Watch Go West For Free

Admirable film.

A different way of telling a story

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

"Most comedians and comedy teams have had their tilt at the West. This Marx Bros entry certainly starts promisingly, but fails to live up to that promise until that grandest of all slapstick climaxes in which the Bros demolish a whole real train! That's the sequence everyone remembers." The above paragraph reproduces what I wrote about Go West years ago in my TV previews page in a weekly magazine. I don't think that way any more. In fact, it's the opening that I now regard as a sour note in an otherwise frolic-filled mixture of fun and song. That wheezy old stage routine with the fly-away $10 note and the change in nine dollars isn't even welcome in the first place, let alone does it merit being played out to such excruciating length. Once the action actually hits the West, however, interest perks up considerably, lets off a lot of steam in such spoofs of lunacy as the Barrat-Harpo comically posturing stand-off and quirky shoot-out in the saloon, and positively bubbles over in the "More wood! More wood!" locomotive chase climax. A top gallery of support players, led by heavy Robert Barrat (making an excellent straight man), saloon belle June MacCloy (a dazzling siren) and scheming Walter Woolf King, admirably aid Eddie Buzzell's deft direction. And for once, the musical numbers are a real joy in themselves. Harpo, of course, does a solo turn. So does Chico. But Carroll has the breeziest number, "Ridin' the Range", the best tune Roger Edens ever wrote. Production values are M-G-M grand, though Leonard Smith's attractive photography does highlight the fact that Groucho's make-up is patently false. Some viewers might regard this as a disadvantage. Others will take it as simply part of the overall merriment.

The Marx Bros. head to the Old West to find their fortune and become involved with a railroad scheme. There's also some stuff about a guy trying to settle a family feud so he can marry the girl he loves. Count me among those who prefer the Marx Bros' zanier earlier films at Paramount to the ones at MGM. Certainly the first few films at MGM are classics but after that the Marx films go downhill. By the 1940s they were putting out half-hearted efforts that seemed like they were parodying themselves. There's a scene early on in a train station where the three do a bit where Chico & Harpo rip off Groucho. The bit starts off mildly amusing but is so familiar that, by the end, I found the whole thing more tiresome than funny. Which is a good summary of this entire movie. The scene on the stagecoach with the passengers and all the hat-passing nonsense with Harpo is another example. This isn't to say there aren't any good parts. There are some funny scenes and lines but none particularly memorable. There are also the obligatory musical numbers we all hate. The worst of which is "Ridin' the Range," with a crooning John Carroll backed up by the brothers. It's possibly the corniest scene from any Marx Bros. movie. The funniest scenes are the early ones and the train stuff at the end. The middle drags. Fans of the Marxes will likely enjoy this more than people not familiar with them.

The opening sequence of "Go West" ranks, in my opinion, right up there with the Marx Brothers' best: it's a perfectly timed and executed routine where all three brothers contribute equally. Unfortunately, the rest of the movie does not quite live up to that promising start. Of course there are moments of inspiration here and there (Groucho's finish of the song "You Can't Argue With Love", Harpo's "discussion" with the Indian chief, the scene where people keep entering a room and drawing a gun on the person in front of them, etc.), and the climactic train chase, although overextended, features lots of good stuntwork and special effects. But considering how popular and well-defined the Western is as a genre, this spoof has to count as a largely missed opportunity - the Marxes surely were capably of doing more with the concept. ** out of 4.

GO WEST (MGM, 1940), directed by Edward Buzzell, capitalizes on the recent popularity of the western genre that began in 1938-39, placing the three Marx Brothers in the old west, circa 1870, shortly before "Don Ameche's invention of the telephone." Although not in the classic western comedy sense as MY LITTLE CHICKADEE (Universal, 1940) featuring Mae West and W.C. Fields, GO WEST (no relation to the 1925 Buster Keaton silent) has something going for it. No, they didn't get to find out how the West was won, nor do the Marx Brothers get to have their frequent foil, Margaret Dumont, sporting western attire and shooting up the town like Annie Oakley. It does, however, provide some fine comical moments that would keep the Marx Brothers and their gag writers from getting lynched by theater patrons.Forward: "In 1851, Horace Greeley uttered a phrase that did much to change the history of the United States. He said, 'Go west, young man, go west.' This is a story of three men who made Horace Greeley sorry he said it." The plot revolves around the deed to worthless property of Dead Man's Gulch acquired by Dan Wilson (Tully Marshall) forty years ago from a crook named Turner. Terry (John Carroll), Turner's grandson, wants to marry Eve (Diana Lewis), Wilson's granddaughter, and in order to put an end of the Wilson-Turner feud and amend his grandfather's thievery, he requests the executive board of the New York and Western Railroad Company to link Cripple Creek to the Pacific by ways of Dead Man's Gulch so that Wilson will get $50,000 for his property. Because Wilson is in need for $10 to buy a grubstake, his helpers, the Panello brothers, Joe (Chico) and Rusty (Harpo), who have come west digging for gold, offer him the money. As security for the loan, Wilson signs over his deed to them. While at the Crystal Palace Saloon in Birch City, Rusty steals a keg of beer to quench his thirst. In order to pay for the 10 cent drink, Joe signs an I.O.U. over to "Red" Baxter (Robert Barrat), the town boss, unwittingly on the back of Wilson's deed. Baxter places the deed in his cash register so he and joint-owner John Beecher (Walter Wolfe King), who's to arrive in town, could sell it to the railroad company at their asking price. Beecher intends on buying the deed for $500 while S. Quenton Quale (Groucho), a representative and embezzler, offers $10,000. Realizing his error, Joe has Rusty retrieve the deed from Baxter's cash register, giving it to Quale for his asking price and offer the money to Wilson's granddaughter. Quale intentions on cheating the Panello brothers backfires when Baxter and Beecher join forces and cheat him instead. They get the deed, with Baxter putting it in his safe. The method of how Quale, Joe and Rusty retain the deed remains to be seen.On the musical program: "You Can't Argue With Love" by Gus Kahn and Bronislau Kaper (sung by deep-voiced June MacCloy); "The Woodpecker Song" (piano solo by Chico); "Beautiful Dreamer" by Stephen Foster (sung by Diana Lewis); "Ridin' the Range Together" by Roger Edens and Gus Kahn; (sung by John Carroll); and "From the Land of the Sky Blue Water" (harp solo on loom by Harpo on Indian reservation) by Charles Wakefield Cadman.Placing the Marx Brothers in a western setting  is a welcome change of pace. Even Chico abandons his traditional pointy hat, until the latter half of the story anyway. Although amusing, the good guys vs. the bad guys over a deed was handled so much better when Laurel and Hardy did it WAY OUT WEST (1937). GO WEST is not a bad movie, but should have been better. It shows great promise with its hilarious ten minute opening at the train station where wiseacre Groucho is outsmarted by Chico and Harpo for money (Chico: $9 change please), and redeems itself from prior weakness near the finish with its 15-minute Keystone comedy type locomotive race against time as the wild bunch take over command as engineers with Groucho yelling "Timber" to acquire more wood for the steam engine. There's a great bit with Harpo hanging on between two railroad cars and slowly stretching as the coaches grow further apart. Other comic supplements, ranging from good to average, include Groucho and Chico's flirtation with Baxter's saloon gals while Harpo ("that redhead is a demon" quotes one of the floozies) in the next room searches for the stolen deed before dynamiting Baxter's safe. One scene worth noting having Groucho getting slickered by Baxter and tripped down a flight of stairs (as in A NIGHT AT THE OPERA), thus, making him the laughing stock of the town, actually takes away from his traditional character who used to make fools of the villains. Unlike their earlier MGM efforts, the romantic subplot, enacted by John Carroll and Diana Lewis, doesn't take too much time away from the brothers to make this 80 minute comedy drag. Aside from the Marx Brothers assisting a young couple in need, and showing the tender side of their nature by comforting Wilson's granddaughter after learning the outcome of her grandfather's deed, GO WEST might have misfired altogether had it not been for the aforementioned opening and closing segments. What a shame that the not-so-memorable moments prevented GO WEST from becoming the greatest western satire of all time.Distributed on video cassette in the late 1980s by Turner Home Entertainment, GO WEST, currently available on DVD, can be seen on Turner Classic Movies, so saddle up partners and have a rootin- tootin' time with those three dudes, the Marx Brothers.(***)