Throwback Thursday – Horse Feathers (1932)

Between this blog and my previous one, Professor Damian’s Public Domain Treasure Chest, I’ve been writing about movies for quite a while now. Because of that, there are a lot of posts that have simply gotten lost to the mists of time. So, I figured I’d use the idea of “Throwback Thursday” to spotlight some of those older posts, re-presenting them pretty much exactly as they first appeared except for updating links where necessary or possible, and doing just a bit of re-formatting to help them fit better into the style of this blog. Hope you enjoy these looks back.

As we approach the end of football season – the college bowls have been played an the pro playoffs are pretty well set – I thought this might be a good time to take a look back at a truly historic football game – the one between Huxley College and their rivals at Darwin College. So here, from February 2014, is my reporting on that game:

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Looking For Real Football Excitement Today? Look No Further Than Horse Feathers (1932)

So yeah, there’s that Big Important Football Game on TV today. And yeah, like most of America, I’ll be tuned in, mostly because it’s a good chance to get together with some friends that I rarely get to spend much time with. Well, that, and, of course, to check out whatever movie trailers make their premiers during the festivities.

And yeah, we’ll be watching the game, too, of course, but let’s all be honest: how often does it really live up to the hype? Sure there’s always the chance that it’ll turn into a nail-biter, and with the promised inclement weather, things could get interesting, but… somehow I doubt that there’s much chance that you’re going to see anything akin to the hijinx that took place in the fourth quarter of the 1932 game between Huxley College and their rivals at Darwin College. Here, let’s take a look at how that game ended:

Yep, that was, of course, the Marx Brothers from their 1932 film Horse Feathers, where Groucho plays Quincy Adams Wagstaff, the new president of Huxley College, and Zeppo is his son Frank. Harpo and Chico play characters named Pinky and Bravelli, who are recruited to play for the Huxley team, and of course, the usual chaos ensues, climaxing with the above football game.

I do have to admit, though. that I’d be much more excited about today’s game if I thought there was any chance of the Seahawks pulling out a chariot and steamrolling it over Peyton Manning. Sigh… they just don’t play the game like they used to, do they?

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Hope you enjoyed this blast from the past.