Straight Lady: The Life and Times of Margaret Dumont, "The Fifth Marx Brother"
Book by Chris Enss
DETAILS
Publisher : Lyons Press (October 1, 2022) Language : English Hardcover : 208 pages ISBN-10 : 1493060406 ISBN-13 : 978-1493060405 Item Weight : 1.32 pounds Dimensions : 7.29 x 0.7 x 10.12 inches Best Sellers Rank: #22,857 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #6 in Theatre Biographies #15 in Comedy (Books) #262 in Actor & Entertainer Biographies , On October 20, 1882, future actress Margaret Dumont was born in Brooklyn, New York. A Broadway regular by the 1920s, Dumont found lasting fame once she started appearing with the Marx Brothers. Tall and regal in bearing, her character provided the perfect foil to the wisecracking Groucho Marx in a series of films including A Night at theOpera and Duck Soup. Her character’s seemingly obliviousness to insult led to the widespread belief, encouraged by Groucho himself, that Dumont was a humorless person who never got the joke. a belief she contradicted in a 1942 interview. “I’m not a stooge,” she said. “I’m a straight lady. There’s an art to playing straight. You must build up your man but never top him and never steal the laughs from him. Straight Lady: The Life and Times of Margaret Dumont, "The Fifth Marx Brother" d focuses on the Dumont and her role in the production of the comedy teams' most successful films. Several books have been written about the Marx Brothers as a comedy family and about their individual lives, but there haven’t been any books written about Margaret Dumont. This book will appeal to motion picture enthusiasts, Marx Brothers’ fans, and film historians. Read more
REVIEW
I have anticipated this book for some time now. Unfortunately, so little of it was about its subject. Dumont’s early life was new to me, and I am grateful for the insight provided. When the Marxes entered the story, however, too much of it was about them and not enough about Dumont. Too many sections were devoted to movies she didn’t even appear in (and in such great detail) with only a cursory comment about her not being cast. Maybe the subtitle should have been a clue. I wish there had been more Life and less Times. As a part-time editor, I was also disappointed in the number of typos I encountered. This grande dame deserved better.
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