Love Happy is the final movie that features the three Marx brothers (Groucho Chico Harpo) in top billing and as the stars. Once again they do the occasional musical performances. This time Frank Tashlin co-writes the script (bringing, I'd imagine, some pure cartoonish brilliance to it, in fits and starts). And it's OK... ish. Actually Harpo is better than OK, but when isn't he? This isn't even his premier work and he's delightful to watch in scenes that should be rote like when the actress asks Harpo to be his manager and he mimes becoming a "big shot" with his feet up on a can of rubbish in a park, miming as well being on the phone with many agents. It's what he was made for as a performer, moments like this.The main problem for me is a major lack of the brothers interacting with one another - Groucho barely appears in the first half for Pete's sake, and only through limited 4th wall breaks - yet there are a lot of legitimately entertaining musical numbers (really, there isn't a dull one, including a number where a woman sings about being frustrated with motherhood). There's once again another loony but half-baked crime plot, here involving stolen diamonds in a can of... sardines I think, Chico on piano, and a musical that is on thin ice as far as being produced. Objectively this isn't as good a movie as I'm rating it, but I'm being generous because when these guys do click in their scenes they are just that funny. In other words it's better than Room Service (oddly enough this has the storyline that it's closest to), but not by much.It's also uncanny seeing Groucho without his grease-paint mustache as a movie character with the brothers.

Recently I watched LOVE HAPPY, the last Marx Brothers film, on Amazon Prime. When I read up on the production history of it, I learned the film ran into some financial difficulties and almost was not completed. The only way to finish the movie, by raising the extra funds, was to invent a rooftop scene where Harpo is chased by some crooks.And as Harpo runs around during that sequence (which lasts for more than five minutes), he whizzes past billboards that flash product information in bright lights. About half those companies are still in existence today. So whoever worked for Wheaties' ad department made a smart decision, because every time that film is seen from 1950 into infinity, Wheaties continues to get on-going advertising from it.As for the finished product, this is not a terrible Marx Brothers effort. Nor is it one of their best. But I think most people will enjoy Harpo's antics.

"Love Happy" (1949) was the Marxs brothers final film. Most Marxs brothers fans dismiss it, which is doing the movie a great wrong. Of course, its not up to the standard of their other pictures but there are some really funny moments in the film such: The climatic chase across roofs, the villains trying to find out where the jewels are from Harpo and Groucho's virtual cameo has some good one-liners. The musical numbers are generally good, even if Harpo's serenading of Vera-Ellen with a harp is rather irritating. There is all so a good segment with Harpo stealing food early on in the movie. As you may have noticed, Harpo seems to do a lot of the pictures best bits, and this is mainly because he gets the most screen time. On the whole, a much better film than most people say.

LOVE HAPPY was originally intended to be a solo effort by Harpo, but he couldn't get backing. It was Mary Pickford who suggested that Groucho and Chico become involved, then she, one of the original United Artists, would finance it. So The Marx Brothers ended their cinematic career with an atypical feature, but an improvement over THE BIG STORE.Groucho shares barely any screen time with his brothers, serving mostly as narrator. This is because he was host of the popular television show YOU BET YOUR LIFE, and had only a couple of days available for filming. (He even wears his real moustache instead of the grease paint one he sported for the previous features!) Chico fares better, easily falling into the patter he long ago perfected.Obviously, this is not the film to introduce someone to The Marx Brothers. (That would be DUCK SOUP or MONKEY BUSINESS anyway.) Instead, this entry is dessert for the viewer who has already viewed the other dozen Marx Brothers features, but is still hungry for more.