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From: thetunr
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  • kudos to the props department..!

  • Comment removed

  • Maybe he'll play Wreck-vel next.

  • This was waaay before Pete Townsend's instrument destruction.

    Innovator!

  • @andros1984 I think Pete Townshend was a big Harpo fan.

  • way to trash a fine steinway LOL

  • Happy Birthday, Harpo! You were and are my favourite! <3

  • 10 people had their pianos fall apart during a recital

  • @AtomicProductions98 - 10 people love pianos and hate to see them trashed just for a movie/tv or whatever the heck this is. It's pathetic! Omg! That beautiful piano is being absolutely destroyed! Omg! How awful...

  • @lllllllllllllll88 Dude, calm down ;)!!! It's hilarious!

  • @lllllllllllllll88 if you know anything about pianos, you'd know this was not a real piano.

  • WHY CUT OF THE PART WHERE HE PLAYS THE 'HARP'!? lol..

  • What's this? Trashing my favorite composer, Buddy?!?...lol...never saw this be4...bless his peapickin' heart...

    L.

  • This is what would've happened if Beethoven played the piece...

  • What is the name of that concert?

  • Look when he starts crossing his legs at 1:09. It's the subtle things Harpo did that made him such a genius. Young comedic actors, PAY ATTENTION.

  • Harpo could only play one song on piano...he got Chico to audition for a piano job playing in a burlesque theater. Of course he was hired on the spot but after one night of Harpo playing the same song he was summarily fired. LOL

  • BAHAHAHAHAH! Wreckmaninov is TOAD-ally correct! :)

  • You cut off the part where he plays it like a harp XD

  • man i would have loved to break that piano..^^

  • Harpo needs bigger hands. xD

  • Awesome...

  • I realize that to get the effect the music has to be dubbed in, but in the beginning the dubbing is done so poorly, his hand motions don't match the notes we hear; that unfortunately makes the scene less realistic.

  • @wdd3141 It's the video, not the movie. Search "marx brothers music scene" and watch that.

  • Has anyone ever watched Harpo's face while he plays the harp? After about twenty seconds into the song, there is not a trace of humour left in his expression, it's pure intent concentration.

  • 7 people now regret letting Harpo play their piano

  • Whats funny are his facial expressions and the fact that his tuxedo chestpiece is falling out. LOL

  • It should be called WRECKmaninov!

  • @LoquaciousByNature

    HAHA, I'll take up your tip!

  • @thetunr I LOVE IT:)

  • LOL, Harpo is so ridiculous! LMAO

  • Harpo Marx: Great Pianist, Master of Destuction.

    He knows how to tear a piano apart.

  • Bravo!

    

  • "But that's a priceless Steinway!"

    "Not any more!"

  • Harpo Speaks is how I got to know the Marx Brothers. What luck I picked it up and from the first page I was hooked, its still the best autobiography I have ever read. RIP Harpo

  • lolage

  • I do not get it, what was that???!!!

  • @thechristian01999 That was hilarious. And Harpo even ends up with a harp.

  • Harpo could play the piano as well as Chico - maybe even better. Before the family act started, Chico would hire himself out to bars and brothels playing the piano to entertain customers. Sometimes he hired himself out to two places on the same night. Chico would go to one and send Harpo to the other. The two looked so much alike, no one knew the difference.

  • @MFPhoto1 Maybe, Harpo said in his autobiography that he could only play two songs, he'd just alter them slightly so they sounded different. But maybe Harpo was just being modest. :)

  • @HazukiOfMutsu My guess is that Harpo was being modest -- or just telling a good story. Harpo reportedly could play several instruments, all self-taught. We do see him in various movies playing a clarinet, a saxiphone and a trumpet, although admittedly not seriously. He had a wide collection of instruments in his home and played them all. I would like to find a copy of "Harpo Speaks." It should be good reading, although I would take a few details with a few grains of salt. ;-)

  • That's how Jerry Lee Lewis learned the business

  • OUT OF SYNC. I hate it.

  • amazing.

  • Yes, want to wath the movie, but what is the title of the movie?

  • @Magspie7 'A Day At The Races' is the title

  • @TheThugAthlete  Wrong. It's A Night at the Opera.

  • @Magspie7 The title is "A Night at the Opera." It was Groucho's favorite.

  • OMG you missed the best bit... the harp playing is flawless...

  • Whoever tuned that piano should have been shot:)

  • darn i wanted to see him play that harp

  • Pure geniality! Great actor, great pianist, great all

  • Comment removed

  • I have always loved their genuinely funny brand of anarchy. Groucho is still my favourite, though.

  • Genius!

  • "That's a priceless Steinway!!"

    "NOT... anymore."

  • I hadn't seen this before. Thanks for posting. A classic in the Marx Bros repertoire. And yes, he is foreshadowing Pete Townshend here.

    I used to be a big Groucho fan as a teenager in the 70s (yes I was a Marx Brothers geek) but I find his shtick gets old. Those awful puns, those lame put downs. Sure, there are funny for a while, but the hamming is just too much. Harpo is still funny because he doesn't talk. He is the child in all of us. Sorry for the analysis, but I love the guy!

  • SIN!!! how DARE you cut it off before he plays harp. JACCUSSEEE

  • Is he really playing this because as I'm watching it the sounds off.

    PS. before I get a lot of comments saying how stupid a comment this was keep in mind that I am still fairly young and never heard of this guy.

  • Frequently, video uploads to Youtube are de-synched.

    Harpo was a somewhat accomplished pianist (not as much as Chico), and he loved this prelude and actually wanted to play it in the movie. He wasn't allowed to because it was copyrighted, and the studio didn't want to pay the fee that was asked.

  • @TomBarristerX I didn't know about the de-synching.  I'm confused about Harpo's piano abilities. In a couple of places, it is stated that he only knew two pieces. But I don't understand -- so he wasn't allowed to play it, then what he did play here doesn't count as playing it? It's heavily butchered obviously. :-)

  • Harpo is a genius

  • lol he doesn't know his own strength!

  • HARPO WAS SELFTAUGHT ON YHE HARP

  • Hendrix ripped off Harpo!

  • love him. amazing person.

  • you guys didn't know that Harpo Marx had a bachelor's and master's degree in harp? yes he did!!

  • @alan1963 I'm not in the least bit surprised.

    People don't seem to realize that Minnie's boys were intellectuals.

  • harpo dropped out of school so how could he have gone to college?

  • In his autobiography, "Harpo Speaks", he tells how he drove away neighbor Rachmaninoff, while both were staying in the famous Garden of Allah, from the adjacent bungalow, by repeatedly striking on his harp the first four chords of this musical composition, which apparently was one of the composer's least favorite of his brain children.

  • @EvenEvenOdd Too funny! My dad would sometimes play a piece (late into the evening) and step away from the piano before the last phrase was played --- oh did that get my mothers fur up. hahaha

  • You have to thank the great Irving Thalberg for believing in the Marx Brothers after their contract with Paramount was not renewed.

  • harpo  is oprah backwards

  • @Doomessenger4654 wow seriously jeez

  • Hence, "Harpo Productions."

  • Ohh, it's a pity that the sound doesn't fit with the image..

  • ke pedo xD

  • they say Harpo was better at Piano than harp, amazingly. And that he didnt play harp in a legitimately tuned manner. Apparently when he first got a harp, he just tuned it to his ear and figured out how to play it. If you handed him a legit concert harp, he wouldnt be able to play coherantly

  • You are right that he played it in the wrong tunning, but did it amazingly well and it was his first instrument more than piano, where he could play only some songs (read wikipedia). He hired the best harp teachers for developing his technique, but these were fascinated by the way he was already used to play, so if he was able to shock them by his bizarre playing I am sure he could have been master player.

  • How can I find the video of when Harpo plays the harp after he destroys that sht.

  • lets leave out the part where HARPO plays the HARP!

  • LMAO

  • hahahahahaha

  • This is amazingly punk rock for a 1930s performance!

  • I was thinking more of the Who

  • So funny!

  • no wonder QUEEN chose to name an album after it...

  • @Classicmozayful Two actually.

  • And then you cut off the part inwhich Harpo starts to play....what a waste of time.

  • cos its the harp and no one is bothered about the harp!

  • Well Well! I guess Pete Townsend wasn't the first rocker to destroy his instrument onstage.

  • @VyteSnake Jerry Lee Lewis.

  • LOL!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Very funny. Good contribution.

    ------Ellen

  • THAT would be the most poorly made piano in the world if that were real...

  • THE VERY BEST!!

  • Pity it's so out of synch...

  • This is why Salvadore Dali loved Harpo.

  • i'll bet the house that Harpo starts playing the remains of the piano as if it were a harp !!

  • i also want 2 know what Happens Next :p

  • Search for Marx Brothers A Day At The Races. It's the music scene.

  • lol...

  • This reminds me of how Keith Emerson ends his concerts when he plays with Emerson, Lake and Palmer. He takes out an old upright piano and just goes nuts on it, banging it, jump all over it, laying down on the floor and playing it backwards.

    And somehow music is coming out of it.

    It's the funniest thing.

  • so we learn and see again: many things are a repetition of something happening before .... ;-)

  • I love Harpo's facial expressions.

  • hahahah

    yeeeah.. he is so funny!!!

  • WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THIS?!?!?! Does he play the harp??

  • yeah

  • @CuddlyBadger yup

  • @CuddlyBadger I doubt that this was really Harpo playing (his playing certainly doesn't sync with the music, although he could have pre-recorded it himself). In answer to your question, yes, he uses the naked piano strings as a harp.

  • @NewhamMatt This clip is out of sync. I have the dvd and it's in sync. Harpo could actually play the piano, though not as well as Chico, so it's possible that he may have played it for the movie, but I tend to think it was pre-recorded.

    To all Marx Bros fans, if you haven't read the book "Harpo Speaks" I highly recommend it!! It is such a great autobiography!!

  • @suzy170980 I always take it on flights,....never gets old!....speaking of which,neither does "The Groucho Letters"  knowwhaddimean?

  • @CuddlyBadger yeah, he does.

  • lol the beginning sounds like my piano at home, with the hammers off center and playing two notes at once

    luckily mine hasn't EXPLODED AND COLLAPSED while I was playing it, although it probably should have - I'm nowhere near as good as Harpo!

  • Harpo inspires 'The Who' :o)

  • I was thinking the exact same thing!

  • definitely one of the best musical moments in the marx bros mvoies.

  • come on this " ruined piano" may have inspired hundreds if not thousands to tickle the ivory just as jimi hendrix burning guitar

  • ...inspired thousands to pick up a fender.

  • that's art

  • lighten up daamn i love music too buh its a movie

  • What people didn't know was that Harpo could play the piano. He actually got the first job among his brothers playing in a brothel at age 13 in New York's lower East side.

  • I've said it before: it is the greatest scene in motion picture history. Ok, I may be a bit prejudice, I went to music school and I couldn't stand all the piano majors. (I was a composition major.)

  • Rock was born in here

  • Harpo kicks ass!!!

  • hardcore mfr!!!! show that piano whos boss

  • The face that has launched a thousand laughs in my life. He still does. What a comedic genius!

    ...and his musicianship...the only being in human history that has successfully combined classical and punk and made it work every time!

  • Whatever it is; I'm against it.

  • Whoever marked a thumbs down on this must not have realized that you were quoting the lyrics from one of Groucho's songs in Horse Feathers. It sounds like something he would say to this, so I gave it a thumbs up :)

  • Thank you oneofhth4. The person who gave me a thumbs down may look like an idiot, and probably sound like an idiot, but don't let that fool you: he really is an idiot. -- I know all the jokes; I grew up with the Marx Brothers' movies.

  • now thats something groucho would say lol (the first part of your comment)

  • hey heavy metal stars, this is how you have to broke an instrument!

    20 stars !!

    (btw i love metal music but this video was the best rocking performance ever!)

  • Karl-Erik Welins idol...

  • AVANT-GARDE!!!

  • SILL TODAY!!!

  • damn thats great, but i like the next part two, hes even better on the harp O_O

  • my alltime favorite interpretation !!!

  • This almost made me cry seeing this. That piano!!!!!!!

  • @godsloved3 Don't worry, it's not the same piano if you watch the cuts. Look at the harp!

  • @logosthedestroyer lol i also like how he's able to so easily carry a cast iron plate like a harp haha

  • haha, it makes me sad as a pianist that in every piano scene in their movies, the piano ends up falling apart. still the best

  • how did they manage to shoot this scene?

  • I am amazed at both Harpo's and Chico's musical talents. This clip made me LOL. Bloody funny . LOL. LOL. BRILLIANT. 20 STARS.

  • This clip is incomplete without the follow up of Harpo playing the harp that he removed from the demolished piano.

  • C'mon now, you're killin' me...you left out the BRILLIANT punch line-Harpo plays the frame like a harp! I cry every time!

  • They cut out the best part...Correct me if I'm wrong, but if I remember correctly, he wails on those piano strings.

  • Now i know where The Who got the whole breaking instruments thing from.

  • whoa whoa

  • All of the Marx brothers kind look like my cousin, but I JUST CAN'T GET OVER HARPO! MY COUSIN IS A SPITTING IMAGE!! It's crazy! Plus he acts exactly like him! Oh they're all so cute and talented. Long live Marx Brothers.

  • what was that thing held together with? scotch tape?!

  • Pete Townshend, eat your heart out!

  • oooh, that poor piano.

  • This is definitely anarchy!

    And soooo good for your soul.

    Aoucht...my stomage can't take

    much more!

    Way funny/Roland

  • Children/guys/gals/daddys/moth­ers/granpas/grannies/hound dogs/GIs/vanilla men/Bush&Bin supporters/bigots/cave men and others:I here officially MAYDAYED OFF THE SEARCH as I found Marx "mirror scene" myself.

    BTW, does somebody know Bin Ladens nom de plume here on youtube? If, we might start red alert again?

    Stay cool/Roland

  • Hello Gangerollo!

    Glad to know there are so many Marx Brothers fans around here as well. The mirror scene from Duck Soup (1933) is one of my all-time favourites. I find it as side-splittingly funny at the 50th viewing as I found it when I first saw it. It also makes for a hilarious comparison with Seven Years Bad Luck, a Max Linder short from 1921 often mentioned as the first version of a "mirror scene". You can find it here on YouTube as well. Enjoy!

  • what is a vanilla man?! 8D

  • For further and more detailed info what 'vanilla mating' is, I think it's better you send me a personal message. Otherwise I guess it will be deleted/spammed from here. 8O)

  • MAYDAY! MAYDAY! SOS! PLEASE I'M IN DIRE NEED OF HELP! Tell me if this scene exist as a clip on youtube (and name of the film)?

    As I remember: Groucho is playing a important person and they are very much alike. G is in front of a mirror which is not a mirror. One imitate the other to belive it's his reflected mirror image. But then G got suspicious and try to outdo his 'image'

    So funny I wet my pants not talking about my stomach. I MUST SEE this scene before I die. Tnx thetunr. Roland

  • you might look up mirror scene on here, I believe its from the movie duck soup, but don't quote me.

  • Tnx PrettiBoy...I already got it. And u are right, it's from that movie. LOL

  • Hahahahahahahahahaah.....Ouch my stomage hihihihhihi

  • taking jerry lee lewis to a hole new level,lol. maybe this is where jerry lee got is style from.lol

  • I wanted to hear him play the bare strings. Is that on youtube? funny sh*t.

  • He pulled a harp out of the piano!

  • LMFAOOOOOOOOOOOO! i love this and that movie! I will have to pop it in again!

    I wish we all acted up like this! ha ha

  • Funnier if you've read Harpo's autobiography. He had moved into the apartment immediately adjacent to Rachmaninoff. Harpo was not to pleased to listen to him practice, constantly, all day long, at loud volumes. So Harpo got his revenge and played his C# minor prelude over and over ad naseum as loud as he could. Needless to say, Rachmaninoff requested another flat.

  • Do anarchy - Sayd Grouch.

    You're great Harpo!!!!

  • God, Harpo and Chico were good. I don't know enough about the others to say, but I know those two were two of the must underhyped musicians of the time.