So, I recently saw bits and pieces of some Marx brothers movies on late night tv and was blown away how funny they were. It was actually witty humor which is what I like compared to slapstick humor in the Three Stooges. Where should I start with series? Are they any special edition, oop, or dvd box sets that I need to track down? Thanks in advance.

This is all you need

Yes, absolutely. However, I would also recommend the Warner box as well.
http://www.amazon.com/Brothers-Colle...bxgy_mov_img_b

Their films admittedly declined in quality as the years went on, but I think A Night at the Opera is one of their best, and even their lesser films contain some great stuff.

I would say, if you like the Marx Brothers, both sets are essential.

Cool, thanks!

Start with these three:
Horsefeathers
Monkey Business
Duck Soup

And then go on to:
A Night at the Opera
A Day at the Races

Those will carry you through all the others, including The Big Store, At the Circus and Go West. But save A Night in Casablanca till the very end. It's the hardest one to sit through.

I'd switch out Opera and Monkey Business in the order, but otherwise spot on...

...until this. I'll take Casablanca over the Big Store or even Go West any day. (And any of the three over Love Happy.)

^I loved Big Store (Harpo's best harp scene, IMO) Never seen Love Happy yet (But I'm now hesitant to)

From Wikipedia:

Personally I'd swap out Go West for Duck Soup but I know a lot of people like Duck Soup.

Don't forget Animal Crackers as well and Cocoanuts and my favorite is Room Service.

I love them all. Yes, even Love Happy. I'd just start with the first box set, move on to the second and finish with Love Happy. Then go back and watch your favorites again, and again, and again, and again... While some films are better than others, and everyone has their own opinion as to the best-worst order, each film has bits and pieces that are simply magnificent. I *love* watching and listening to Harpo and Chico play. They make it look effortless. One of my absolute favorite scenes is from Night in Cassablanca. My favorite film? Typically the one I happen to be watching at the time you ask.

Back in the good ol' days, these films used to play regularly at revival theaters in Manhattan. I remember an all-night quadruple feature of THE COCOANUTS, MONKEY BUSINESS, HORSEFEATHERS and DUCK SOUP. It was a packed house, too. A great way to see these films. At the same time they also used to show regularly on local TV stations. You could get up on a Saturday morning and watch these films. This was pre-cable, pre-home video, pre-internet. And then, in late 1974, they finally released ANIMAL CRACKERS (1930) again, which hadn't been seen in decades. It was such a big deal that they released it nationwide in theaters. I saw it at a neighborhood theater in the Bronx! (Of course the image was cut off on top and bottom, since my local theater couldn't accommodate the old Academy aspect ratio. Better to have seen it in Manhattan.)

I think that all of us, no matter what our favorite Marx Bros movie is, can agree that the Ritz Bros suck. (No, we probably can't.)

In Chicago, WGN would run a Marx marathon every New Years Eve. While the grown-ups were getting their drink on, we kids would stay up to watch Harpo, Groucho, and Chico until the wee hours. Animal Crackers was always on last, and the late hour and general creakiness of the film meant I never saw it all the way through until it came out on VHS.

This tradition has installed a hankering for old B&W comedies at New Year's for a lot of folks my age. Some friends and I were just talking about it a couple of weeks back.

They just had a big Marx Brothers marathon this past NYE on THIS TV, albeit they were edited but it was fun watching those guys once again and brought back some cool memories of what movies were supposed to be like.

I love the Marx Bros but feel A Day at the Races is one of their weakest. I felt vindicated when in the dvd commentary the historian is consistantly explaining why the movie doesn't work, comparing it's failings to A Night at the Opera's triumphs. I would put every film they did except Love Happy & Cocoanuts before it.

Edit:Big Store may be a tie.

Anything Marx Brothers is great so both those sets have wonderful titles. I prefer the Paramount years myself but both have merit.

Really just avoid The Story of Mankind and you'll be fine.

As an aside you may also enjoy the Groucho sole effort Copacabana as well as, for the die hard fans only, this public domain compilation set and this collection of public domain You Bet Your Life episodes is regarded as the best of it's kind out there.

With these four sets you'll have pretty much everything Marx for video (still some more audio out there) aside from A Girl in Every Port which is a UK only release (haven't seen it yet because of that).

Girl in Every Port isn't too bad of a flick, but also recommend You Bet Your Life...The Lost episodes and the other set that was out and one of them is still available at Oldies.com for a decent price.

For ones looking at the UK Universal set which has 8 movies (Animal Crackers, The Cocoanuts, Duck Soup, A Girl in Every Port, Horse Feathers, Love Happy, Monkey Business, and Room Service) plus all the extras from the US Universal set is a good deal, but be warned that some of the titles (Horse Feathers in particular) has very bad picture quality compared to the US version.

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/dvdcom...sefeathers.htm

You can see interlacing, bad grey-scale, cue blips, and look at the bad mis-framing in the "Police Dog For Sale" capture for that scene.

I've been holding out on A Girl in Every Port since it's just part of a combo set (and I have the other titles) - considering the price of the set how much enjoyment do you think it'd give a Groucho fan?

I've been hoping they'd release it as a single disc (esp in the R1 since, oddly enough, it's never been out here?) however I have been waiting a few years for that...

I forgot about the lost episodes - thanks for the reminder! Do you have a link for the Oldies set? Does it have many more episodes in it that isn't covered by that YBYL set I posted for Amazon?

Bugs Groucho

In the movie with William Bendix, it's an OK movie but you can tell that groucho was losing his touch a bit as this was made in 1952 but it is an OK film.

As for You Bet Your Life...there are two compilations...the Best Episodes and Lost Episodes...just found out Oldies.com was charging a fortune for the Best Episodes, but at Amazon.com, found both of them for you so take a look at them and believe me, you'll love both sets if you happen to get them...

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...+bet+your+life

First and third selections on that link. The movie is available via Region 2 at Amazon.co.uk but that's up to you to decide if it's worth getting the movie.

Not a whole lot of info in this

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HRUQ992/...I2NBG7GUG2IMZW

I asked SHOUT! about this on their Facebook page but they didn't have any kind of info on this and the release date has been moved up from June 17th to August 12th. Looking forward to getting this though. HUGE Marx brothers fan!

I'm hoping Incredible Jewel Robbery and Mad Mad Mad Comedians are included.

Hopefully it means more YOU BEST YOUR LIFE episodes.

Been listening to the radio series FUNNY stuff.