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Horse Feathers Movie Review

Horse Feathers is a 1932 Pre-Code comedy film directed by Norman Z. McLeod and starring the Marx Brothers. This is one of their best movies.

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“Yes, I have a falsetto voice.

That’s-a funny; my last pupil she had-a false set-a teeth“

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Professor Quincy Adam Wagstaff is appointed as the new president of Huxley College. His son Frank influences him to recruit two professional footballers to defeat the rival Darwin School. First off, I am not the biggest fan of the Marx Brothers and their comedic flair. They are not exactly my cup of tea, though I obviously have a huge respect for them as renowned comedians that they were. Most of their movies were quite uneven and flawed. This one was problematic too, but it was for the most part a surprisingly successful use of their talents.

While the college football plot was basic and far from interesting, it was a solid jumping board for some strong comedy. As was always the case, Groucho Marx stole the show throughout. He was incredible in this movie. He showed so much of his usual shtick here that worked for the majority of time. The highlights were his puns that were fired rapidly and mostly quite ingenious. His interactions with everybody else were priceless.

Others were nowhere near as memorable as Groucho, though Harpo got some fine moments for himself, especially toward the end. I did not care for the romance, though a couple of moments that were comedic in those parts worked. The film also included the signature element of thirties cinema, which is the incorporation of musical numbers. They definitely felt superfluous to the overall plot, but I actually quite liked some of them, especially the opening song I’m Against It. That one featured the brightest lyrics.

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Horse Feathers is only around an hour long, so it flies by pretty quickly. It’s a briskly paced, fun movie that features some memorable set pieces, strong editing and fine directing. The plot was just an excuse to have some funny gags, but still they should have made a bigger effort in the script department. But the dialogue is so good that the movie coasted on it pretty successfully.