Search - The Marx Brothers Collection (Documentary) on DVD

To help clear up some of the confusion ...

Daniel | New York, NY USA | 12/08/2003

(2 out of 5 stars)

"As mentioned elsewhere, this collection does not include any of the complete films, but rather tv & misc. other clips. Since I will probably return the item, I haven't yet broken the seal and cannot comment on the quality. However, I should note that the total run-time is approx. 5 hours -- much less than one would assume for a 5-disc set.If you are looking for more content information, don't bother with Koch Vision Entertainment's site. They are clearly not enthuastic about revealing more details about this release.The discs are:
#1 "Inside the Marx Brothers" (this is sold separately, as well)
#2 "You Bet Your Life" TV Pilot
#3 "Papa Romani" and "Person-to-Person"
#4 "The Marx Brothers Radio Days" (is this just an audio CD?)
#5 "Marx Brothers Mixed Nuts"For the price, perhaps it's not all that bad, but there still isn't a good set of their films out there yet.The amazon.co.uk set DOES contain complete films (four of them, I believe), but the item seems to be no longer in active inventory. Be aware that it supposedly is lacking any meaningful DVD extras."

Kind of weak, kind of good

Nathan C. Anthony | 01/03/2004

(2 out of 5 stars)

"First off, these discs are put together terribly. If you have trouble getting the discs to play, wait until the very end of the Passport Video animation. As it ends, start hitting your enter key repeatedly. This will bypass the bad audio loop encoded on the disc, and allow the presentation to start. Disc one is a fairly decent documentary, actually. Disc two is the entire kinetescope of the You Bet Your Life pilot episode. Disc three has a really bad teleplay starring Chico, and then shows Harpo and Groucho on separate episodes of an interview show with Edward R. Murrow. Groucho's, in particular, was fun to watch. He does a song on a guitar with his seven year old daughter.Disc 4 is an audio CD. Disc 5 has a few good odds and ends (like Groucho on the Jack Benny Show), but the stuff is edited and fragmentary. It's possibly worth it to see the rare sketch from "I'll Say She Is". All in all, this set is kinda weak, but has all the earmarks of something that will go out of print soon. Judging by how hard it is to find Marx stuff on DVD, it might not be a bad idea to get this while it's still available. For Mega Die-Hard Mark Brothers fans, ONLY!"

Not what is implied

Janet Clarke | new york, ny | 12/17/2003

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Just got the set (for a Christmas gift), and was upset to see that it's NOT a collection of Marx Brothers films, as I had thought.The description on this item is vague, and SHOULD have been more specific as to content. It's already being sent back, and I'm none too thrilled to be stuck with the shipping costs..."

Very mixed bag

Bruce Breslow | 12/30/2003

(2 out of 5 stars)

"This set is a very mixed bag - it's really only for hardcore Marx Brothers fans, who have to have everything (given the shortage of Marx material on DVD). It's got some interesting stuff, like a disc full of trailers, and the pilot for You Bet your Life (in surprisingly good quality), which are the 2 items that I give it 2 stars for, but the bad points of this set are:
1) they could've fit all of this onto maybe 2 or 3 discs - each disc only runs around 50 min.
2) A/V quality on some of the material is poor
3) Menus may not work on some machines, on some discs (someone else complained about this). Hitting "Play" didn't work, but fortunately, my DVD player allows me to direct access titles/chapters on the disc, so i figured out how to make the disc play by bumping directly to the title/chapter on the disc (using trial and error). An enormous hassle, though.
4) if you buy this box, don't buy the separate "Inside" disc, as it's in there along with some footage making up some of the other discs - they clearly were stretching material
5) one whole disc is just audio - for this, i needed a DVD?

The easy solution to this would be for Universal, Time Warner/WB, and all the other copyright holders to get on the ball and get the real movies out. I'd even settle for the latter/lesser ones, at this point. In the meantime, pop for "The Unknown Marx Brothers" - it's much better than this."