Hotel Anchovy (1934) User Reviews

So Why Wasn't It The Hotel Ritz?

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 30 June 2009]

This short subject marked the screen debut of the Ritz Brothers comedy team. After this they appeared in feature films for 20th Century Fox because Darryl Zanuck wanted his own Marx Brothers working at his studio.

The brothers play the desk clerk, house detective and bellboy at the Hotel Anchovy. The place has seen better days and it looks like its closing down. So when Doris Hill the owner explains it to the staff in simple terms, $100.00 a day is gained when a guest checks in and $100.00 a day is lost when they check out, the boys take that to mean, get people and prevent them from checking out. They accomplish this in a variety of zany ways.

The Hotel Anchovy tries to be like The Cocoanuts, but fails. Primarily because of the fact that the Ritzs are indistinguishable. There's no individual identity with them as with other comedy teams. The film is good for a few chuckles, but there will be no longstanding comedy moments of memory from Hotel Anchovy.

The Ritz Brothers of yesteryear - didn't reach stardom in film

[SimonJack · 6/10 · 22 February 2019]

This comedy short by the Educational Film Corp. was made in 1934 and stars the Ritz Brothers. It's the first film of the Newark born brothers whose comedy routine closely aped that of the Marx Brothers. The trio made fewer than two dozen movies together and individually. They worked first at 20th Century Fox and then at Universal.

While they could be very funny, they didn't have the writers, scripts and studio backing that the Marx Brothers had. They started in mostly B movies and had small routines in others. So, after 1943, they quit Hollywood and went back on the nightclub circuit.

But this short is a good picture of the Ritz's and their talents. The brothers have various jobs in the "Hotel Anchovy," and when they learn that Miss Whitney, the owner, must sell because she's bankrupt, they do their best to help her. With disguises and antics they try to keep the hotel's guests and also get prospective buyers to bid up so Miss Whitney can come out ahead.

There's slapstick, buffoonery and mayhem ala Marx Brothers in this 18-minute film. It's packed with fun, action and humor. It's a good look at a comedy group that might have risen to the top but didn't.

Great for the Ritz Brothers...otherwise, not very good.

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 18 March 2012]

Considering that I have thoroughly detested every full-length Ritz Brothers film I have watched, my hopes were not very high for "Hotel Anchovy". On the positive side, it couldn't be any worse than their other films!!!

The Ritz Brothers have been hired to work at the hotel. Then they learn that the owner is broke and unless she can find another buyer, they're in trouble. She instructs them to keep the guests here--to prevent them from leaving and bring in more at any cost. She wants to impress the potential buyer by having them see that the place is full. In the process, they run about the hotel like banshees and the humor is all pretty low-brow--sort of like The Three Stooges on amphetamines. Most of it really isn't very funny (big surprise) but it is fast and easy to watch. It gets a little when another buyer, Mr. Pierce, shows up....again and again and again! Not entirely bad as its energy and silliness is somewhat endearing....as if that is a glowing endorsement!

Mediocre Imitation of the Marx Brothers

[Snow Leopard · 11 January 2002]

In "Hotel Anchovy", the Ritz brothers do their best to imitate the zany style of the Marx brothers, and while their antics do provide a couple of laughs, it's not anywhere near the level of even an average Marx brothers comedy. Watching a mediocre imitation like this helps you to see just how much skill it takes to create really quality comedy.

The setting and activity have several similarities to "The Cocoanuts", whether intentional or not, with the Ritz trio doing their best to run a hotel. Al, Harry, and Jimmy are not short on energy by any means, bringing chaos and non-stop chatter everywhere they go, and they do deliver an occasional good gag or funny line.

But there is too much chaos for chaos's sake, without the restraint or timing that would have helped to make some of the better gags stand out. So, although it does have a couple of good moments, most of it doesn't just work all that well.

pretty funny

[marlowe_is_dead · 7/10 · 22 November 2000]

i saw this as a filler before a Marx Bros. flick on turner classic movies. i enjoyed it, but i thought that the whole thing was too contrived. the marx brothers made everything flow naturally and without pause for thought. the ritz brothers however, had a thing about repeating funny faces and funny walks that made the whole show seem too amateur when compared to "a night at the opera", which came on afterwards.

i say this tho. i missed the beginning so didn't know the name. i used the imdb power search using the little data i had gathered (1930s comedy), and managed to track it down. neat.

Hoofing, Mugging and Wisecracking,

[redryan64 · 7/10 · 16 July 2014]

DATING BACK TO the days of the Silent Screen, Producer/Director Al Christie's comedies were considered to be pedestrian, unimaginative and even unfunny. His sound productions for EDUCATIONAL PICTURES/FOX seemed all too often to fit comfortably into this mold.

WHILE STARTING OUT in a very boring, talkative mode, we soon see it snow-ball into a veritable runaway juggernaut of a short. It swiftly went from being slow to rapid-fire, and even static to manic; owing its transformation to just one thing; that being the arrival of Harry, Jimmy & Al Ritz to the story.

WHILE THAT TODAY, the Ritz Brothers aren't as forgotten or even unknown to the public than they had been prior to the introduction of home video, they are the least known of the major comedy teams from Hollywood's glorious past. With the advent of Beta, VHS, DVD & Blue Ray, we were able to do our own research into where they fit into and just where do they rank alongside the likes of Laurel & Hardy, The Marx Brothers, the Stooges, etc.

AS FAR AS those questions go, today's review of HOTEL ANCHOVY should answer any and all questions that one may have. It contained all of the elements which made up the Brothers arsenal. And incidentally, it was their first venture into the Movies.

IN THE OLD nutshell, the Ritz's are working as Desk Clerk, House Detective and Bell Boy in an establishment that is in the process of being sold. Their assignment and responsibilities are two fold: prevent guests from leaving and insure that this big shot seller is made comfortable. Need we say that they failed?

THE FILMS MANIACAL pacing combined with Ritz Brothers' fancy "hoofing", their rapid fire wisecracking, their uncanny ability to move as one combining with some tried but true Vaudeville sketches somehow blended smoothly and gave us a sort of figurative "Stooges on Speed" Farce.

SO, THANK YOU, Brothers Joachim!

Horrible

[ramair455 · 1/10 · 17 January 2008]

I've seen Holocaust films that were funnier than this travesty. I never have understood why The Ritz Brothers were considered a comedy team. At least The Marx brothers and The Three Stooges made you laugh. Maybe this is also why when people think about FUNNY comedy teams, they always mention TMB, and TTS...but I have never heard anyone under the age of 90 mention TRB. Must be a reason. The entire plot was idiotic at best, and you could see what the next "antic" was going to be long before it happened. I don't think I can actually say enough negative things about this film. My Thesaurus doesn't contain enough synonyms. I only wish I could sue someone and get paid for the 20 minutes I wasted waiting for a truly good movie to come on...Casablanca.

Crackers

[Bilko-3 · 3/10 · 23 December 2001]

I happened to catch this between Marx Brothers movies. I was pleased, since I had never gotten around to seeing the Ritz Brothers and had heard they were very funny.

Unfortunately, their push push PUSH style fell flat. As my wife said, "I've seen Ritz CRACKERS that were funnier than them."

What's more fun than a hotel filled with monkeys?

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 3 June 2015]

In this case, the monkeys are the sometimes annoying, always over-the-top, and depending on the viewer's taste in comedy, on occasion extremely funny. This short has them working in a hotel which they turn upside down in dealing with various "straight" characters (basically the butt of their jokes) and ends up being a fast paced farce that doesn't make you want to put your hands through the screen and throttle them. Certainly, the style of these mad comics is something you're never likely to see on screen again, but there are moments where you find yourself laughing in spite of yourself. The DVD collection of the four comic shorts (and one mini-documentary which has a few comic moments) is not really recommended, and of the four shorts there (the one with Jack Benny is actually a movie out-take), this is by far the best. Perhaps that ain't saying much, but after suffering through the other three, this is the one to at least give you some sort of smile, making the sneer you have with the others totally disappear.

See the hilarious unrestrained Ritz Brothers in Hotel Anchovy

[tavm · 8/10 · 22 July 2007]

Of all the comedy teams that ended up in the movies in the 1930s, Jimmy, Harry, and Al-The Ritz Brothers-were probably the most unrestrained ever and are probably not as appreciated as a result. In Hotel Anchovy-a short made for the low-budget comedy short studio with the ironic name of Educational-their film debut, they are a manager, bellhop, and detective trying to keep customers from checking out so they can get all the money that's coming to them without fear of losing some of it as the female owner tries to sell the title hotel to a couple of bidders. The brothers Ritz run rampant as they insult various guests, confuse the bidders, and keep running into a suicidal man who keeps failing! Most of the really funny frantic stuff with the bidders are at the end and, boy, what energy they have here! This is probably where Sid Ceasar and Mel Brooks got their inspiration so for that we fully thank them!

Nothing fishy here

[hte-trasme · 8/10 · 14 January 2010]

In 1934, Educational Pictures hired the stage act of the three Ritz Brothers to make this comedy short for its second-string "Coronet" series. They were a good fit for the studio since both were based in New York and Educational was often quick to try new starring acts due to its typical low budgets (belied once in this film where somebody bumps into a wall and the whole room shakes). This short was the first film appearance by the Ritz Brothers, and my first time seeing them.

They're probably most famous today for not being the Marx Brothers, and it's clear that they're akin to that more famous team in comedy style. I don't think they're as funny as the Marxes, but that doesn't mean I don;t think they're funny. They are here, and so is this short, which has the same kind of manic energy and illogic-logic that makes the Marx Brothers films special.

The Ritzes, who almost remind me of three Grouchos in their characterization, are hired to keep guests in a hotel, and the gags and pieces of business follow with increasing rapidity and silliness. They're not above a physically impossible gag or too either -- for instance a request for water leads to it being poured through the phone at a guest. His "You dirty..." leads to "The water's dirty? We wash it twice a day!" If some of the gags are too silly or don't work, it doesn't matter because another one is coming by the time you have the chance to react. Sometimes one can tell they are formerly a musical act, as in the funny and surreal bits when they convince guests to stay by building the rhythm of their complaints into the rhythm of some music, and their timing with the fast material is great and certainly quasi-musical. There's a great macabre scene where they try to keep their commission (they get $100 for every guest who stays and lose $100 for every guest who leaves) by trying to convince a man to commit suicide other than by jumping out the window, and it all leads to a wild, funny, and very well-executed conclusion with all three Ritzes impersonating the same mustachioed man.

There isn't much plot to this short, but there is just enough of a basic story to leave room for the antics without seeming intentionally mysterious or negligent about what on Earth is going on. It seems too bad from this evidence that the Ritz Brothers moved on from short subjects. This one was highly funny, and I'll be looking for their other films in the future.

Boisterous Brothers Behave Badly

[Ron Oliver · 10/10 · 14 April 2002]

A Ritz Bros. Short Subject.

Hired as the new manager, house detective and bellhop, the Ritz Brothers pull out all the stops in an effort to ensure that no customer ever checks out of the HOTEL ANCHOVY.

Fans of Al, David & Jimmy Ritz will particularly enjoy this little film, which abounds in slapstick humor. Seekers after sophistication will search elsewhere.

Often overlooked or neglected today, the one and two-reel short subjects were useful to the Studios as important training grounds for new or burgeoning talents, both in front & behind the camera. The dynamics for creating a successful short subject was completely different from that of a feature length film, something akin to writing a topnotch short story rather than a novel. Economical to produce in terms of both budget & schedule and capable of portraying a wide range of material, short subjects were the perfect complement to the Studios' feature films.

A fine tailored comedy that rivals anything done by the greats.

[grasshopper54 · 8/10 · 6 June 2002]

I had the privilege of seeing this short on Turner Classics the other day. All I could say is that this comedy rivals just about anything the Marx Brothers, the Stooges or Laurel and Hardy ever did. The Ritz Brothers are all but forgotten; very rarely do you see anything that they did and I seriously doubt that anything they did is available on tape. The sad thing about this comedy short is that it should be available on tape; it's not and that's a crime. It's a fast paced film that not only keeps the viewer laughing at all of their antics, but also keeps one on the edge of one's seat as they do just about anything to save this hotel from bankruptcy.

The Ritz Brothers antics closely resemble those of Laurel and Hardy in many ways. Stan Laurel, the mastermind of Laurel and Hardy, had a knack of developing a comedy scene that snowballed helplessly with slapstick and double talk as the scene progressed. This is how this short works; snowballing faster and faster until there's total chaos for all.

It's also a very interesting piece for anyone who's interested in the development of comedy on film. Highly recommended to all who want to broaden their awareness on this era of film history.

Early Try

[Michael_Elliott · 25 February 2008]

Hotel Anchovy (1934)

** (out of 4)

A woman is about to sell her hotel so she hires the Ritz Brothers to make sure people stay there when the new owner comes so that he'll think its a busy place. I enjoyed several of the later day Ritz Brothers films but this one here just doesn't work. For the most part they come off as a rip off of The Marx Brothers and their style just doesn't make for a very funny film. There are a few funny scenes involving the brothers dealing with various people inside the hotel including a woman with one eye and a suicidal man.