This is the first Marx Brothers film I ever saw. Airing on late-night public television one Christmas Eve during the 1980's, it took a while for me to get into. I was only about ten or twelve at the time, and hadn't seen many old-time comedies outside of a few Laurel & Hardy vehicles, a handful of Abbott & Costello films, and every Three Stooges short ever made (thank you, TBS). I remember almost turning off the TV at the very start of Animal Crackers, when the heavyset butler sings a pointless song called "We Must Do Our Best Tonight." Margaret Dumont didn't help matters much either (at the time I was unaware of her inestimable importance to film history as Groucho's foil in nine of the thirteen Marx Brothers comedies). It was only when Groucho made his first appearance in the movie, carried in on a bamboo chair by a bunch of African natives (racial slur? jury's still out) that my interest was grabbed. The sheer absurdity of such a thing, right in the midst of the polite, up-scale, end-of-the-Twenties party, was unexpected. The more I watched, the more hilarious the scene got, as Chico was introduced as Ravelli the musician, who demands money for not playing; then Harpo descended the steps as the most unlikely Professor in the world, bug-eyed and blowing smoke bubbles; then the Professor ended up out of his coat, wearing a 1930-style swimsuit, chasing a cute little blonde. This was an excellent pay-off after watching the first ten minutes, and I kept watching with great enthusiasm until I fell asleep fifteen minutes later.

Well, time and tide came around, waiting for no man, and eventually found the screechy-voiced adolescent that I later became (and thank God I'm not so screechy now). Somehow I ended up watching several of the Marx Brothers' movies on television over the course of a month or two (thank you, AMC), and they were so fascinating to me that I had to collect them all. I saw Animal Crackers again, and was pleasantly surprised to discover that it has fewer of those cheesy non-Marx musical selections than most of their other films. It is one of only two films (Cocoanuts being the other) adapted from a Broadway stage show. All the Marx Brothers are in peak form here, coming off with more consistent-quality gags than they did in that first film. The plot is expendable and trite, but it simply doesn't matter. (All right, if you really want to know, it's something about a stolen painting and a bunch of forgeries. There.) The important thing is that Animal Crackers firmly establishes the Marx Brothers as hysterically funny performers.

What really strikes me about this film is how frequent (and to great effect) are the breaking-down-the-fourth-wall asides to the audience, always by Groucho. Here he's supposed to be an African explorer (hooray, hooray, hooray!), but what he's really playing is a fast-talking stage comedian playing an African explorer. This is never more clear than in the scene with art patron Roscoe W. Chandler (Louis Sorin), who takes everything Groucho says seriously and then extends his hands in a what-the-hell gesture when Groucho turns a verbal 180 on him and goes the other way. At one point in this scene they call each other by the wrong names, get all confused, and Groucho looks past the camera to ask for a play program so he can get their respective identities straight. In another scene - and it's quintessential Groucho - he winds up proposing to Margaret Dumont and another woman both at once and then going into a series of monologues spoofing the then-contemporary Eugene O'Neill play Strange Interlude by announcing that he'd be happy with both women if they'd just go away, all in an out-of-character monotone. Every third line Groucho says in this movie is hilarious.

Harpo also shines in Animal Crackers. It is here that we are treated to a complete version of his knife-dropping routine from the stage. The Professor comes across more as a wayward street punk than as anything remotely collegiate. He has his own hilarious moments opposite Margaret Dumont, notably during the bridge game with her and Chico and some boring woman that has something to do with the plot. Yes, Virginia, there is a harp solo in this movie. And yes, Harpo does eventually catch that pretty blonde he keeps chasing around, even if he does have to knock her unconscious by spraying something on her (and everyone else in the room) first. Harpo will always be my favorite Marx Brother, partially because he does more with silence than most of the so-called actors in these films do with dialogue.

Chico's role here is mostly as a comedy partner to Harpo, but he has a few great moments. I love his piano rendition of "Sugar in the Morning" where he keeps playing the same bar over and over because he can't think of what comes after it. Ravelli is the Professor's accomplice throughout, standing (and running and jumping around) by his side through the bridge game and the burglary and a few parties. He is the one who triumphantly concludes that the missing painting must have been stolen by left-handed moths! How can you argue with someone who makes a claim like that?

Zeppo has a bit more of a role here than in Cocoanuts... but just a bit. He does appear in one great scene though (albeit as straight man), playing Captain Spaulding's secretary: he questions how to spell "semi-colon" and then leaves out the body of the letter dictated to him by Groucho because he didn't feel it was important enough to be included in the letter. Practically the only indication we get that Zeppo belongs in the movie is that he is part of an impromptu barber-shop singalong with his other brothers (and no, Harpo doesn't sing, he just kind of stands behind Groucho and Chico until the song is over and he can do some fabulously funny pantomime to finish out the movie). I don't think Zeppo would have been a bad comedian - he might have ended up being quite a good one, if he'd wanted to be - but he had the misfortune of being born last, and thus ending up in the shadows of Chico, Harpo, and Groucho.

This is the movie that successfully makes the transition from stage to screen for the Marx Brothers. If you can get past the dull bits (more of them here than in Horse Feathers, but fewer than in Cocoanuts), you'll love Animal Crackers. If you find you don't like it, watch it again. And again. Until you start to laugh. But I don't think it'll come to that. I think you'll be laughing pretty quickly.


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS