Go West (a.k.a. The Marx Brothers Go West) is the 10th Marx Brothers comedy film, in which brothers Groucho, Chico, and Harpo head to the American West and attempt to unite a couple by ensuring that an evil railroad baron is thwarted. It was directed by Edward Buzzell and written by Irving Brecher, who receives the original screenplay credit.
Plot
Confidence man S. Quentin Quale (Groucho) heads west to find his fortune. En route, he meets the crafty but simple brothers Joseph (Chico) and Rusty Panello (Harpo) in a train station, where they manage to swindle his money. Quale soon learns the Panellos are also heading west because they have been told one can just pick the gold off the ground. Once there, they befriend an old miner named Dan Wilson (Tully Marshall) whose property, Dead Man's Gulch, has no gold. They loan him their last ten dollars so he can go start life anew, and he gives them the deed to the Gulch as collateral. Unbeknownst to Wilson, the son of his longtime rival, Terry Turner (John Carroll) has contacted the railway to arrange for them to build through the land, making the deed holder rich.
Cast
- Groucho Marx - S. Quentin Quayle
- Chico Marx - Joseph Panello
- Harpo Marx - Rusty Panello
- John Carroll - Terry Turner
- Diana Lewis - Eve Wilson
- Walter Woolf King - John Beecher
- Robert Barrat - "Red" Baxter
- June MacCloy - Lulubelle
- Tully Marshall - Dan Wilson
- Iris Adrian - Mary Lou
- Joan Woodbury - Melody
- George Lessey - The Railroad President
- Joe Yule - Crystal Palace Bartender Joe
- Mitchell Lewis - Halfbreed Indian Pete
Production
Like other Marx Brothers films, Go West has several musical numbers, including "As if I Didn't Know" and "You Can't Argue with Love" both by Bronislau Kaper and Gus Kahn, "Ridin' the Range" by Roger Edens and Gus Kahn, "From the Land of the Sky-Blue Water" by Charles Wakefield Cadman and "The Woodpecker Song" by Harold Adamson and Eldo di Lazzaro. (In this song, Chico, playing the piano, rolls an orange on the keys in sync with the melody.)
Groucho was aged 50 during the filming of Go West, and his hairline had begun receding. As such, he took to wearing a toupee throughout the film, as he did the previous film, At the Circus.
Go West Screenwriter Irving Brecher impersonated an ailing Groucho when publicity stills for the film were first taken. Brecher bore a remarkable resemblance to Groucho and is all but unrecognizable in the photos, sporting Groucho's glasses, greasepaint mustache and eyebrows.
Musical numbers
- "As If I Didn't Know"
- "You Can't Argue With Love"
- "From The Land Of The Sky-Blue Water"
- "Ridin' The Range"
External links
- Go West at the TCM Movie Database
- Go West at AllMovie
- Go West at the Internet Movie Database
