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A notch below the most boisterous Marx Brothers fare, such as Duck Soup and Monkey Business, Room Service capped a decade of sensational success for the masters of mayhem. Unlike some of their earlier films, which were based on their own vaudeville shows, Room Service was adapted from a Broadway play by Allen Boretz and John Murray that was not written for the Marxes. The script is a bit too constraining for Groucho, Harpo, and Chico (Zeppo does not appear), requiring them to play real characters rather than cartoonish self-inventions. Groucho is a producer holed up in a hotel room trying to scrounge up money to put on a show. A young comedienne named Lucille Ball appears in the lead female role, only her second starring role in almost a decade in film, but she doesn't make much of an impact. Still, for fans of the Marx Brothers, the movie is indispensible. It was remade five years later as a musical, Step Lively.