Monkey Business (1931 film) the film, and that Eddie Cantor contributed when he visited the set during shooting Typical for many Marx Brothers films, production censors demanded changes in some lines with sexual innuendo. "Monkey Business" was banned in some countries because censors feared it would encourage anarchic tendencies. This is the first Marx Brothers film not to feature Margaret Dumont: this time their female foil is comedian Thelma Todd, who would also star in the Marx Brothers' next film, "Horse Feathers". A few years later, in December 1935, Todd died in unexplained circumstances. A line of dialogue in "Monkey Business" seems to foreshadow
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