Room Service (1938)
Directed by William Seiter, with a screenplay by Morrie Ryskind, this slightly above average Marx Brothers comedy also features Lucille Ball, Ann Miller, Frank Albertson, and Donald MacBride (among others). Though the film lacks a lot of the staples of their earlier films (music, Zeppo, & memorable quotes besides "jumping butterballs"), it's still an entertaining 80 minutes. Groucho plays the would-be producer of a play, Chico's his assistant, and Harpo is Harpo; all three are destitute (that is to say, their money has run out). They've been holed up in a New York hotel with 20 members of their cast (Ball is one of its leads) while rehearsing it, running up a bill of $1,200, over several months before its manager, Groucho’s brother-in-law (Cliff Dunstan), is caught by one of the hotel's would-be vice presidents (MacBride), who insists that they pay their bill or get out! The play's small town author (Albertson) from Oswego shows up in time to get mixed up in the mess; he's corrupted by "the boys" and also falls in love with one of the hotel's employees (Miller, who doesn't dance in this film); she would like him to find a role for one of the hotel's ham waiters (Alexander Asro). In the nick of time, they find a would-be backer, a famous wealthy financier whose representative (Philip Wood) informs them that his boss, who would like his mistress to have a role in their play, wishes to remain anonymous for fear of scandal. Philip Loeb plays a collector who wants to repossess the penniless author's typewriter; Charles Halton plays the hotel's doctor, who's called into verify that the author is indeed sick and thus can't be evicted. The first two thirds of the film takes place in one room in the hotel, and most of the last third was shot in another (a suite). Later remade as the musical Step Lively (1944) with Frank Sinatra, who plays the author.
Purchase this DVD COLLECTION now at
Most Recent Additions:
I Want You (1951) - full review!
A Bill of Divorcement (1932) - full review!
Patterns (1956) - full review!
Last Train from Gun Hill (1959) - full review!
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) - full review!
Hour of the Gun (1967) - full review!
To Sir, with Love (1967) - full review!
You'll Never Get Rich (1941) - full review!
The Actress (1953) - full review!
Mannequin (1937) - full review!
All My Sons (1948) - full review!
Mourning Becomes Electra (1947) - full review!
State Fair (1945) - full review!
Billy Budd (1962) - full review!
Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. (1951) - full review!
The Bachelor Party (1957) - full review!
The Glenn Miller Story (1954) - full review!
The Southerner (1945) - full review!
The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming (1966)
Never on Sunday (1960) - full review!
The Arrangement (1969) - full review!
A Summer Place (1959) - full review!
Miracle in the Rain (1956) - full review!
Love Letters (1945) - full review!
The Story of Dr. Wassell (1944) - full review!
The Absent Minded Professor (1961)
20000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
Come and Get It (1936) - full review!
The Prize (1963) - full review!
This Is the Army (1943) - full review!
Home from the Hill (1960) - full review!
Hangmen Also Die (1943) - full review!
The Shop on Main Street (1965) - full review!
The Good Guys and the Bad Guys (1969) - full review!
A Gathering of Eagles (1963) - full review!
This Happy Breed (1944) - full review!
Red-Headed Woman (1932) - full review!
Waterloo Bridge (1931) - full review!
Baby Face (1933) - full review!
Titanic (1943) - full review!
Cover Girl (1944) - full review!
Saratoga Trunk (1945) - full review!
Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
The Young Philadelphians (1959) - full review!
Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967)
Pocket Money (1972) - full review!
Week-End at the Waldorf (1945)
Judge Priest (1934) - full review!
Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935) - full review!
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)
Angel Face (1952) - full review!
The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959) - full review!
Dallas (1950) - full review!
Springfield Rifle (1952) - full review!
Gaslight (1940) - full review!
The Gazebo (1959) - full review!
Passage to Marseille (1944) - full review!
The House on 56th Street (1933) - full review!
Annie Get Your Gun (1950) - full review!
Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)
Lonelyhearts (1958) - full review!
Good News (1947) - full review!
Wild Rovers (1971) - full review!
Lovers and Other Strangers (1970) - full review!
Topper Returns (1941) - full review!
The Masque of the Red Death (1964)
The Barkleys of Broadway (1949)
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933)
Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962)
The Winning Team (1952) - full review!
The Hasty Heart (1949) - full review!
Storm Warning (1951) - full review!
[Home] [Hitchcock] [Oscar's Best] [Essays] [Essential Films] [TCM Picks] [Obscure Films] [Links] [Other Reviews] [Academy Awards] [Silent Films] [Movie Index]
