Humor Risk

Humor Risk, also known as Humorisk, is a lost unreleased 1921 silent comedy short film that was the first film to star the Marx Brothers. They wouldn't make another movie until 1929, The Cocoanuts. Plot Information about the plot of the film is sparse. It is known that the brothers were working separately, rather than as a team, and did not incorporate their trademark comic personalities for which they later became known. According to Kyle Crichton's 1951 biography of the brothers, Harpo played the hero, a character named Watson who "made his entrance in a high hat, sliding down a coal chute into the basement", against Groucho as the villain who in the finale is shown "in ball and chain, trudging slowly off into the gloaming". In his book Monkey Business, Simon Louvish describes Harpo's character as being a detective. Cast Four of the five Marx Brothers are known to have been in this short film.