The Big Store (1941) on Netflix
Tommy Rogers inherits half of the Phelps department store and means to sell his share. When someone tries to kill him, his aunt Martha hires detective Wolf J. Flywheel as a bodyguard.
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- Rotten Tomatoes70%
Trailer
Plot summary
Tommy Rogers, a singer, has come into half of the Phelps department store, left to him by his uncle Hiram Phelps. Hiram's sister Martha, Tommy's aunt, holds the other half. Tommy wants no part of running a store and intends to sell his share to pay for a music conservatory. Martha worries about her nephew's safety, so she takes on private detective Wolf J. Flywheel to guard him and to walk the store floor. Mr. Grover, the store manager, is against the arrangement. Tommy loves Joan Sutton, who works at the store. Wacky, Flywheel's assistant and driver, meets his brother Ravelli again; Ravelli is Tommy's best friend.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Big Store (1941)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- For the climax of The Big Store, Groucho, Chico and Harpo escape their pursuers on roller skates through the department store; the elaborate chase took an entire month to shoot and used stop motion photography, Mack Sennett-style slapstick stunts and stunt doubles, all unusual for a Marx Brothers film.
- The Big Store was the last of the five films the Marx Brothers made under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and was advertised as their farewell film after the team decided to retire; they returned instead in A Night in Casablanca (1946) and Love Happy (1949).
- Margaret Dumont, the Marx Brothers' longtime foil, played in The Big Store in what was her seventh and final film with the Marxes.
