On December 31, Turner Classic Movies is showing the following movies in the following order, commencing at 5:30 AM: Room Service, At the Circus, A Day at the Races, A Night at the Opera, The Cocoanuts, Animal Crackers, Monkey Business, Horse Feathers and Duck Soup. In other words: Nine Marx Brothers movies. I have no idea why those or why in that order.
Well, maybe I have an idea as to the order. Someone who thinks that Room Service is the weakest of the nine and that the films the Marxes made for Paramount are the best wanted to banish the former to a bad time slot and get the latter into prime time. That makes sense. However, let me remind you that back in 2023, I posted the official, not-to-be-argued-with rankings of all the Marx Brothers movies…
This list upset a few of my friends when I first posted it. A couple felt that saying any other Marx Brothers movie was better than Duck Soup was like insisting 5+7 equals 13. A couple more felt all the Paramounts should be at the top of the list and the ones they made for other studios should either be at the bottom or not watched at all. But these are my rankings and you’re entitled to make up your own list which will, of course, be wrong.
By the way: TCM — as they want everyone to call it now, I guess — often runs Billy Wilder’s The Apartment on New Year’s Eve but this time, they’re airing it at 5:45 PM on Saturday, December 20. What I don’t think they’ve ever done is to start the film at exactly 9:58 PM on New Year’s Eve. If they did that, then when it’s Midnight in the movie, it will be Midnight in real life. Then if you watch it with a woman, she can keep the parallel going by running off from you and throwing herself at Jack Lemmon. Which now that I think of it, may not be that easy to do these days.
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