Really Surprised!

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

"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.

Sadly, when Groucho delivers the line there's a glint in his eye that suggests he believes it. Go West is probably the best AND worst of the final three MGM films, a movie that manages to contain both mild hilarity and extended dull patches.When Irving Thalberg brought the Marx Brothers over to MGM, the retooling of their characters was notable, but not detrimental. Although suddenly they change from pure forces of nature into more helpful characters with stricter narratives and romantic subplots, A Night At The Opera is still one of their finest films; the follow up was also worthwhile. Sadly, Thalberg's death saw this tenuous formula erode still further and their star treatment at MGM slide.Very few people suggest that their post-Day At The Races movies are up there with the rest of their work, and At The Circus, Go West and The Big Store are certainly far, far poorer movies than their work from 1929-1937. However, these are only bad Marx Brothers movies by comparison: taken as movies in their own right, they're still average, passable fare, and often brim with invention, even if only in spots. In fact, if you joined up all the funny scenes in the three movies you'd be able to get 90 minutes worth of good material out of it. The only problem is, all three films together last for 240. Go West has plenty of strong material: there's the amusing "money changing" scene at the start, some funny interplay with Groucho and a wild west bar clientèle and some overtly adult gags, such as Chico's line "She looks like she knows plenty, but not about the deed!" Then there's Groucho's explicit "I'm not in business for love, you know. I was in love once, and I got the business. But that's another story, and a very unpleasant one, too."However, there's also those dead patches. The scenes with "Red Indians" appal not because of how politically incorrect they may seem in 2012, but because they're just excruciatingly unfunny. There's also a role for the gifted Arthur Housman, though he doesn't get a single line. (That said, considering Housman showed the ability to steal away movies from Laurel and Hardy, maybe they were best only giving him reactions to a below-par Groucho). Even the enchanting/impressive/tiresomely formulaic musical numbers have an uninspired feel about them, with Chico's segue line of "I'ma so happy I'd like to play the piano!" supremely lazy on behalf of the scriptwriter.The final climactic chase may be less tedious than other similar endings in Circus and Big Store, but you're never for a minute convinced that you're watching the actual Marx Brothers, only their stunt men. Okay, all three brothers were in their fifties by the time it was released, and Groucho's hairpiece is only too obvious, but for escapades on a runaway train it compares unfavourably with the daredevil work of Buster Keaton. Sadly, Keaton himself was down on his luck and forced to work for low pay as an unscripted gag man on this movie. Fifteen years earlier Keaton had written his own "Go West"... and also directed and starred in it.In all, while a better film than its reputation, Go West can perhaps be best summed up in the words of Groucho himself: "the boys at the studio have lined up another turkey for us and there's a strong likelihood that we'll be shooting in about three or four weeks. I'm not looking forward to it but I guess it's just as well to get it over with." If you care, I take up the story of the Marx Brothers' comeback in a review of Love Happy...

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.

Despite not having a reputation as one of the better Marx Brothers films, I still found this to be a typical MB movie with crazy scenes and a few songs. No, it may not have been as funny as their better-known films of the 1930s, but I didn't think it much below them, either. It's not as totally outrageous as the boys' earlier stuff but it also has fewer stupid stuff, too. Make no mistake: it has its share of genuinely funny material, both in dialog and in sight gags. The finale is a wild chase scene on a train that is very, very entertaining. That holds true for a wild stagecoach ride earlier in the picture. Once again, Chico comes up with the funniest lines.I think this is a solid comedy and an underrated Marx Brothers film . If you like "the boys" in their more well-known films, don't pass this one by.