Marx Brothers in Color

[MarcBrewer]

Since it was an all-important color test, Harpo skipped the red wig.

[slavekal]

Cool. Harpo in rehearsal without the wig.

[CultureCunt]

i was looking forward to seeing harpo 'the professor's big red hair..

[swallin19]

The film is not Technicolor, but Multicolor, developed from Prizmacolor, a Bi-pak two film in an ordinary camera system, responsive to red and blue only, with an illusion of green in outdoor shots. It was cheaper than Technicolor to shot, but more expensive to print, and multicolor had to have Technicooer fo the printing for them till they developed a direct negative positive version. This became Cinecolor used in B movies till after the war, when Ektacolor replaced both makers.

[tbee4]

thank you for sharing, this is great!

[catholicpriest1]

The Marx Brothers were probably perfectionists when it came to their movies.

[catholicpriest1]

Three strip Technicolor (three films running through the camera to record the red, green and blue spectrums of light)wasn't available until 1932 so this must have been the primitive two strip Technicolor process (only the red and green spectrums of light).

[dabble778]

I remember seeing a colour film of a festival in Munich Germany before the war. It was a private film club I think. What colour systen would they have been using?

[joealanouf]

wild. so did they make any in coulr?

[SandJosieph]

Groucho actually lampshaded about filming movies in color in "the Big Store". It was in black and white and Groucho pointed out that a woman's dress was actually red but that Technicolor was SO expensive.

[dabble778]

Yes it was very expensive. You'd imagine Bette Davis' film about a scarlet woman, Jezebel (1938), would have been filmed in colour, bit alas no.

[thot4]

@SandJosieph one of my favorite gags. haha.

[CharlieChaplinsAngel]

@SandJosieph yeppers

[herbiemarx01]

@SandJosieph I remember that, my family was dying of laughter

[darksorcerermusic]

A very nice find.(harpo without wig).. i remember seeing when i was a child some of the old classics that had been "coloured in" one was "a night at the opera" (if i remember right) ... "Captain blood" flyn and rathbone and a few more.... they should be doing that and re-releasing the whole marx brothers collection with color tinting..

I already have them all in black and white.... but how nice would it be in color... awsome find mate.

[VooDooWop]

wow.fantastic!!! As a huge fan of theirs, I congratulate you on getting your hands on a piece of footage of harpo running through his scene without wig and costume. Truly a rare find. Amazing. Thanks.

[captaincabs]

they look better in black and white

[Hippodameia]

I agree! It puts more focus on the Marx Brothers than it does on their environment.

[HazukiOfMutsu]

@captaincabs Yeah...it's nice to see footage like this, but, like the Three Stooges, they have a certain charm to being just black-and-white.

[CharlieChaplinsAngel]

@HazukiOfMutsu i think we're just used to seeing them in black and white so it's werid to see them in color. In colorized photographs, people do horrible. Groucho's eyes are grey and people make them brown. I know alot of people mistake it, but read his autobiography. I think he starts two chapters (at least one) with saying that.

[54spiritedwill54]

Is that Harpo or Zeppo? looks like it could be either one w/out the wig on.

[ABell05131989]

I think it's Harpo. He has the horn in his hand.

[LeslieSlape]

What a find. Groucho isn't wearing his Captain Spaulding hat either.

[johnreidsteenkamp]

chico and harpo look identical. (i know they are brothers.)

[brian2889]

2 strip technicolor was used as early as 1929. Color wasn't perfect. King of Jazz was an example. A slightly modified standard 35mm cine camera was used. 2 strips of film, one blue sensitive, one panchromatic, emulsion to emulsion. Imbibision printed in red and cyan. Later 3 color technicolor required a big, elaborate camera, as I remember it. First tripack color film that could be used in a standard camera, was Kodachrome reversal, cine in 1935, 35mm slide in 1936.

[bpted]

The way I understand it, until about 1935 all color systems were basically variations on hand-painting or tinting. Eastman Kodak came up with the first true color film in about 1935, but Animal Crackers was filmed in 1930. So this would be an example of early colorization, basically, rather than early color. But hey, it's great to see and thanks for putting it up!

[RobtRobt]

The Technicolor company made their fist film in 1917. It was genuine color photography, not hand tinting or colorization or anything like that. In the 1920s there were several films that used Technicolor in some sequences, and Douglas Fairbanks Sr. filmed "The Black Pirate" entirely in Technocolor in 1926.

[00dacousin]

Briton William Friese-Green first experimented with colour filming in 1898 using coloured filters to expose two seperate films which were then tinted and played back together to give the illusion of True Colour

[iketheman]

nice one!

[koalagirl5]

i love this clip. harpo looks so weird out of costume

[scotpens]

In those days, most people wouldn't have recognized Groucho, Chico, or Harpo out of character and costume if they'd passed them on the street. Must have spared the brothers a lot of the hassle from fans that celebrities get!

[themohaguy]

never knew harpo ever used to hav a wig

[hocbes]

Gorgeous.

But why on earth did they need a color test for a B&W movie ?

[scotpens]

Interesting question. Perhaps the movie was originally planned to be in Technicolor but was made in B&W, or the color footage was shot for someone's private film library, or maybe some color test footage was needed for some other project and the "Animal Crackers" set and actors just happened to be handy.

[bkgartist]

omg, thats the first time ive ever seen harpo out of costume, now i want to hear his voice

[kwyjibear1]

Wow.  I never would have recognized Harpo. Got any more?

[elkunt]

COOL SCENE!!

[formerrocker]

Where the heck did you find this rare clip? Wow!

[sayward12]

Don't you see the resemblance between Harpo (sans wig) and Mel? that's what I meant.

[hwycine]

Black & white is best for old movies. Look at how effectuve it was for Wizard of Oz to start and end in b&w, yeah! Colorization is wrong! I heard they are going to colorize all of Sting's music videos!

[gabrielnyc]

this wasnt colorized. it was a test film done years ago

[sayward12]

you sure that's not Mel Brooks?!

[gabrielnyc]

mel brooks? what are you retarded? Brooks was born in 1926.

[joeskyjr]

My kids grow-up on their films instead of the stuff of the 90's classics will never die

[kamesan]

Is that Harpo or Zeppo? looks like it could be either one w/out the wig on.

[Philcoman]

In general I'm against colorizing old films, but I'd *love* to see all of "Animal Crackers," which is the closest we get to seeing the Marx Brothers on stage, get full, careful colorization and digital remastering. It's not like their films benefited from being in B&W, like some.

[DaMama4]

That is so cool!!!!

[CuriositysCat]

I would like to see a coloured version of A Night At The Opera. I love that movie, I think it's probably my favourtie, so far, of theirs.

[lilacpilgrim13]

This is quite cool to see.

And btw, there was a coloured version of A Night At The Opera, but when the coloured version of another of their movies made fans upset, they discontinued the coloured versions. None exist today, but if they did, they'll be locked away forever somewhere

[CuriositysCat]

Why did the fans get angry? I think it would have been insanely interesting to have a coloured version.. I wish I had coloured versions, at least.

[KuraiGaka]

I wonder that myself. I am a huge fan of the Marx Brothers, and love their films dearly, and imagine that maybe a colour version would be interesting. However, I suppose the colour is unnecessary, and some fans probably thought the addition of colour took something away from the films.

[CuriositysCat]

Well, I don't know.. My mother says that apparently changed a lot of black and white films to colours, but that sometimes the colours were wrong, not the ones that were filmed, and also that sometimes the colour was too harsh..?

I don't know. All I know is that I would give a lot to see a Marx film in colour.

[lightguy512]

Ted Turner did a lot of color-izing old movies back in the 80s or 90s. The basic argument is that a film is a piece of art, like a painting or sculpture. It shouldn't be altered.

But this clip is really interesting because it looked like an original test print or something.

[CuriositysCat]

Yes, true, but I always feel like.. Hm. What was the actual colour of Harpo's wig? Things like that. I just like the idea of it in colour, to fully see all the details that are missed by using black and white.

[JONAWWFC]

pink m8 XD

[CuriositysCat]

Ha, for some movies, yes. But it was blond in others, red in a couple.. And things like what colour their costumes are. I just meant that I feel as though I'm missing out on things when it's black and white.

[lilacpilgrim13]

I wish my sister would stop logging in and then not signing out! KuraiGaka's comment here is actually mine.

[argetlamgirl711]

sweet

[mmcilhatton]

How fantastic to see the marxs like this,so bright and vibrant instead of tha old grey grainy footage we're used to. Surely in this day and age they could do a great upgraded colourized version of at least one of their classics. Thanks for putting it on, truly amazing.

[Huntron]

Wow!! They're rehearsing a scene from Animal Crackers! I didn't know they had color film back in 1930! This is amazing!

[jerryaltman]

That was black&white filme used in a 2 color technicolor camera. There was 2 frames each final color frame. One frame go through a orange filter and the other through a gren-blue filter. The frames was combined, each one inked in diferent dye, subtrative color process, forming the final image. The 3 color technicolor camera used 3 filters, so e frames for each final color frames, in this case one roll of film to each color filter, inside the camera.

[Huntron]

thanks, thats very interesting.

[mrspivvy]

you can really see the resemblance between harpo and chico here. they often liked to pretend to be each other off camera

[CowboyAndy81]

Harpo looks more like Zeppo with that hairline. Nice bathrobe!

[ThaliatheTiger]

Wow. That's amazing.

[shiztastic]

I thought his white curly hair was real ????

[seabisquick]

Only in A Night in Casablanca. He wore a wig in the other movies.

[argetlamgirl711]

actually it's red. but t first i thought it was blond. then they said it was red and i was like "what?" i wish they had colour movies back then.

[scotpens]

Some films from the 1920s and early '30s were in 2-strip Technicolor, but it was rarely used because of the cost and technical complexity. The first live-action film in full (3-strip) Technicolor was the musical short "La Cucaracha" in 1934; the first feature-length full Technicolor movie was "Becky Sharp" in 1935.

[smooshiebear80]

Actually, he used the red one during the vaudeville days and in their first movie "The Cocoanuts." After that he did change to a blond wig because it looked better on screen. I would have loved to see the red wig, though!

[Horationelson4ever]

You can, if you type in this: The Story of Mankind - Harpo Marx as Sir Isaac Newton, if you then look on that guy's channel and you will see a groucho cameo also. Chico was in it but they didn't put that on youtube.

[TheDaDaArtist]

AWWWWWWESOME! Thanks

[agun4hire]

What's so amazing is that, that's Harpo without makeup walking into the scene!

[madman37115]

Wow! Never seen that before. Thanks.

[feckingbillgates]

This is fascinating.  And is this definitely a colour test, as opposed to black and white footage that someone has computer coloured?

[JDDS21]

never take this down!

[thefools]

they should put this on dvd