The Lost Marx Brothers Film

By 1921, the four Marx Brothers had become a Broadway comedy sensation. While performing at a nightclub in Fort Lee, New Jersey, the brothers decided to finance their first motion picture. It was a silent two-reeler called "Humor Risk", a spoof of "Humoresque", a popular novel by Fanny Hurst.

Fort Lee, New Jersey preceded Hollywood as the American film capital, beginning with many of Edison's early films being shot there.

"Humor Risk" starred Groucho as a curly mustachioed vaudeville villain, Harpo as the hero, Chico in his usual funny Italian character, and Zeppo. Each brother worked separately in the picture, not as a team like in their talking films.

In a 1970s interview, Groucho offered to pay thousands of dollars to anyone who could find the film. It's believed, however, that the brothers themselves had destroyed copies of the film and its negative themselves.

"The Unknown Marx Brothers"

The producers of "The Unknown Marx Brothers", a Disney Channel documentary, played detectives and tried to locate "Humor Risk", the lost Marx Brothers film, but had no luck. However their sleuth work did uncover other Marx Brothers footage once considered lost. They found Harpo's only "speaking role" in a 1925 silent feature called "Too Many Kisses." While this was a silent film, Harpo's character did indeed speak, even though his words ("You sure you can't move?") were only conveyed on a subtitle sequence. And the producers also found an uncompleted 1959 television pilot starring Harpo, Groucho, and Chico.