Note: You are reading this message either because your web browser is not standards compliant.

Tintin Forums

Forums home · Reply · View statistics · Search the forums · User guide ·

Tintinologist.org Forums / Official Tintin books /

The Broken Ear: Marx Brothers influences?

#1 · Posted: 12 Jul 2008 13:54

In The Broken Ear on pages 14 and 15, Ramon and Alonso think that an old man is Tintin, and try to unmask him by pulling off his beard, which is ends up actually being real, which means that the man was not Tintin. It just so happens that in the Marx Brothers' 1931 film, Monkey Business, there is a very similar scene, which also happens on a cruise ship. I have seen articles elsewhere about the similarities between Tintin and the Marx Brothers films, but they never listed this one. I think this is definitely where Herge got the idea for that scene, whether he was conscious of it or not, however, I cannot say.

I made a sequence of that scene for comparison:(image link broken)

Austin
Member

#2 · Posted: 13 Jul 2008 10:21

Great spot Beeper!

Mikael Uhlin
Member

#3 · Posted: 13 Jul 2008 11:50

Additionally, the representative of General American Oil, R.W. Trickler (=Chicklet in the original), looks a bit like Groucho.

cigars of the beeper
Member

#4 · Posted: 15 Jul 2008 13:56

Yeah, I had noticed that.

Please be sure to familiarize yourself with the Forum Posting Guidelines.

Disclaimer: Tintinologist.org assumes no responsibility for any content you post to the forums/web site. Staff reserve the right to remove any submitted content which they deem in breach of Tintinologist.org's Terms of Use. If you spot anything on Tintinologist.org that you think is inappropriate, please alert the moderation team. Sometimes things slip through, but we will always act swiftly to remove unauthorised material.