Theatre artists also found new residence in the film industry by way of slapstick comedy. By the early 1930s, studios shifted away from canned theatre to narratives built for the screen. Studios hired playwrights and composers straight from theatre to raise the quality of stories. Silent film stars were replaced with stage actors given their skills in delivering lines. By the time the brothers made their second film, an adaptation of Animal Crackers just one year later, many of the sound issues had been resolved.ĭubious as it may have been, canned theatre opened many doors for theatre artists. The sound was audibly poor and lacked finessing, but the physical comedy of the film still made it hilarious. They filmed it in Astoria Studios in New York during the day while performing Animal Crackers live at night.
In fact, the Marx Brothers’ first film, The Cocoanuts, was an adaptation of their Broadway show. Borrowing slyly from the ailing theatre industry, Hollywood studios began to churn out film versions of theatrical productions in what was known as “canned theatre.” These lower-quality, quickly made films were literal, word-for-word transcriptions of plays that were popular on Broadway, and they relied mostly on the appeal of new technology rather than narrative substance. Shaky technology didn’t stop studios from banking off sound’s allure, though. (Look no further than the 1952 classic film Singin’ in the Rain for a humorous take on Hollywood’s transition to sound.) Many of the first films revealed clunky operator handling, misplaced microphones, synchronization issues and awkward physical performances. Technology, however, was slow to catch up with demand.
DUCK SOUP MARX BROTHERS FULL MOVIE MOVIE
It was a tremendous success, despite the poor quality of the sound itself, as audiences had not been treated to that kind of movie magic just yet.įilms had already been growing in popularity throughout the 1920s, but the addition of live audio allowed it to skyrocket and become a national pastime. In 1927, Warner Brothers - then one of the biggest studios in Hollywood - released the game-changing musical, The Jazz Singer, which was the first feature-length film to incorporate sound. New technology in the burgeoning film industry paved the way for the brothers to cement their legacy as bonafide film stars. The latter would mark their last stage production of the time. Hollywood quickly became the new home to actors, writers, directors, composers and everyone in between - including the Marx Brothers.Īfter opening I’ll Say She Is on Broadway in 1923, the Marx Brothers enjoyed theatrical success with The Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers. Across the country, however, the motion picture industry was taking off. With shrinking audiences, closing theatres and around 25,000 artists out of work, New York’s Theater District seemed rather bleak. The Depression weighed heavily on Broadway.
0 kommentar(er)
