Groucho Marx, King of the Jungle

Groucho Marx and his sidekick, screenwriter Frank Denby, investigate the murder of Randy Spellman, a libidinous actor who plays a Tarzan-like character called Ty-Gor, in Goulart's amusing if routine sixth outing featuring the fabled comedian as sleuth (after 2002's Groucho Marx, Secret Agent ). Despite Denby's promises to his pregnant wife, Jane, to avoid any more detecting, he and Groucho are soon up to their necks in the case. Groucho greets fans, suspects and cops with quips that might have come from a Marx brothers movie or the You Bet Your Life TV show as he and straight-man Denby follow the dead Lothario's tracks through discarded starlets and a nasty blackmail sideline. Goulart fleshes out the 1940 Hollywood setting effectively with references to real stars and events of the times. Groucho as a fictional detective induces laughs, but Goulart doesn't quite capture the biting, madcap humor of the original. Agent, Ivy Stone at the Fifi Oscard Agency. (July 11)