DVD/150: ANIMAL CRACKERS (Victor Heerman, 1930)

During the 1920s The Marx Brothers became popular stage comedians on Broadway with their mix of madcap humour and musical numbers.  With the coming of sound films, they signed to Paramount Pictures.

Their debut THE COCONUTS (1929) was based on their George S. Kaufman Broadway hit and was filmed during the day in Queens so they could appear in the evening in their new Kaufman show ANIMAL CRACKERS.  Although clunky THE COCONUTS was a huge hit so ANIMAL CRACKERS followed.

Co-starring their onstage foil Margaret Dumont, ANIMAL CRACKERS is at times stagey - the supporting cast play their lines a quarter-turn towards the camera - but it captures the brothers at their most unfettered.

They arrive onscreen fully-formed: Groucho is the rapid-fire focus of attention while Chico and Harpo are chancers who usually side with him when not working an angle for themselves.

An utter Marx Brothers classic.

Shelf or charity shop?  A definite keeper. The film also features their younger brother Zeppo in a nothing role as Groucho's secretary but he does share a great, seemingly improvised, scene where Groucho dictates a letter to his solicitors.  Appearing in the ingenue role was 20 year-old Broadway singer Lillian Roth before her career was nearly ruined by alcohol; her confessional autobiography was filmed with Susan Hayward which earned her a Best Actress Oscar nomination.  Stopping occasionally for a Bert Kalmar & Harry Ruby song - including Groucho's later personal theme song "Hurray For Captain Spalding" - Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind's script zips along whenever the lads are allowed to sidestep the plot for more of their inspired lunacy.  Even the musical interludes for Chico and Harpo are not so grating as they later became.  But it's Groucho's film all the way - from breaking away from a scene to lampoon Eugene O'Neill's STRANGE INTERLUDE - and how many people in Buttkick Idaho would have got THAT? - to his whipcracking quips and asides which are as dazzling as ever..

"One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don't know."

"Signor Ravelli's first selection will be "Somewhere My Love Lies Sleeping" with a male chorus."

"We took some pictures of the native girls; but, they weren't developed.

But, we're going back again in a coupla weeks..."