LouHomey From my favorite movies..

Tymon Sutton The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

ksf-2 One of Lucy's early, credited roles. She had been in hollyood for five years, but mostly in uncredited or deleted roles. It's a fun, typical Marx Brothers film... lots of antics, an act trying to stay in a hotel, with the hotel manager always after them for not paying the bills. The awesome, clever Marx brothers had been making about one film a year, and this time they brought in Ann Miller (who appears to be only 15, if you do the math!), Lucy, and Frank Albertson. And of course Donald MacBride, as the gullible hotel manager. They must pretend there's a major illness, so the hotel can't possibly evict them, but maybe they will anyway. The usual silliness and shenanigans. It's pretty good. a required viewing for Marx Brothers fans. and of couse, an early Lucy film. Its Fun! not their best, but its good old fashioned comedy from the vaudefille days. and who can pass up watching the Marx Brothers run around in circles, playing with clever word phrases ? It IS on dvd, but it shows on Turner Classics now and then.

grantss OK, but not great, Marx Brothers movie. Started off well enough. Set up was good, some good one-liners from Groucho and was quite coherent. Middle section had some great sight gags (anything involving the turkey, and Harpo being diagnosed by the doctor, especially). However, from a point it lost coherence and just got silly. Not ridiculously, unwatchably silly, but just mundane and not too funny.Overall, the jokes were weaker than their best, and even Groucho's famous wisecracks seemed weaker and fewer-and-further-between. Performances, given the material, are OK though. Lucille Ball is great in a supporting role, and not just for her acting... Good support too from Ann Miller and Frank Albertson. Certainly not in the same league as A Night At The Opera, but reasonably entertaining nevertheless.

ingemar-4 I watched two movies pretty much in parallel, Room Service and Stuck On You. While Room Service is certainly lacking much of the Marx' brothers usual tempo and gags, I was surprised to find that this was the one of the two that gave the most laughs by far, while the other mostly bored me. I had expected the opposite.Almost the whole movie takes place in a hotel room, which is certainly due to being a stage play, and that comes for a cost. There is more talking and less action than other Marx movies. The first half or so drags considerably, but the brothers do manage to use their characters in good ways. In particular, Harpo does a good job on bringing in some visual gags.Mr Wagner (Donald MacBride) is rather tiresome, but from the moment the backer is clear to him, he gets a well deserved break from being the sourpuss of the movie. And that's right where I start liking the movie. It takes quicker turns, scenes are getting increasingly hilarious (Harpo's death scene is great), and ends pretty much as expected but just right.I certainly wouldn't advice anyone new to Marx to start here, but once you are fond of the Marx brothers and like their characters, this is a nice bonus, which is better than I thought it would be.

dougdoepke The movie manages a few chuckles, but is not prime material for Marx Bros. fans. One reason is that there's too much conventional logic in what the boys do, unlike their usual wacky comedic logic. Thus, there's little of the usual anarchic assault on well-ordered society that provides larger point to their madcap style. Here the boys are trying to beat the hotel out of a big bill in order to get their stage play produced, and what they do makes perfectly good sense, though done in zany style. I get the feeling that, unlike other Marx movies, any number of good comedic actors could have replaced them to decent effect. Also, journeyman director Seiter fails to bring the zaniness to the kind of madcap boil that marks their best features. For example, the comedy mix tends to keep the boys apart instead of effectively combining them.Nonetheless, the movie has its moments and some good gag lines, along with lively humorous support— MacBride as the dyspeptic hotel manager, Wood as the string bean agent, and Albertson as the boyish playwrite. Unfortunately, Lucille Ball's expert comedic talent goes untapped, but thankfully not her good looks.Looks like the boys miss their home at MGM where their best movies were made. But even second-rate Marx Bros. at RKO still manages some good laughs.