Harpo Marx in Color - Rare!

In the Marx Brothers' early years on stage, Harpo wore a curly red wig. When the Marxes began making black-and-white movies, Harpo's red wig looked black on film, so he switched to a wig that was yellow. In this 1957 scene, we see Harpo in glorious color, including his wig as it originally appeared on stage!

Category:

Comedy

Tags:

• harpo
• marx
• brothers

[Lampshade51]

I could never figure out why the producers of the film would hire The Marx Brothers and not have the sense to put them in the same scene together! 

[donlarsen1956]

Yes elainescolors, this is from a 1957 film (a very mediocre film) called "The Story Of Mankind". Groucho appears in it too, as Peter Minuet. And Chico makes a brief appearance as a monk (an inside joke, as Chico was quite a nefarious ladies man and wild gambler in his prime.) Harpo is delightful, as always.

[marcparella]

@altfactor: Irwin Allen's childhood hero was Groucho Marx. And I have always believed there was a little Marx Brothers influence in Lost in Space.

[dadoctah]

@Lampshade51 Same reason Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In had Sonny and Cher on as guests, and put them in two separate shows. Or Space Ghost Coast to Coast interviewed Penn and Teller...in separate segments! (You can just imagine what that second interview was like.)

[tnt88910]

Itz weird to see these guys in color, almost seems unnatural (: it looks Wizard of Oz-ish (:

[scrat4all]

@happyNESSrules

This was one of Ronald Colman's last voice-overs before he past away.

[altfactor]

I believe "The Story Of Mankind" was the only time either Harpo or Chico were filmed in color for a motion picture or TV show.

On the other hand, I believe two or three episodes of Groucho's "You Bet Your Life" during it's final (1960-61) season were taped in color (instead of the usual practice of black-and-white film), but were never included (either in color or black-and-white) in the syndicated rerun package.

And of course, Groucho made numerous appearances on color TV shows thereafter.

[altfactor]

@Lampshade51 I agree!

Besides, wasn't "The Story of Mankind" produced by Irwin Allen of "Lost In Space", "Poseidon Adventure", and "Towering Inferno" fame??

[man975dog]

@cpf701 i disagree with u. this the 1st time i have seen harpo marx in colour and he looks very nice and maybe funnier than he was in black and white.

[PRR5406]

@TheMilwaukeeProtocol "Knock this chip off my shoulder"

[12Zwolf]

; The narrator is Ronald Colman.

[TheMilwaukeeProtocol]

@spidrawebster Wow! That's great--thank you for the explanation! So, it's like fighting words, then? Well, fighting "words" au Harpo. That makes sense to me. :-D