The House That Shadows Built the Marx Brothers, with Davison Clark playing Mr. Lee, Theatrical Producer, which was intended to promote their forthcoming 1931 film "Monkey Business" (Clark later played the role of the frustrated Passport Official in "Monkey Business" and would also appear in the war scene in "Duck Soup"). The segment, containing material which was never included in any other Marx Brothers film, is a re-working of the first scene of their first successful Broadway revue "I'll Say She Is" (1924), which Groucho considered to have been the funniest work in the Brothers' career. Except for a few name changes and additional gags,
Monkey Business (1931 film) "the best this family has given us." The film was evidently based on two routines the Marx Brothers did during their early days in vaudeville ("Home Again" and "Mr. Green's Reception"), along with a story idea from one of Groucho's friends, Bert Granet, called "The Seas Are Wet". The passport scene is a reworking of a stage sketch in which the brothers burst into a theatrical agent's office auditioning an impersonation of a current big star. It appeared in their stage shows "On the Mezzanine Floor" and "I'll Say She Is" (1924). This skit was also done by the Marxes