Trivia / The Cocoanuts

• Creator Backlash: The Marx Brothers hated their first film so much that they tried to buy the film from the distributor to prevent its release. The brothers' effort failed and, despite the film's shortcomings, it ultimately went on to be massively successful, leading to other (much better) projects. Groucho said of its two directors, "One didn't understand English and the other didn't understand comedy."
• Cut Song: Several songs from the stage play were omitted from the film: "Lucky Boy", sung by the chorus to congratulate Bob on his engagement to Polly and "A Little Bungalow", a love duet sung by Bob and Polly that was replaced with "When My Dreams Come True" in the film.
  • It's commonly believed that "Always" was cut from The Cocoanuts, since Irving Berlin published it around the same time as the songs he wrote for the show. Actually, "Always" was never part of the show at any stage of its production, though the possibility of Groucho singing it was vaguely considered.
• Missing Episode: No original print of the film survived complete. The version of the film that now exists was pieced together in the 1950's from three partial prints, which explains the dramatic changes in photographic quality (notably how the image gets dimmer and scratchier just before the "Monkey-Doodle-Doo" number). It's also why the DVD version is seven minutes shorter than the original theatrical release.
• Throw It In!: The film had to be shot with multiple cameras because every take was different, so normal single camera techniques didn't work. The "viaduct" gag was not in the original script of the play the film was based on.
• Troubled Production: Filming started out with all the usual problems of early sound films, with bulky recording equipment the actors had to be near to be audible, and also easily picked up unwanted noise (all the paper is clearly sopping wet as the only way they could stop it interfering). On top of this, the brothers had a hard time transitioning their notoriously raunchy stage act to the far more censored world of film. It was also the first sound film to have more than one director, of whom French-born Robert Florey had difficulties with English and Joseph Santley didn't get the Marxes' style at all. As Groucho more succinctly put it, "One didn't understand English and the other didn't understand comedy." As a final grace note, after seeing the finished product they decided the dark grey color that Harpo's red stage wig was rendered didn't look right, and it was replaced with a blonde one for all their other films.
  • This isn't even getting into the fact that the Marx Bros. were burning the candle at both ends: They would shoot the film during working hours and immediately perform their vaudeville show at night. This explains why Groucho almost calls Chico by the wrong character name in the "viaduct" scene; he was exhausted. Needless to say, they didn't repeat the same mistake with the next film, Animal Crackers.

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