Word: harpo
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Comedians are supposed to shtik to their lasts: Harpo could never speak and Groucho could never be at a loss for words; Fields could never seem to draw a sober breath or a sunny moral. What, then, is Woody Allen doing starring in, writing and directing a ruefully romantic comedy that is at least as poignant as it is funny and may be the most autobiographical film ever made by a major comic...
...Gael Greene book, vantz!" she rasped. "The Gael Greene book! It's my guide! My road map!" She began to heave up and down like the crazed Harpo Marx, baring her canines and incisors and crossing her eyes. Moving toward the wall she commenced chewing he wallpaper. "Mm, roses! I love roses!" chortled this human vegematic as she chomped on a particularly dainty pattern. Then she steamed, pirouetted thrice, keeled and passed out hissing. Exhausted by the afternoon's trifles, I too shuddered, convulsed and in a moment had made like a light...
Understandably, the experience has in stilled in Konig a morbid determinism that makes the Goncourt brothers look like Harpo and Chico Marx: "Gone now are February and March, season of drowned men, when ice on the frozen rivers melts, yielding up the winter's harvest of junkies, itinerants and prostitutes. Soon to come are July and August - the jackknife months. Heat and homicide. Bullet holes, knife wounds, fatal garrotings, a grisly procession vomited out of the steamy ghettos of the inner city...
...that there's anything wrong with a little idoriented activity. Harpo Marx, the id of the '30s, manages to be perfectly interesting, as well as completely human. But Emmanuelle, whose only purpose in life seems to be to run around chasing new and pleasurable experiences while her husband is at work or playing polo, misses no chance to degrade herself. If ever a woman asked to be exploited, it's she; her willingness to abandon inhibition takes her finally to a Hong Kong brothel, where she sells herself to three sailors and brings the profits home proudly to Jean...
Phoebe's Charlie was not the legendary saxophonist but a pal nicknamed Harpo. "He had all Harpo Marx's moves down," says Phoebe, "and he played junk instruments like the washtub bass." Charlie introduced her to new music like Spike Jones. Then three years ago, at the age of 20, he died of an overdose...