Review of Six of a Kind

In 1933, Leo McCarey directed the best Marx Brothers movie, "Duck Soup". One year later, he directed "Six Of A Kind": it may not be quite in the same league, but it is made with a similar anarchic, lively sensibility. It's also quite daring for its time ("Why don't you go to bed?" - "That was the intention"!). Personally I am not so familiar with any of the comic actors in this film, but evidently I should fix that: Gracie Allen is totally dissociated from common sense and often hilarious (not to mention pretty cute and huggable!), Mary Boland and Charlie Ruggles have a wonderful, warm chemistry as a loving middle-aged couple, while W.C. Fields plays a Western-type precursor to Inspector Clouseau. The first half is (arguably) slightly funnier than the second, but the whole film is so short (about an hour long) that you probably won't notice. *** out of 4.