[.ca] Copacabana

From Amazon.com:
Happily, Groucho is still Groucho in his first post-Marx brothers movie, and that's enough to keep this showbiz farce going. The rather labored plot has Groucho getting his longtime fiancée, Carmen Miranda, booked at Manhattan's glamorous Copacabana club, but as two different performers: a Brazilian bombshell (the usual Carmen Miranda act, without the pineapple on the head) and a veiled French chanteuse called Mademoiselle Fifi. Some of the nightclub stuff has a retro appeal, and the appearance of real-life showbiz columnists (like Earl Wilson) brings a whiff of Sweet Smell of Success. But mostly there's Groucho, still flinging one-liners in a zone of his own. Even when the material isn't first-rate, his delivery never wavers from the withering skepticism of the Marx brothers' early days. The old greasepaint mustache comes out for one typically Marxist number, with the remainder of the songs handled by Miranda and wet-eyed crooner Andy Russell. --Robert Horton

It's...... Groucho! (and Carmen is fun too!):
Just enough gags and zippy one-liners to make it worth the price of admission for Groucho fans. It's only a pity the other brothers are nowhere in sight. I didn't care much for the musical numbers, but that's what the fast-forward button is for. The picture quality is great and the audio is clear. No Marx Bros. collection is complete without it!

Groucho Marx and Carmen Miranda. The mind boggles...:
Putting Groucho Marx and his cigar in a movie with Carmen Miranda and her fruit basket headdress certainly seems like a good idea, but nobody bothered to write a decent script for this 1947 musical comedy (and you can only think of all the Groucho one-liners that must have ended up on the cutting room floor). The plot, such as it is, has Groucho as Lionel Q. Deveraux, an agent who has one client, Carmen Novarro (Miranda). To make money he has her pose as both a Brazilian bombshell and a French chanteuse to fool nightclub owner Steve Hunt (Steve Cochran). There are some minor subplots involving romance, but they are of tertiary interest at best. Of course for me the only worthwhile moments are when Groucho is on screen and making with the jokes. The musical numbers are okay, but nothing memorable. If all you have seen are parodies of Carmen Miranda in action then this exposure to the real thing has its value as well. She also works well as a foil for Groucho, which is not really that surprising. You can either be totally flustered or joyfully oblivious to Groucho's zingers and Carmen goes with the later strategy to good effect. "Copacabana" is no substitute for a "true" Marx Brothers film, but despite that inherent limitation it is not a bad film. It would rate a 3.5 but we round up because, after all, it is Groucho.