Marx Brothers the Beaugard painting is stolen, so the script was contrived to include a power failure, which allowed Zeppo to play the Spaulding part in near-darkness.) In December 1917 the Marx brothers were noted in an advertisement playing in a musical comedy act "Home Again". By the 1920s, the Marx Brothers had become one of America's favorite theatrical acts, with their sharp and bizarre sense of humor. They satirized high society and human hypocrisy, and they became famous for their improvisational comedy in free-form scenarios. A famous early instance was when Harpo arranged to chase a fleeing chorus girl across the
Groucho Marx way. As the Marx Brothers, he and his brothers starred in a series of popular stage shows and movies. Their first movie was a silent film made in 1921 that was never released, and is believed to have been destroyed at the time. A decade later, the team made two of their Broadway hits—"The Cocoanuts" and "Animal Crackers"—into movies. Other successful films were "Monkey Business", "Horse Feathers", "Duck Soup", and "A Night at the Opera". One quip from Marx concerned his response to Sam Wood, the director of "A Night at the Opera". Furious with the Marx Brothers' ad-libs and