New York Times
"The Four Marx Brothers score again in "Horse Feathers," a picture which came to the Rialto last night. Groucho's characteristic corkscrew humor, Chico's distortions of English and Harpo's pantomime aroused riotous laughter from those who packed the theatre for this first performance. Some of the fun is even more reprehensible than the doings of these clowns in previous films, but there is no denying that their antics and their patter are helped along by originality and ready wit.
"Harpo does his usual turn with the harp, looking like an angel in disguise. Chico plays the piano in his facile fashion and Groucho essays a little in the way of singing. It falls to Groucho's lot to be chosen as president of Huxley College at the outset of this bundle of mirth. Chico is a bootlegger masquerading as a more or less peaceful ice man and Harpo is a dog catcher. As for Zeppo, the sedate member of the family, he is a Huxley student, who is infatuated with the College Widow, Connie Bailey, played by the handsome Thelma Todd.
"After being introduced by the retiring college president, Groucho, who is scarcely neat in his attire, begins his litttle talk by saying that he thought his razor was dull, until he heard the speech of his predecessor. Soon after that Groucho renders a song, each verse of which ends with I'm against it. This gradually turns into another ballad, a stanza of which runs:
'I soon dispose of all those, Who put me on the pan. Like Shakespeare said to Nathan Hale, I always get my man.'
"The retiring president and the faculty join in with 'He always gets his man.'
When Groucho is surprised flirting with Connie Bailey, he is told by her guardian, Mr. Jennings, that he (Jennings) will teach Groucho to pay attention to the girl and Groucho replies that he does not need, any teaching as he is getting along splendidly.
There are glimpses of this college president searching for two football players in a speakeasy and Groucho and Chico furnish much hilarity by their entrances and exits and the password, which happens to be 'swordwish.' Harpo, being mute, makes sure that he will gain entrance to the place, so he carries with him a fish with a sword in its mouth.
"Harpo as the dog catcher is busy during several of the scenes, but he has some of his most trying moments when he and Chico are locked up in a room by the two football players, whom they hoped to kidnap to prevent their playing for a rival college. Their only way to escape is to saw a circle in the floor and when this is done they drop into the room below. They escape from that room by the same idea and drop on four women playing bridge, Chico boasting of having at least made a grand slam.
"The football game receives most attention in this offering. Poor old Huxley might have been defeated had not Chico, Groucho and Harpo used their wits. Harpo may be silent but during this hectic gridiron performance he apparently does a great deal of thinking. Nothing escapes him whereby he can help Huxley to down the other college. And Groucho is not idle, not by any means. He dives into the game with football headgear and morning coat, ready to cheat and foul for his alma mater. At one time the ball is on a lusty elastic rope so that the Huxley opponents never know where it is. They dash madly at one player and in one instance discover the apparently gentle Harpo sitting on the ball enjoying a sandwich.
The futility of struggling to get a ball down the field evidently strikes Harpo, who thinks that the best way to make goals in time is to get enough footballs, and he succeeds in bringing four or five to make the necessary touchdowns.
"Although this game is the highlight of the picture, there are several other sequences which provide their full share of laughter, notably when Groucho goes boating on a lake with the fair Connie, who, at the behest of Jennings is eager to ascertain the signals of the Huxley team. Groucho becomes slightly exasperated when Connie tries to wheedle the signals out of him by baby talk and it is not long before the lovely college widow is forced to swim for her life. Behind the boat is a duck who quacks at Groucho, or, as he put it, 'smart quacks.'
Then there is the time when Chico tells Groucho that the college owes him $2,000 for ice. He asks Chico what he charges for a cake and the ice-man answers that Scotch ice is $7 a cake, rye ice is $9 and champagne ice, $13.20. When Groucho wants to know what the 20 cents is for, Chico replies: For the ice.'
"There is also the amusement provided during a lecture on anatomy, which is interrupted by both Groucho and Harpo, the former desiring to know whether the lecturer's stuff is on the level or whether he is just making it up as he goes along.
Although no little laughter is stirred up by Harpo and Chico, the life of this little party is Groucho. Miss Todd is effective as the College Widow. David Landau is gruff enough as Jennings and Nat Pendleton, a former Olympic wrestler, is impressive as a football player."
The following are not reviews by critics but rather theater owners. In the 1920's and 30's, these distributors would often write to movie magazines saying what they and the audiences thought of the films that played there. The following reviews are from the Motion Picture Herald.
"Horsefeathers: Four Marx Brothers- Audience equally divided. Some pleased others thought it just an over-dose of nonsense. That's all it is- eight reels of nonsense. Played December 18-19. - J.G. Estee. S.T. theater, Parker, S.D. Small town patronage"
"Horsefeathers: Four Marx Brothers- Disappointing business. Sameness about these Marx Brothers. Not all audience pleased. - Herman J. Brown, Majestic and Adelaide Theaters, Nampa, Idaho."
"Horsefeathers: Four Marx Brothers- As good as any of the Marx Brothers pictures. Drew business and seemed to please everyone. My patrons did not seem to think it was any better the previous ones however, but it pleased and that is what we want in pictures today. Running Time: 68 min. - Harold Smith, Dreamland Theatre, Carson, Iowa. Rural patronage.
"Horse Feathers: The Four Marx Brothers- These boys are a scream and everybody goes crazy about them. Excellent attendance. Played Oct. 16-17. Running Time: 68min. - J. E. Courter, Courter Theater, Gallatin, Mo. General patronage."
-Michael J. Ruhland
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