The Cocoanuts

The Marx Brothers made this their first feature film in 1929, just as sound was becoming the mainstream. Unfortunately the film was directed like a bad silent film and suffers from an annoying sense of theatricality. I don't even feel that I could call it poorly directed, it just wasn't. Fortunately, no one cares about sophisticated directed when watching the Marx Brothers, they're just waiting for the next joke. In that sense, it holds up despite its primitive technique. It's worth it just to hear Groucho say to Margaret Dumont (who, of course, he is trying to woo for her money) "I can just see you right now bending over a hot stove... but I can't see the stove." It's also one of the rare few films with the lost brother, Zeppo, who suffers from being an incredibly forgetable character even when he's on screen. Features some classic routines that generally keeps it worth watching.