I have all of their films and they all get watched repeatedly in our house as my kids are also big fans. I could have picked any number of theirs to fit into this top 5 but lumped for Monkey Business as my overall favourite. Non stop Marx Madness from beginning to end with none of the romance and singing of the later MGM films.
I guess you have to be raised on this stuff to really get it but these films, along with those of Laurel and Hardy, are still a constant source of joy to me.
The Marx Brothers are in a class of their own. I still horse-laugh when watching their films but also, Iām amazed at their āmulti-talents.ā Same thing with Stan Laurel and Buster Keaton.
[quote=āPhil H, post:22, topic:1169ā]I have all of their films and they all get watched repeatedly in our house as my kids are also big fans. I could have picked any number of theirs to fit into this top 5 but lumped for Monkey Business as my overall favourite. Non stop Marx Madness from beginning to end with none of the romance and singing of the later MGM films.
I guess you have to be raised on this stuff to really get it but these films, along with those of Laurel and Hardy, are still a constant source of joy to me.[/quote]
I have a few on VHS I taped off telly years ago. Donāt know how many they made but would love to get them all. They are funny everytime I watch them.
I have a couple of Laurel and Hardy tapes as wellā¦superb.
MGM killed them.
Even A Night at the Opera canāt compete with their 5 Paramount films.
Duck Soup is the best, followed by Animal Crackers and Horse Feathers.
And still the most puzzling question on earth: Why a Duck?
MGM killed the Marx Bros. just like Monogram ruined Charlie Chan.
[quote=āstanton, post:25, topic:1169ā]MGM killed them.
Even A Night at the Opera canāt compete with their 5 Paramount films.
Duck Soup is the best, followed by Animal Crackers and Horse Feathers.
And still the most puzzling question on earth: Why a Duck?[/quote]
I agree but, in commercial terms, MGM (or more accurately Irving Thalberg) rejuvenated their careers after Paramount had dropped them for not being popular enough. They were in the wilderness and hadnāt made a movie in 3 years when Thalberg signed them up. Unfortunately for us, his plan to make them more commercial was to add a love interest and musical numbers into their films. It worked. Their MGM films were the most popular of any they made but the down side was that they were only 50 per cent Marx Brothers comedy with rest being the add in stuff which we all find boring now. A Night at the Opera is a perfect example. It contains some of the best Marx Brothers routines ever but also long stretches of operetta and corny love scenes. Thatās why most fans prefer the earlier Paramount ones. 100% Marx Brothers in those and all of them gems.
And why a no chicken?
Iām also a big fan of Marx brothers. They were really ahead of their time. Duck Soup was their funniest and most anarchistic film but unfortunately it was also their biggest failure on the box office. Such a films wouldnāt be made until the sixties when Monty Python started.
Nosferatu - F.W. Murnau
Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari - Robert Wiene
Duck Soup - Leo McCarey
Eraserhead - David Lynch
Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes - Werner Herzog
The Black Cat (Edgar Ulmer, 1931)
Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse (Fritz Lang, 1932)
Freaks (Todd Browning, 1932)
The Conformist (Bernado Bertolucci 1970)
Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966)
Apocalypse Now (1979, Francis Ford Coppola)
Chinatown (1974, Roman Polanski)
The Killer (1989, John Woo)
Wild Strwaberries (1957, Ingmar Bergman)
Tenebre (1982, Dario Argento)
In no particular order.
It was really hard to compile, thereāre lots of movies i would like to put on a list as well.
This is hard, very hard.
Once upon a time in America (1984, Sergio Leone)
Breathless (1960, Jean-Luc Godard)
Oldboy (2003, Park Chan-wook)
Reservoir Dogs (1992, Quentin Tarantino)
Pulp Fiction (1994, Quentin Tarantino)
Iāll stick to the ones from my old list:
Late as usual.
In no specific order:
Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979, Werner Herzog)
The Spirit of the Beehive (1973, Victor Erice)
Stalker (1979, Andrei Tarkovsky)
Shadow of a Doubt (1943, Alfred Hitchcock)
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984, Michael Radford)
Five films I never tire of:
Thief(Michael Mann)
To Kill A Mockingbird(Robt. Mulligan)
The Thing(John Carpenter)
The Outsiders(Francis Ford Coppola)
Sorcerer(William Friedkin)
Five films I never tire of because maybe Iām a little touched:
Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?
The Big Lebowski
Big Trouble in Little China
The Fearless Vampire Killers
Snatch
[quote=āAceHigh, post:35, topic:1169ā]Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?
The Big Lebowski[/quote]
Iām with you on these two brother. Coen Brothers at their best.
[quote=āPhil H, post:36, topic:1169ā]Iām with you on these two brother. Coen Brothers at their best.[/quote]I liked The Big Lebowski but i struggled to get into oh brother for some reason.
I love Fargo though.
Here are mine, in no particular order. I guess later I shall think of 20 others !
[quote=āMejimbo, post:38, topic:1169ā]5. The Incredible Journey (1963, Fletcher Markle)
ā¦tears in my eyes at the end.[/quote]
Iām crying just remembering this. Iād challenge anybody not to be a bit moist at the end of this! :ā( 
I remember seeing it at the pictures as a kid with my next door neighbour. She had to be taken out of the cinema because her howling sobs were disturbing the rest of the audience. Iāve never let her forget it either.