Description
Book SynopsisOffers a detailed play-by-play account of Harpo Marx's physical movements as captured on screen. This title guides us through the thirteen Marx Brothers films, from The Cocoanuts in 1929 to Love Happy in 1950, to focus on Harpo's chief and yet heretofore unexplored attribute - his profound and contradictory corporeality.
Trade Review"A zesty and deeply literate joy to read." -- Jonathan Kiefer New Haven Review "A charming and rigorous study." -- Brian Dillon Sight & Sound Magazine "A fittingly zany, aphoristic, and meandering study of the great mime of Marx Brothers fame... Koestenbaum's approach to Harpo makes for highly animated reading." -- Noah Isenberg Bookforum "Koestenbaum provides an informed, original, and near-obsessive assessment of all things Harpo." Publishers Weekly "Provocative, original scholarship that lights a fire under the typically stodgy studies that we usually get from university press star biographies." -- Dennis King Oklahoman
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments I. Early Ecstatic Emptiness The Holy Fool Flees Language's Stink Bomb: The Cocoanuts (1929) Pinky, the Pointing Scapegoat, Lags Behind: Duck Soup (1933) The Mad Mohel's Goo-Goo Eyes of Monomaniacal Attunement: A Night at the Opera (1935) Poppy Power; or, The Thick-Enough Art of Zombie Dumbfoundment: Animal Crackers (1930) II. Later Astonishments Fake Dead Jew as Cute Zoo-Idiot: Room Service (1938) Passe Punchy's Humiliated Buddy Huddle: At the Circus (1939) Freeze Rusty's Anal Rage in a Cozy Void: Go West (1940) Lonely Wacky's Incremental Lines of Flight: The Big Store (1941) The Bubble-Blowing Demarcator Tickles Totality: A Night in Casablanca (1946) Bulge, Glaze, Pause, Shock; or, The Bushy-Haired Ragpicker's Burnt Offering: Love Happy (1949) III. The Idiot Tumbles Back to the Beginning of Time The Undeliverable Ice of Pinky's Mom-Mouth: Horse Feathers (1932) The Kippering, Bopping, Shushing, Bear-Hugging, Beard-Pulling Bustle: Monkey Business (1931) The Pretzel Glimmer-Eye of Stuffy's Stuttering Surge: A Day at the Races (1937)
