, ISBN 3-902494-18-2-External links:*...
.
In 2011, Rowse Honey used the musical number played by Chico and Harpo on the piano, Mamma Yo Quiero, in their TV advert.
Tagline: "Where everything is a good buy. Goodbye!"
Plot
Store manager Grover wants to kill heir Tommy Rogers before he can sell his share of the venerable Phelps Department Store. Against his better judgement he hires Groucho as a floorwalker. Between Tommy wooing his sweetheart and Groucho romancing Mrs. Phelps, the brothers thwart the plot to place a gun in a photographer's camera.The film has two extended scenes, one of them in the store's bed department, which has all kinds of novel beds that come out of the walls. An Italian family walks in with 12 children, and Groucho asks the father (Henry Armetta
Henry Armetta
Henry Armetta was an Italian movie character actor who appeared in at least 150 films, starting in silents as early as 1915 to a movie released in 1946, after his death.-Biography:...
) what other hobbies he has got. Six of the kids promptly disappear in a set of bunk beds. While the father pleads for the return of his children, three more large families, a Swedish one with a dozen blond children, another with Chinese children and finally Native American children, arrive, and soon all is chaos.
The second lengthy scene takes place near the end of the film: Groucho, Chico and Harpo escape their pursuers during a madcap chase through the entire store, using the elevator, a staircase, chandeliers, roller skates, a mail chute and a bicycle. This chase involves an unusual amount of Mack Sennett
Mack Sennett
Mack Sennett was a Canadian-born American director and was known as the innovator of slapstick comedy in film. During his lifetime he was known at times as the "King of Comedy"...
-type slapstick
Slapstick
Slapstick is a type of comedy involving exaggerated violence and activities which may exceed the boundaries of common sense.- Origins :The phrase comes from the batacchio or bataccio — called the 'slap stick' in English — a club-like object composed of two wooden slats used in Commedia dell'arte...
stunts for a Marx Brothers movie.
There is one gag which breaks the fourth wall
Fourth wall
The fourth wall is the imaginary "wall" at the front of the stage in a traditional three-walled box set in a proscenium theatre, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play...
, during the "Sing While You Sell" sequence: while Groucho is narrating a fashion show, he asides "This is a bright red dress, but Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
is so expensive." Later in the film, Groucho breaks the fourth wall again when he comments "I told you in the first reel [Grover] was a crook."
Musical numbers
As is typical for MGM Marx Brothers films, the movie contains elaborate production numbers, such as the upbeat "Sing While You Sell," led by an all-singing, all-dancing Groucho, and "Tenement Symphony" sung by Tony Martin and a boys' choir. The screenwriting team of Kuller, Golden and Fimberg also supplied the lyrics to Hal BorneHal Borne
Hal Borne was an American popular song composer, orchestra leader, music arranger and musical director, who studied music at the University of Illinois...
's original music. Also of note is that this is the second film in which an instrumental version of "Cosi-Cosa" off "A Night at the Opera" can be heard (playing during the moving bed scene); the first being "A Day at the Races."
- "Tenement Symphony"- Tony Martin, onstage choir and orchestra, featuring Chico and Harpo
- "Sing While You Sell"- Groucho, Six Hits and a Miss singing group, with other cast members, including Virginia O'Brien, and with Harpo as a drum-beating snake charmer
- "Rock-a-bye Baby"- Virginia O'Brien
- "If It's You"- Tony Martin (music & lyrics by Ben OaklandBen OaklandBen Oakland was an American composer, lyricist and pianist most active from the 1920s through the 1940s. He composed mainly for Broadway and vaudeville, though he also worked on several Hollywood scores including for the film My Little Chickadee.Oakland often composed music only, collaborating...
, Artie ShawArtie ShawArthur Jacob Arshawsky , better known as Artie Shaw, was an American jazz clarinetist, composer, and bandleader. He was also the author of both fiction and non-fiction writings....
& Milton Drake) - "Mama Yo Quiero"- Chico and Harpo (piano duet)
- "Mozart's Sonata in C major" - Harpo (harp)
- "Beethoven's Minuet" - Harpo (harp/cello/violin, although perhaps supplied by noted jazz violinist Georgie StollGeorgie StollGeorgie Stoll was a musical director, conductor, composer and jazz violinist, associated with the Golden Age of MGM musicals and performers from the 1940s to 1960s. Born George Martin Stoll, he was also later credited as George E...
)
Cast
- Groucho MarxGroucho MarxJulius Henry "Groucho" Marx was an American comedian and film star famed as a master of wit. His rapid-fire delivery of innuendo-laden patter earned him many admirers. He made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born...
- Wolf J. Flywheel - Harpo MarxHarpo MarxAdolph "Harpo" Marx was an American comedian and film star. He was the second oldest of the Marx Brothers. His comic style was influenced by clown and pantomime traditions. He wore a curly reddish wig, and never spoke during performances...
- Wacky - Chico MarxChico MarxLeonard "Chico" Marx was an American comedian and film star as part of the Marx Brothers. His persona in the act was that of a dim-witted albeit crafty con artist, seemingly of rural Italian origin, who wore shabby clothes, and sported a curly-haired wig and Tyrolean hat.As the first-born of the...
- Ravelli - Tony MartinTony Martin (entertainer)Tony Martin is an American actor and singer.-Career:Tony Martin was born on Christmas Day, 1913 as Alvin Morris in San Francisco, California to Jewish immigrant parents. He received a saxophone as a gift from his grandmother at the age of ten. In his grammar school glee club, he became an...
- Tommy Rogers - Virginia GreyVirginia GreyVirginia Grey was an American actress.She was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of director Ray Grey. One of her early babysitters was movie star Gloria Swanson. Grey debuted at the age of ten in the silent film Uncle Tom's Cabin as Little Eva...
- Joan Sutton - Margaret DumontMargaret DumontMargaret Dumont was an American comedic actress. She is remembered mostly for being the comic foil to Groucho Marx in seven of the Marx Brothers films...
- Martha Phelps - Douglas Dumbrille Mr. Grover
- William Tannen Fred Sutton
- Henry ArmettaHenry ArmettaHenry Armetta was an Italian movie character actor who appeared in at least 150 films, starting in silents as early as 1915 to a movie released in 1946, after his death.-Biography:...
- Giuseppe - Anna Demetrio - Maria
- Marion MartinMarion MartinMarion Martin was an American movie and stage actress.Martin was born, Marion Suplee in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the daughter of a Bethlehem Steel executive. She became an actress after her family fortune was lost in the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and appeared in the Broadway productions...
- Peggy Arden - Paul Stanton - Arthur Hastings
- Russell Hicks - George Hastings
- Bradley Page - Duke
- Virginia O'BrienVirginia O'BrienVirginia Lee O'Brien was a popular American actress, singer, and radio personality known for her comedic roles in MGM musicals of the 1940s.-Life and career:...
- Kitty - Six Hits and a Miss