Fiancé Footwork

 

This spoofster's hips thrust in a groove
Aloof bluebloods just don't approve
But Teasdale's a freak
Her knees go all weak
When Rufus starts busting a move.

Vera Marcal (Raquel Torres) and Gloria Teasdale (Margaret Dumont) are amused by the wacky dance steps of Rufus T. Rirefly (Groucho Marx) in Duck Soup (Leo McCarey; 1933). Title by off-the-hoofer David Cairns.

Mind over Mattress

Our thoughts are a little like wishes
This couple both wish for hot dishes
If she only knew
What he had on view,
He'd soon be asleep with the fishes.

Can anyone help us identify these characters or the cartoon?

Ham on Frye

Overacting is Frye's bread and butter
With bent back, rolling eyes, constant mutter
Playing warped, mad or freaky
Stealing corpses, all sneaky
He's a slack-jawed, unwise little nutter.

David Cairns

Fritz (Dwight Frye) goes brain-hunting in Frankenstein (James Whale; 1931). Dwight Frye-Days is a weekly feature here at LimerWrecks.

The Doctor is Incensed

This "doctor" can't get to first base
One knock and forget an embrace
For soon it's a crowd
Both loony and loud
Two blockheads now pet in his place.



Chico and Harpo Marx interfere with Groucho's tryst with Esther Muir in A Day at the Races (Sam Wood; 1937). Groucho playes Hugo Z. Hackenbush, a veterinarian posing as a doctor.

Raise the Rufus

On this wild man this broad took a chance
Even smiled at his bawdy romance
What gets Teasdale excited,
Has her pleased and delighted?
She's beguiled by his vaudeville style dance!

Rufus T. Rirefly (Groucho Marx) entertains Mrs. Gloria Teasdale (Margaret Dumont) and Vera Marcal (Raquel Torres) in Duck Soup (Leo McCarey; 1933).

Harpe Diem

On strings so divinely he'll float
No zingers, one-liners to quote
Though simple, no child
He's impish and wild!
The things you will find in his coat!

Harpo plucks the strings in Monkey Business (Norman McLeod; 1931).

Atsa Entertainment

His bit's hitting notes with a "gun"
His wit he devotes to the pun
With accent unreal
He attacks them with zeal
Faux Italy's quotable son.

Chico Marx, jauntily playing piano in Monkey Business (Norman Z. McLeod; 1931).

The Spin-ach Cycle

On Popeye's big chin baddies beat
But he'll stop 'em, beginning tout suite
He'll grow buff, and pack power
From this stuff he'll devour
Nothing tops the canned spinach he'll eat.

Popeye downs his spinach in Beware of Barnacle Bill (Dave Fleischer; 1935).

Do You Want Flies With That?

Live spiders and flies he demands
He eyes one, and sighs when it lands
No ifs, ands, or buts,
Dwight Iliff is nuts
Surprising these guys with jazz hands!

Dwight Frye-Days celebrates actor Dwight Iliff Frye. Here he is (as Renfield) with Charles K. Gerrard and Edward Van Sloan, in Dracula (Tod Browning; 1931). Title by Donald B. Benson, lord of the open flies.

Bride Sharing

We pause at these matches risqué
Drop jaws at attachments four-way
No honeymoon's sweeter
(How fun! A three-seater!)
But the law's gonna catch them someday.

Thelma Todd, Chico and Groucho Marx in Horse Feathers (Norman Z. McLeod; 1932). Title by Donald B.Benson, always a bridesmaid.

Ladies Man-iac

Some people find Harpo endearing
They leap to their feet and start cheering
He's sweet and angelic
Not heated old relic
A creep who at starlets keeps leering.

Harpo Marx is the center of attention in this still from The Cocoanuts (Robert Florey, Joseph Santley;1929).

He and Shenanigans

 

Each son has been taught since a lad
That fun, though it's naughty, ain't "bad"
If you fool with a tart
After school, play it smart
Or one day a snot calls you "Dad".

Surly Hack and Donald B. Benson

David Landau, Thelma Todd, and the Marx Brothers in Horse Feathers (Norman Z. McLeod; 1932).

Saddle Score

And never would censors endorse
Endeavors intended as coarse
No couples abed
Sans nuptials, unwed
How clever this then, with a horse!

Harpo Marx beds down with his steed in Duck Soup (Leo McCarey; 1933).

Violent Greens

When his muscles pop out like balloons
Popeye busts all those loutish great goons
All this winning is due
To the spinach he'll chew
It's more trusty than sprouts, peas or prunes.

David Cairns

Popeye pumps up in Beware of Barnacle Bill (Dave Fleischer; 1935).

Meatless Frye-Day

Three dummies, one's merely a relic
All keep mum, one looks queerly angelic        
One man's back has a crook
One hangs slack from a hook
So in sum, they are weird, psychedelic.

David Cairns

Dwight Frye-Days meets the Marx Brothers: Frye and Harpo in Frankenstein (1931) and Horse Feathers (1932). Title by meaty Donald. B. Benson.

Friendly Firefly

Bullets struck! The gun's rat-a-ta-tat!
What a ruckus! This thunderous gat!
Firefly's friendly fire's fraught
It's his men that he's shot
Here's five bucks, keep it under your hat.

David Cairns

Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx) shoots his own soldiers and--at least momentarily--attempts to pay to cover it up: Duck Soup (Leo McCarey; 1933). Firefly slips the bribe to his assistant, Bob Roland (Zeppo Marx).

Ruthless T. Firefly

When his generals' course proves too tame,
At the enemy's forces he'll aim
It's brutal, but, oops!
He shoots his own troops
Oh, the men and the horses he'll maim.

In one of the edgiest moments of Duck Soup (Leo McCarey; 1933),.Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx), the president of Freedonia, mows down his own soldiers.

The War to Send Up All Wars

Why the deuce are they going to war?
What excuse? Who can know just what for?
Who needs rhyme or a reason
With high crimes and high treason
Plus, a truce is a low-ratings bore.

The four Marx Brothers whip up patriotic war fervor in Duck Soup (Leo McCarey; 1933).

Duck Soup to Nuts

On blowhards, pretension, and pomp 
These lower class menaces stomp
As their antics provoke
Those who can't take a joke
It's the Bros most commendable romp.

Freedonia's going to war! The Brothers Marx send up patriotic fervor in Duck Soup (Leo McCarey; 1933).

Oyl Crisis

That mean bully Bluto, his foil,
Bugs lean beanpole beauty, his goil   
But chopped and canned veg
Gives Popeye an edge
And greens save that cutie Miss Oyl!

Popeye and Bluto square off in a frame from Bridge Ahoy! (Dave Fleischer, Seymour Kneitel; 1936).

Spine Chiller & Rib Tickler

The nearness of skeletons bony
Strikes fear in Frye's hell-raising crony
For the mute on the right
the acute case of fright
Is clearly just deli baloney.

Dwight Frye-Days meets the Marx Brothers: Frye and Harpo attend anatomy class in Frankenstein (1931) and Horse Feathers (1932). Title by ampersandy Donald B. Benson.

A Sermon on Dumont

Mrs. Teasdale believes he's the best
The bee's knees -- she's deceived, it's a jest
Firefly cannot be trusted
This man should be busted
For treason, the devious pest.

David Cairns

In Duck Soup (Leo McCarey; 1933), Mrs. Gloria Teasdale (Margaret Dumont) insists that Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx) lead the nation of Freedonia.

State of Head

They trumpet Freedonia's ruler
He's jumped-up, a phony, a fooler
He's jeering and tainted
And appears to be painted
They should dump him alone in the cooler.

David Cairns



Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx) arrives at his gala reception in Duck Soup (Leo McCarey; 1933).

Eyes Wide Nut

Harpo's eyes, when a chick is in sight,
Open wide with a wicked delight
And then seeing his leer
The poor female knows fear
No surprise that they quickly take flight.

Harpo Marx gives Verna Hillie the eye in Duck Soup (Leo McCarey; 1933).

There's No Business Like Stow Business

This motley crew's tossed on a ship
They're not at a loss for a quip
No esprit d'escalier
They flee as Chevalier
And the plot gets impossibly flip.

David Cairns

The four Marx Brothers are stowaways in Monkey Business (Norman McLeod; 1931). From Wikipedia: "The most famous sequence from this film involves the four brothers attempting to get off the ship using a passport stolen from famous singer (and fellow Paramount star) Maurice Chevalier."