Yes, the Marx brothers were hugely funny and I remember them being fairly regularly on TV in my pre teen years ('50's to '60s) and I recall being taken to a small cinema for a private showing of Night at the Opera for a friend's birthday party. Evidently the birthday boy's dad had obtained the film himself and rented the cinema so that we kids could be exposed to what the father considered high culture in comedy!! Good for him I say. That I remember this 60 years on is a testament to the effectiveness of his indoctrination!!
Recent viewings of the Mark Bros clips on You tube has sadly confirmed that their humour as become somewhat dated and stale and indeed the vaudeville element of the films with a speciality act somewhere along the way and Chico and Harpo doing their musical spots and the tenor doing a romantic song, is not a film genre that is really recognised today, perhaps for the worse.
John
