Too Many Kisses Pressbook Plugs Harpo

[Rob Farr]

I was at the Library of Congress today copying art work for the Slapsticon program book and noticed in the pressbook for Too Many Kisses that Harpo's appearance was considered by Paramount to be a selling point. Cocoanuts was still six months away from it's Broadway opening, so Harpo's fame rested on I'll Say She Is and his vaudeville career. From the Paramount pressbook:

"Harpo" Marx Has Role in "Too Many Kisses"

"Harpo" Marx, the silent one and the funniest of the Four Marx Brothers, who scored a triumph in the musical comedy success, "I'll Say She Is", on Broadway, has succumbed to the lure of the screen.
"Harpo" has a small yet important role in Richard Dix's newest Paramount starring picture, "Too Many Kisses, due.....at the .....Theatre.
A recruit from vaudeville, "Harpo" is the pantomimic comedian who sent the dramatic critics scurrying to their dictionaries in search of new words to describe his artistry.
"Too Many Kisses", directed for the screen by Paul Sloan was adapted by Gerald Duffy from the story, "A Maker of Gestures" by John Monk Saunders. It ran serially in Cosmopolitan Magazine.
Frances Howard, who made her screen debut in the title role of Paramount's "The Swan", is featured opposite Dix in this production. William Powell is the villain in the piece. There's a great supporting cast.

[Bob Birchard]

The irony, of course, is that "Too Many Kisses" is the only dramatic movie in which Harpo speaks. He has a subtitle.