The Cocoanuts (1929) on Netflix
Mr. Hammer runs the Hotel de Cocoanut during the Florida land boom. Harpo and Chico arrive with empty luggage, and Polly Potter loves Bob Adams while her mother favors Harvey Yates.
- Netflix4.1/5
- IMDb6.8/108,962 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes95%
Trailer
Plot summary
The Hotel de Cocoanut is a resort hotel in Florida during the land boom, run by Mr. Hammer with Jamison assisting him. Paying guests are few, and Mrs. Potter is one of them. Polly Potter, her daughter, is in love with Bob Adams, a struggling young architect who works as a clerk at the hotel and has plans to develop the whole area as Cocoanut Manor. Mrs. Potter would rather see Polly marry Harvey Yates, a man she takes to rank above Adams socially. Harpo and Chico turn up with empty luggage, which they appear to intend to fill by robbing and conning paying guests.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Cocoanuts (1929)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- When the Marx Brothers were shown the final cut of The Cocoanuts, they were so horrified that they tried to buy back the negative and block its release; Paramount refused, and the film went on to gross $1,800,000 as one of the most successful early talkies.
- Every piece of paper seen in The Cocoanuts was soaked in water so its crackling would not overload the primitive recording equipment; director Robert Florey only found the trick at the 28th take of the "Viaduct" scene, and that quiet take was used in the film.
- The Marx Brothers shot their scenes for The Cocoanuts at Paramount's Astoria studio by day, then traveled each night to the 44th Street Theatre, where they were still performing the 1928 Broadway musical Animal Crackers.
- Harpo Marx's props were edible: the "ink" he drank from the hotel lobby inkwell was really Coca-Cola, and the "telephone mouthpiece" he nibbled was made of chocolate, both thought up by director Robert Florey.
- To muffle the noise of the camera motors, the cameras and their operators were shut inside glass-fronted soundproof booths, leaving the film with largely static camerawork; a long-running Marxian legend held that director Robert Florey was put in a booth because he could not stop laughing at the brothers' antics.
- The Cocoanuts holds a sound-era first: it was the first sound film to credit more than one director, with Robert Florey and Joseph Santley sharing the job.
- Irving Berlin did not write "Always" for The Cocoanuts despite the legend; he wrote the song as a gift for his fiancée and never intended it to be used in the film.
