The author invites readers to spend time in the pleasure of Harpo’s cinematic company while comparing him to tricksters from folklore, myth and legend. The book demonstrates how Harpo, the sweetest, wildest, most magical Marx brother, accomplishes the archetypal trickster’s work. Thirteen chapters examine Harpo’s trickster persona closely in each of the Marx Brothers’ films: The Cocoanuts, Animal Crackers, Monkey Business, Horse Feathers, Duck Soup, A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races, Room Service, At the Circus, Go West, The Big Store, A Night in Casablanca and Love Happy. Harpo as trickster embodies luck, foolishness, cleverness, mania, hunger, lust, stealing, shape-shifting, gender-bending, alliance with underdogs, attacks on the powerful, musicality, sympathy for animals, magic and mischief. His trickster behaviors in all the films are woven into a composite impression that “with a little luck, will resonate beyond the covers of this book and leak out into the world, making it a more just, flexible, resilient, amusing and magical place.”

Charlene Fix is a professor of literature and creative writing at Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, Ohio.

Charlene Fix

Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 232
Bibliographic Info: 41 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2013
pISBN: 978-0-7864-7147-8
eISBN: 978-1-4766-0149-6
Imprint: McFarland

Preface  1
Introduction  5
1. The Cocoanuts (1929): Trickster Appears  19
2. Animal Crackers (1930): The Professor Professes  30
3. Monkey Business (1931): Not Quite Chevalier  39
4. Horse Feathers (1932): Dogging Football  50
5. Duck Soup (1933): Taking a Scissors to War  60
6. A Night at the Opera (1935): Cleaning with Dirt  74
7. A Day at the Races (1937): It’s Gabriel  87
8. Room Service (1938): Gimme Shelter, Food and Art  100
9. At the Circus (1939): Swingali’s Sneeze  109
10. Go West (1940): Feeding the Train the Train 122
11. The Big Store (1941): Mercantile Mayhem  135
12. A Night in Casablanca (1946): Meta Marx  148
13. Love Happy (1949): Trickster’s Capstone or Hail and Farewell  159
Conclusion: A Retrospective Montage  173
Notes  211
Bibliography  216
Index  219