Marx & Co.

Films with the Marx Brothers, Karl Valentin, Laurel & Hardy,
W.C. Fields, Mae West, and Hellzapoppin by H.C. Potter

December 26 to 30, 2008

Between Christmas and New Year's Eve, the Austrian Film Museum has a long-standing tradition of presenting films by the Marx Brothers; for the past few years, these have been juxtaposed with films of other artists. In 2008, the Marx Brothers’ counterparts are some of the greatest comedians in early sound cinema. The timeframe is 1930 to 1941; the protagonists are W.C. Fields, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, Karl Valentin and Mae West. And a film which crowns this era or movie anarchism, H.C. Potter’s Hellzapoppin' – the fastest-paced, most imaginative self-parody ever created by the Hollywood film industry.