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Article: What is a Marx Brother?: critical practice, industrial practice, and the notion of the comic auteur.
- Article from:
- Velvet Light Trap
- Article date:
- September 22, 1990
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1990 University of Texas at Austin (University of Texas Press). This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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WHEN ANDREW SARRIS FIRST POPULARIZED auteur criticism in the United States with his The American Cinema, he included in his catalog of auteurs eight comic performers. Since five of these performers also worked in creative nonperforming roles throughout their careers, their inclusion makes some sense: Charles Chaplin and Buster Keaton, admitted to the Pantheon, were their own producers, directors, screenwriters, cinematographers, and editors as well as stars; Jerry Lewis and Harold Lloyd, though listed with the other "nondirectorial auteurs," did indeed direct; and W.C. Fields and Mae West wrote much of the work they performed. But Groucho, Chico, and Harpo Marx--the Marx ...