Go West (1940)

89% of critics liked it
(9 reviews)
57% of users liked it
(2,579 ratings)

The Marx Bros.' Go West was on the drawing boards as early as 1936, when MGM executive Irving Thalberg commissioned Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby to come up with a script in which the Marx boys get involved with a rodeo. The project was shelved in favor of A Day at the Races, then revived in late 1939,… More The Marx Bros.' Go West was on the drawing boards as early as 1936, when MGM executive Irving Thalberg commissioned Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby to come up with a script in which the Marx boys get involved with a rodeo. The project was shelved in favor of A Day at the Races, then revived in late 1939, two years after Laurel and Hardy's Way Out West proved the commercial viability of comedy-Westerns. By this time, Kalmar and Ruby were no longer involved, and the script became virtually the sole responsibility of Irving Brecher, who'd previously penned the disappointing Marx vehicle At the Circus. If Go West is an improvement over Circus, it is probably because the Marxes were permitted to try out their material on tour before a variety of live audiences. Set in 1870, the story begins as S. Quentin Quayle (Groucho Marx) tries to raise enough money for a train ticket to the West. He spots a couple of likely pigeons, prospectors Rusty (Harpo Marx) and Joe (Chico Marx), and attempts to sucker them out of the required 500 dollars. In what turns out to be the film's funniest scene, Rusty and Joe turn the tables on Quayle, divesting him of everything he owns -- including his trousers. The plot then rears its ugly head as villains Beecher (Walter Woolf King) and Baxter (Robert H. Barrat) scheme to wrest a lucrative railroad contract from hero Terry Turner (John Carroll). Rusty and Joe make things easy for the bad guys by stupidly signing over a valuable gold mine deed which they were supposed to deliver to heroine Eve Wilson (Diana Lewis). With the help of Quayle, Rusty and Joe try to recover the deed, only to be sidetracked by a bevy of dance-hall girls. After several middling complications, the film boils down to a race between heroes and villains to register their bids and win the railroad contract. This requires Quayle, Rusty, and Joe to keep a locomotive in commission by chopping up the passenger cars for fuel, one of several Keatonesque sight gags packed into the film's hilarious finale. The opening and closing scenes of Go West are so good that one is willing to forgive and forget the dull romantic subplot and the misfire gags in the midsection. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 21 min.
Directed By: Edward Buzzell
Written By: Irving Brecher
Genres: Western, Musical & Performing Arts, Classics, Comedy

In Theaters: Jun 1, 1940 Wide
On DVD: Jan 29, 1992
Studio: MGM Home Entertainment

Critic Reviews

Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
This late MGM entry to the Marx Brothers opus is one of their minor works but still in parts reflects their vintage lunacy.
Walter Chaw, Film Freak Central
The conflict of comedic styles results in a discordant experience at best, but the bits that are pure Marx Bros. are gold.
Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
Really lower rung Marx romp with a few good sequences

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Featured Audience Ratings

AJ V

This movie starts out hilarious, but then it looses steam. The Marx Brothers do a lot of their normal gags, but then they start to do some other ridiculous jokes that are beneath them. Still, this movie is worth watching if you're a big fan of the Marx Brothers, if not… More
This movie starts out hilarious, but then it looses steam. The Marx Brothers do a lot of their normal gags, but then they start to do some other ridiculous jokes that are beneath them. Still, this movie is worth watching if you're a big fan of the Marx Brothers, if not don't see it.
Ken S

Hands down the least funny Marx Brothers film
Byron B

Same director as At the Circus, Buzzell, but new producer in Jack Cummings who had experience with musicals. Groucho is S. Quentin Quale some sort of business man heading out west in 1870. He has $60 out of the $70 he needs for a stagecoach ticket. Chico and Harpo are the Panello… More
Same director as At the Circus, Buzzell, but new producer in Jack Cummings who had experience with musicals. Groucho is S. Quentin Quale some sort of business man heading out west in 1870. He has $60 out of the $70 he needs for a stagecoach ticket. Chico and Harpo are the Panello brothers who only have $10 for a stagecoach ticket. Groucho kind of reprises the Tootsie Fruitsie Ice Cream scam, but Chico's and Harpo's money has a string attached. Then without any explanation they are out west. The story of this film is a mess. There is more unsynchronized audio and video, the young couple and villains are unclearly defined, and there are a lot of questions of why and how the characters do what they do in the plot. Carroll and Lewis are from rival old west families. King returns as another villain, Beecher, with Barrat as Red. The big picture is that Beecher and Red are trying to steal a land deed and the Marx Brothers cause mayhem around them. You're not supposed to ask any questions beyond that. A year after Stagecoach (1939), there is a good comic bit that takes place on a stagecoach ride. There is a nice little Gene Autry type musical number while the young couple and the Marx Brothers are on their way to stay on an Indian reservation. But among the Native Americans their comedy is derailed. Harpo turns a weaving loom into a harp, but while the song is sweet, the comic business that provides book ends for his performance is uncomfortably embarrassing. Chico gets a standard piano solo in Red's saloon that is mediocre. And MacCloy as Red's girl Lulubelle sings a snorer of a tune that is interesting only for how deep her voice is. Groucho still dishes out some surprising quips and jabs throughout. Buster Keaton was an uncredited writer, which probably accounts for some of the train chase action and gags. There are a couple worthwhile bits of humor as the boys try to creatively stop the train and then keep it going, but nothing that memorable.
Matthew Y

In Go West the Marx Brothers go west...oh you figured that out already. Well I mean really is there anything else that needs to be said? It's the Marx Brothers if you don't know what you're getting yourself into by now I really don't know what to say. Several… More
In Go West the Marx Brothers go west...oh you figured that out already. Well I mean really is there anything else that needs to be said? It's the Marx Brothers if you don't know what you're getting yourself into by now I really don't know what to say. Several entertaining bits, nothing overly exciting or memorable, make Go West an enjoyable watch without anything that'll really enhance your opinions of the Marx's. The train sequences might have a couple audience members reliving Buster Keaton's The General but it's all harmless average Marx Brothers fun.