Room Service

Room Service follows Gordon Miller, a theatre producer with no money, who has installed his cast and crew in a hotel while he scrambles to find someone willing to finance his new play. He owes the hotel bill, and the manager is eager to throw the whole group out. To buy time until the production can open and bring in cash, Miller and his associates invent excuses to stay, including the claim that the play's author is gravely ill and cannot be moved. The Marx Brothers play Miller, Harry Binelli and Faker Englund, with Lucille Ball, Ann Miller and Frank Albertson in supporting roles.

The film was directed by William A. Seiter, whose earlier credits include Sons of the Dessert and Love Birds and who went on to direct Hired Wife two years later. Morrie Ryskind wrote the screenplay, and Pandro S. Berman produced for RKO Radio Pictures. It runs just 78 minutes, unusually brief even by the standards of the era, and was the brothers' only picture made at that studio.

Reception sits in modest territory. On IMDb, the film holds a 6.6 rating from around 5,900 votes, placing it below the Marx Brothers' best-remembered work but still drawing steady attention. On TMDB, the rating is 6.5 from a much smaller base of 83 votes. Released in September 1938, it remains a lesser-known entry in the team's filmography.