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The Cocoanuts Overview:

The Cocoanuts (1929) was a Comedy - Musical Film directed by Robert Florey and Joseph Santley and produced by Jesse L. Lasky, Walter Wanger and Monta Bell.

SYNOPSIS

The first, and widely regarded to be the zaniest, of the Marx Brothers' films. The film takes place in a Miami hotel during the land boom, and the Marxes hilariously oversee the arrival and departure of herds of comical millionaire travelers. The brothers freely reign ad-lib and riff on the Kaufman script. Florey was better known for his expressionist horror films.

(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).

The Cocoanuts BlogHub Articles:

The Cocoanuts (1929, Robert Florey and Joseph Santley)

By Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 7, 2018 From The Stop Button

The only stand-out sequence in The Cocoanuts comes at the end, when Chico is playing the piano. One of the directors–or both of them–finally had a good instinct and cut to a close-up of Chico’s hands playing. It overrides the first shot of the piano playing, which doesn’t show Chico’s hand... Read full article

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The Cocoanuts Quotes:

Hammer: [to Margaret Dumont] An empty bungalow just for you and me, where we could bill and cow - no, we could bull and cow...
Hammer: Well, my mother and father talked it over and they finally moved to New York, a little house in the Bronx. And it was in that little house that Abraham Lincoln was born, much to my father's surprise. And that, boys and girls, was the beginning of the Lincoln Highway.
Hammer: [on phone] You want to know where you can get a hold of Mrs. Potter? I don't know, she's awfully ticklish.
Hammer: Three years ago I came to Florida without a nickel in my pocket. Now I've got a nickel in my pocket.
Hammer: I can see it now: you and the moon - wear a necktie so I'll know you.
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The Cocoanuts Facts
A musical number featuring Groucho Marx and Margaret Dumont, "A Little Bungalow" was deleted after the previews. In the stage play, it was originally sung by the characters Polly Potter and Robert Adams (the romantic leads). Instead, Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby wrote "When My Dreams Come True" especially for this film as a love theme.
The stage rights were originally bought by United Artists in 1928, and sold to Paramount the following year.
During the "Why a duck?" sequence, it seems that Groucho almost calls Chico "Ravelli", which is Chico's character in Animal Crackers. Since they were shooting The Cocoanuts in the morning and acting in Animal Crackers at night, this mix up is understandable.
Of the film's two directors, Groucho Marx once said, "One of them French-born Robert Florey didn't understand English, and the other one former dance director Joseph Santley didn't understand comedy."
Chico and Harpo are not given character names. They are listed in the credits simply as "Chico" and "Harpo". Chico's name on the Broadway program was "Willy the Wop" which was considered too insensitive even for early movie audiences. Harpo's character was called "Silent Sam"
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