After the wild days of the Marx Brothers transitioned to mild during their 1930s era at the magnanimous MGM, it was one Buster Keaton who would save the day come 1940 in the feature Go West, engineering that terrificly tumultuous train chase. This was followed by the woefully undervalued Big Store in 1941 which was ironically more memorable for the dead-pan debut of one Virginia O'Brien, the steely-eyed songstress. The Marx siblings nearly quit the business hook, line and sinker. Five years later, however they resurfaced in the spy burlesque A Night in Casablanca and in 1949, Love Happy
Meanwhile, W.C. Fields was busy staining his reputation by co-starring and co-writing with Mae West in My Little Chickadee (1940). And though it must have been an extraordinary idea on paper - it proved underwhelming on the silvers. However, what was next to come was more than fair compensation - the colorful The Bank Dick (1940) would be one of Fields' finest hours and funniest films. Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941) was his last starring vehicle, although he would continue to appear in films and perform choice moments from some of his classic Vaudeville routines.
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| The Ritz Brothers were going crackers. |
The Ritz Brothers were an all-the-rage comedy team in the Thirties, they decamped to Universal after their 20th Century days ended in 1940. Their first film under new management was Argentine Nights (1940) in which they burlesqued their co-stars The Andrews Sisters, singing Rhumboogie. In 1942's Behind the Eight Ball, the Ritz boys were the Three Jolly Jesters who sang Atlas Did it But He Won't Admit it. and unmasked their clarinetist as a spy who used his instrument to convey coded messages. Hi Ya Chum (1943) starred the Ritz Brothers as the Merry Madcaps; this time they sang Cactus Pete For Sheriff and squirted their audience with laughing gas. Their fourth film was titled Never a Dull Moment from 1943, consequently there were more than a few said moments and as a self-fulfilled prophecy was their farewell in films. Universal was indifferent. The studio had discovered the key to a fortune in comedy - Abbott and Costello who became box-office darlings as well as the double-trouble of Olsen and Jo