Room Service

Room Service marked for the first and last time in their careers the Marx Brothers would work with material not written specifically for them. Based on the successful stage play the brothers make you quickly forget it is anything but a Marx romp.

Gordon Miller (Groucho) desperately attempts to stave off eviction from his hotel room until he can get a backer for his play. Enlisting Harpo and Chico and a series of arch ruses the boys put up a spirited and inane struggle to hold the room and get the play financed.

Room Service is the usual Marx Brothers versus the establishment and polite society vehicle they excelled at in their first half dozen films. By the time they did Day at the Races it was evident they were slowing down and Room Service expands on it. Veteran Marx collaborator Maury Ryskind tailors some of the play to the brothers strengths but they only serve as reminders of when they were sharper and in better productions.

Room Service is far from the worst and further from their best work. It has flashes of their famed anarchic style but remains incapable of sustaining the zany outrageous pace found in the earlier films and as some close ups glaringly revealed, they were not getting any younger.