Bruce Von Stiers

Anyone who is a fan of Groucho Marx will enjoy a mystery series that features the most flamboyant member of the comedic Marx family. This series is written by Ron Goulart and published by Thomas Dunne. The latest title in this series is Groucho Marx, Secret Agent. It once has Groucho and writer Frank Denby hip deep in a murder investigation.

This book starts out at a Halloween party at the Seaside Pavilion in Santa Monica in 1939. Frank is there with his wife, cartoonist Jane Danner. They aren’t too sure about being there, especially as Jane is pregnant. But they are hanging out with the Hollywood elite and Groucho. There is a scene between a director, Eric Olmstead, and someone dressed as the Grim Reaper. Whatever it was, Olmstead ended up being very agitated. This being Hollywood, it was somewhat strange but soon ignored.

But Olmstead ends up dead, an apparent suicide. His widow, Dinah Flanders, doesn’t believe Eric killed himself and asks Groucho to look into the matter. But he will be soon butting heads with Warren Lockwood, the head of Olmstead’s movie studio.

Once again Groucho enlists the help of Frank to get to the bottom of a mystery. Not only do they have opposition from the movie executives, it seems that the FBI has taken a keen interest in this case. Only everybody keeps saying it’s just a simple suicide. But Frank and Groucho aren’t buying into it.

Groucho muddles in the middle of things, slinging one liners out like the Daily News on a newsboy’s paper route. Frank keeps the status quo and makes his own set of problems as the cops just want him and Groucho to just go away.

We find out that Eric might not have been what he seemed to be. And what, if anything, did he have to do with the German Council in the LA area? This man was suspected of being the top Gestapo agent on the West Coast. The war was going on in Europe and everybody expected America to get into the fracas at any time.

In keeping with the image of Groucho that most people have, Goulart has him being funny and obnoxious. He is also portrayed as very intelligent and pretty savvy in the ways and manners of being a detective. Frank Denby is one of those Average Joe’s who had been a pretty good reporter and now is a writer of radio shows and, possibly, movie scripts. Frank acts as a perfect straight man for Groucho’s gags and antics. Of course, we see Frank cut loose a little. I guess being around Groucho tends to rub off on you.

Groucho Marx, Secret Agent is a fun romp that has as many one-liners as it does dangerous and intriguing parts. It is not a locked room mystery, or a hard boiled detective novel. It is, however, an amusing tale that has studio heavies and Nazi spies mixed in together with one of America’s favorite classic comic actors.