I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I was finally disappointed by a Marx Brothers movie.

My love for these wordy Three Stooges originated from my dad. In fact, my first memory of them was an audio WAV file on our first computer that could play audio… a clip of Groucho in Duck Soup, yelling “remember men, we’re fighting for this woman’s honor, which is probably more than she ever did.” I had no idea what that meant, but it seemed funny and my dad enjoyed it a lot. Sold!

Cut to adult Adam and I’ve seen every one of their flicks. There are obvious winners in their catalog: A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races, etc. And sure, there’s the occasional misstep: Room Service wasn’t even written for them, and it shows. But I’ve never been bored with them on screen… until now.

A Night in Casablanca opens with a warning shot. None of the brothers are on screen until 5 or 10 minutes into the movie. I kindly assumed there was plot being developed, but I could see it plodding to a halt after 30 minutes like a thickening cement.

A bit of research reveals that the brothers were basically retired in 1946, but that they needed to raise money for broke Chico. So they reunited the band, and we all know how that works out.

In all fairness, there’s a few glimmers of greatness even as Groucho’s slouch seems more due to age than his shtick. Harpo still steals the show repeatedly, ever silent and deft in his physical comedy. But not enough to right this ship, one that was well out to sea when abruptly called back to port.