The strange incongruities and juxtapositions inherent to his unspeaking, musical persona both fascinated and discomfited his contemporary viewers, but they also allowed Harpo a singular freedom-a freedom not afforded his fast-talking brothers or, indeed, any character explicitly tied to verbal language, yet which was recognized, and envied, by Woollcott and the Russian artists who witnessed his live performances (Marx and Barber 301-3). 7, Kindle Louvish 238, Kindle).ĥ As his career progressed, Harpo and his harp stumbled unknowingly, and unintentionally, into a musical and temperamental affiliation with the mythical Trickster archetype: an instinctive association that struck a visceral chord with audiences across the world, and lent his character a distinctive transnational aspect (Fix chap. 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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