That even the ridiculous has a limit is proved by the latest farce of the Marx brothers, "Room Service," an exact copy of the George Abbott stage production of the same name. The boys do not seem at home with their gags; the timing misses, the efforts used to get laughs are often strained. There is no hilarious sequence like that of the stateroom in "A Night at the Opera." In truth, the brothers seem awed by the fact that they are in a picture bought, not built, for their talents.
The failure of "Room Service" to click well is a fair warning to producers that a good play is one thing, and a good screen reproduction of the same play another. Nothing that Hollywood has purchased from Broadway has succeeded in being a thing of real merit, with the possible exceptions of "The Petrified Forest" and "You Can't Take It With You."
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