2 But, it was his close connection to his beloved harp that gave Harpo’s puckish character its most magical facet: an idiosyncratically supernatural quality that transcended comic stereotypes, elevating his prankish, pantomimic antics to a plane Marx critics and biographers have described as “surreal” (Fix chap. Harpo could play host to a living tattoo conceal dogs, life preservers, whole hams, and a kitchen sink in his coat pockets ride a neon Pegasus across a billboard and flicker in and out with the flashing light display. He never speaks on screen, yet he is undoubtedly as much a creature of music and sound as he is of motion and sight, communicating his attitudes and feelings with pantomime gestures, shrill whistles, honking horns: zany, noisy physical comedy he skillfully counterpoints with the virtuosic strumming of his golden pedal harp. 2 Harpo’s doghouse tattoo was home to a living dog in Duck Soup.Ĥ The Harpo we see in the Marx Brothers’ works is a noisy mute, a clever idiot, a guileless rake, an untrained virtuoso whose improvised harp technique continues to make experts shake their heads and wonder, while leaving his listeners in awe.
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