Though Go West does have its moments, it's not quite in the same league as the brothers earlier MGM films, A Night At The Opera, and A Day At The Races, let alone their Paramount films. It's also not as good a western spoof as Laurel&Hardy's Way Out West or Abbott&Costello's Ride 'Em Cowboy.
When the Marx Brothers left Paramount, Zeppo did not make the trip, so it was MGM's practice to give the brothers a fourth man who happened to be a singer. Unlike Allan Jones in the two previous mentioned films, John Carroll does not get into the Marxian horseplay, nor did he get songs as good as Kenny Baker did in At the Circus and Tony Martin in The Big Store. He sings the rather forgettable Rding the Range with accompaniment by the brothers.
The plot of this film has to do with the Brothers trying to help Diana Lewis get the deed to her grandfather's property that they mistakenly turned over to villains Robert Barrat and Walter Woolf King so Harpo could get a 10 cent beer. The railroad wants to pay $50,000.00 for the right of way.
I got the feeling in watching Go West that a lot might have been left on the cutting room floor. Probably of some of the other characters so that it would solely concentrate on the Marxes. Bad idea because it sacrificed some plot development.
In a few years Diana Lewis would leave the screen to become the third and final Mrs. William Powell. She was a pretty woman, kind of like Jean Harlow without the platinum coiffure. It is said that's what attracted Powell to her.
The final sequence with the locomotive chase was funny, but also totally ripped off from Buster Keaton's The General. Not surprising since Keaton had a hand in the production. But a lot of the Marx kind of humor was missing. Nothing as good as their version of Il Trovatore or Chico fleecing Groucho at the racetrack.
Go West is minor league Marx. Bud and Lou and Stan and Ollie did a whole lot better out on the western plains.
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