This movie certainly isn't in the same league with the inspired, anything goes lunacy of Marx Brothers classics like Duck Soup and Horse Feathers. But it is fairly entertaining if you give it a chance.
Most of the action takes place in one room of the White Way Hotel on Broadway, where slightly shady impresario Groucho is holed up, trying to evade the hotel inspector, while waiting for a financial backer to come through with the necessary funds to put on a show.He is joined by the naive young author of the play, and fast talking sidekick Chico, and silent clown Harpo, along with the beleaguered hotel manager, who is Groucho's brother in law.Various eccentric characters, such as the cranky hotel doctor, a confused collection agency man, and a highly nervous representative for a wealthy client, all come and go, as the confusion mounts steadily.
The movie is kind of funny, if you don't have really high expectations. Ann Miller makes a very cute love interest for playwright Frank Albertson, and a very young Lucille Ball shows up periodically as Groucho's girlfriend. Alexander Asro as an emotional Russian actor, and Donald MacBride as the belligerent hotel inspector, along with Cliff Dunstan as the long suffering hotel manager, help round out the cast. Tall, gaunt Philip Wood is quite funny as the humorless agent for the backer who wishes to be anonymous, and Charles Halton has a few good scenes as the bad tempered hotel doctor.
Room Service may not hold up all that well for modern audiences, but seen in context of the time it was made, and considering that it was adapted to a short movie version from a longer play, it's really not too bad.
Most of the action takes place in one room of the White Way Hotel on Broadway, where slightly shady impresario Groucho is holed up, trying to evade the hotel inspector, while waiting for a financial backer to come through with the necessary funds to put on a show.He is joined by the naive young author of the play, and fast talking sidekick Chico, and silent clown Harpo, along with the beleaguered hotel manager, who is Groucho's brother in law.Various eccentric characters, such as the cranky hotel doctor, a confused collection agency man, and a highly nervous representative for a wealthy client, all come and go, as the confusion mounts steadily.
The movie is kind of funny, if you don't have really high expectations. Ann Miller makes a very cute love interest for playwright Frank Albertson, and a very young Lucille Ball shows up periodically as Groucho's girlfriend. Alexander Asro as an emotional Russian actor, and Donald MacBride as the belligerent hotel inspector, along with Cliff Dunstan as the long suffering hotel manager, help round out the cast. Tall, gaunt Philip Wood is quite funny as the humorless agent for the backer who wishes to be anonymous, and Charles Halton has a few good scenes as the bad tempered hotel doctor.
Room Service may not hold up all that well for modern audiences, but seen in context of the time it was made, and considering that it was adapted to a short movie version from a longer play, it's really not too bad.