Trying to Imagine the Four Marx Sisters

[moon_custafer]

I posted this on Tumblr and don’t wan’t to type it all up and cut-and-paste the YouTube links again. Short version — looking at an old clip of Leo Slezak reminded me of a male Margaret Dumont, which made me try to imagine an entire cisswapped Marxverse, though I’m still not sure who would play who.

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[sovay]

— and now I’m trying to imagine a cisswapped version of the Marx Brothers movies using comediennes active at the time.

There are so many to choose from!

I am tempted to cast Dorothy Lee in the Zeppo position; she's very good-looking, very obviously an ingenue, and her work with Wheeler and Woolsey proved that she could be a complete zany at the same time.

ZaSu Pitts' shtick was being slightly grotesque and flighty in ways that played like pure moon unit to everyone around her, which makes me think (though she never did dialect comedy that I know of) that she would make a legitimate Chico. I could hear her saying in triumphant bewilderment, "Left-handed moths! Left-handed moths ate the painting!"

Patsy Kelly occurs to me first as Groucho; she had the rapid-fire quality of sarcastic fast talk that makes sense at the time and then somehow the next thing you know everyone is on Mars. Edna Mae Oliver had the withering deadpan, though.

and while I don’t know if any actress at time would have been allowed to play as weird as Harpo

Almost nobody of any gender was as weird as Harpo, but Carole Lombard could be an absolute id on wheels.

This is not a definitive statement. I thought of Una Merkel early on, but am not sure where I'd put her.

Who would you want for the kind of slow-burn antagonist roles that Edgar Kennedy played?

[moon_custafer]

I should have mentioned Pitts; I’ve only ever seen her in Ruggles of Red Gap, but she’s darling in that (and reminds me a little of Mary Steenburgen in Back to the Future III.)

As Edgar Kennedy? Hmm. Well, if Margaret Dumont’s not being Margaret Dumont in this scenario....

ETA — and if not her, there’s always Marie Dressler.

[sovay]

As Edgar Kennedy? Hmm. Well, if Margaret Dumont’s not being Margaret Dumont in this scenario....

I like this plan!

Dressler can do the Louis Calhern role.

[moon_custafer]

Maybe flip those?