Reviews of The Big Store were generally positive, but unenthusiastic.
MGM films, The Big Store contains elaborate musical numbers, including the upbeat "Sing While You Sell", led by a singing and dancing Groucho "Tenement Symphony" sung by Tony Martin and a children's choir. During the "Sing While You Sell" sequence, as he narrates a fashion show, he speaks a few asides, including "This is a bright red dress, but Technicolor is so expensive." Later, after Grover has been exposed as the villain, Groucho comments, "I told you in the first reel he was a crook."Īs in the previous Marx Bros. This elaborate sequence took an entire month to shoot and utilized an unusual number of stunt doubles, Mack Sennett-type slapstick stunts and stop motion photography for a Marx Brothers film.Īt two points, Groucho breaks the fourth wall. The second takes place near the film's climax, where Groucho, Chico and Harpo escape their pursuers in a madcap chase through the store, involving the elevator, a staircase, chandeliers, roller skates, a mail chute and a bicycle. One is in the store's bed department, with novel beds that come out of the walls and floor. The film has two extended scenes with all three Marxes. Between Tommy's romance with store employee Joan Sutton and Flywheel romancing Martha, Flywheel, Ravelli and Wacky eventually expose Grover and save Tommy. Flywheel as a floorwalker and Tommy's bodyguard. Against Grover's wishes, she hires private detective Wolf J. Martha is highly suspicious, worried about Tommy's safety lest anyone suspect her of foul play to take over the store. Grover, the store manager, plots to kill Rogers before he can sell his half of the business, marry the wealthy Martha, then likely kill her too, becoming sole owner of the Phelps Department Store. Rogers has no interest in running a department store, so he plans to sell his interest in the store and use the money to build a music conservatory. The other half is left to Hiram's sister and Tommy's aunt, Martha Phelps.
Goodbye!"ĭepartment Store owner Hiram Phelps has died, leaving half-ownership in the Phelps Department Store to his nephew, singer Tommy Rogers. Tagline: "Where everything is a good buy. The villain was portrayed by Douglass Dumbrille, who had played a similar role in A Day at the Races (1937). The Big Store costars singer Tony Martin and Virginia Grey as the love interests, and long-time Marx Brothers foil Margaret Dumont in her seventh and final film with the Marxes. Groucho later said that these last two films were made primarily because Chico, a lifelong compulsive gambler, needed the money. However, they would return to the screen in A Night in Casablanca (1946) and Love Happy (1949). The Marxes had decided to retire as a team and The Big Store was advertised as their farewell film. made under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The Big Store was the last of the five films the Marx Bros. Flywheel (a character name originating from the Marx-Perrin radio show Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel in the early 1930s). Groucho appears as private detective Wolf J. The Big Store is an American comedy film starring the Marx Brothers released in 1941, with Groucho, Chico and Harpo wreaking havoc in a large department store.
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