Groucho talks about Irving Thalberg & Margaret Dumont

[telekingkong]

Groucho. One of the finest comedians (and monologists, as we can plainly see here) ever.

And Margaret Dumont one of the finest 'straight persons', precisely because of what Mr. (Julious Henry) Marx explained;

that the wonderful lady was at an absolutely, hilariously innocent loss as to WHAT in the HELL to make of his jibes and asides!!

I can't tell you how much wonderment, and warmth (and how many laughs) this clip brought me @cavettbiter. Thank you for posting it.

[prunejuicebob]

6:20 "I think women are sexy when they got their clothes on.... And if later they take them off then you've triumphed" Great line! He was still so sharp and funny.

[snuggletiger]

Otis Driftwood was in Night at the Opera, and Rufus T. Firefly was in Duck Soup

[takineko]

The fact that the last time he saw her she had bought flowers and had them delivered to herself makes me really sad DX

[takineko]

4:30 I love when he just goes off on his nutty ramble. He's cute that way. XD

[TomCollinsgirl]

i was 1st introduced to harpo when i watched i love lucy but groucho was always burned in my conscinceness. there was a woman in our neighborhood that had this black thin metal frame on her front lawn. it seemed to be hanging off the front porch. When i was little my mom said "you know who that is?" when i said no she said "that's harpo's brother groucho" from then on i adored groucho

[arlichar11]

6:18 to 6:30 is what i think too...

[bbrr9]

Did you, like me, not find it incongruous that Groucho was sitting with that hat on his head? It just seemed, well, normal. A great talent from the birth of a tremendous medium. Thanks for the laughs Groucho..

[arlichar11]

there used to be more cavett shows online but now are gone, john houston and robert mitchum were excellent ones..but cant find em anymore..shame

[danutcase66]

I could listen to him forever. He has such quick wit, delivered with a deep, old, new york accent. So many stories! It is amazing, such great tales.

I watched Duck Soup (I'm 18) yesterday for the first time. I am a huge fan of things like The Office (UK), Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Thick of It, In The Loop Christopher Guest's films, etc, etc. It is astounding how funny I found Duck Soup to be. It is 2010 and yet something made in 1933 still makes us laugh.

Genius. So is Woody Allen.

[wontonton]

@danutcase66

you have good comedic taste if you are 18 and already into Groucho and Woody.

[danutcase66]

@wontonton

Cheers. I am an aspiring film/sitcom writer and these names a mentioned below are my main influences. But yeah, Woody and Groucho are simply the Godfathers of comedy, the other is Charlie Chaplin but I haven't seen enough of him really.

[CharlieChaplinsAngel]

@danutcase66 definitly. As you an tell by my username i'm a very avid watcher of Chaplin and discovered the marx brothers quite quickly and I'm the kind of person that when i like something i try to find out as much about it as possible. The first thing i ever read about the marx brothers that really sparked my love for them is the book "Hello I Must be Going". I also read his autobiography and I absolutely loved it. God Bless that man, "I'm going to live forever or die trying," -Groucho Marx :)

[CharlieChaplinsAngel]

@wontonton agreed. I was 14 when i found my love for Groucho and Chaplin, havent had a chance to watch woody yet.

[Veggieman87]

I just tried doing "M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I" to the tune of the Mickey Mouse song, like what Groucho was sort of doing, and it actually works! Just thought that was fun.

[jzerony]

Groucho never fails to amaze me with his brutal honesty... that bit about Margaret Dumont was quite touching.

[drunkeneagle]

You can listen to Groucho for hours.

[Veggieman87]

@drunkeneagle That's probably why Dick had him on the show so many times.

[prodigiesofpeace]

5:47 - 5:53

That's exactly how I feel about today. Just what Groucho said.

As we know, Groucho was born in 1890, and I think it's safe to say that when I was born 100 years later, pretty much all the classy entertainment (and a lot of entertainers too), had gone, leaving the Golden Age of everything days of the past..

And leaving people like me 'longing for the old days', just like Groucho.

I could listen to him talk all day, Groucho is a respectable and truly funny man.

[CharlieChaplinsAngel]

@prodigiesofpeace i couldnt agree more. Today's entertainment is disgusting...all the comedians base everything off sex and drugs. Groucho would make snide comments but my father said once "the good thing about the marx brothers is that in their movies there weren't tits flying around,". When I'm watching a ridiculous show like Jersey Shore I always mutter "this is disgusting," and people tell me that I sound like someone born in the Golden days of entertainment. Amen to what you say.

[TelecasterLPGTop]

@prodigiesofpeace You've captured how I'm feeling right this second. I'm 57, born in 1953 and I remember sitting in front of the box at my cousins' place (we didn't have TV until 1959) and the people who were on TV then were definitely of a different class. People like Groucho & his bros seemed to have a certain warmth, in fact everything felt different in those days. Probably just me remembering the "good Old days" after all I was 7 yrs old and you "should" feel warm and safe at that age.

[flimpkin4]

Thalberg watered down the Marxes humour. Duck Soup was their best -- before they went to Thalberg's MGM.

[ChuckFuXVI]

he was rufus t firefly in duck soup, not otis driftwood, but i guess thats forgivable

[kenrubes]

yeah, you're right. That slip up was a little surprising, actually.

[alicemoony68]

Yes, and then when he's talking about "A Night at the Opera", he says that Mrs. Dumont said: "Otis, do you have everything?"

I suppose it was a an honest mistake...

[landosalemchainsaw]

i was going to comment on that too

[stokepogue]

Thanks for posting this. Groucho's in fine form.

[weeweemonsieur]

what year was this from

[bjnevin]

Priceless!

[Nicar526]

That really was Margret's charm

[yardleyaloe]

In my travels, far and wide, I've never heard of anyone soundproofing their oceanside home. For example, I have a seaside villa with no soundproofing. Although, sometimes I think I should have my bedroom soundproofed. LOL