Groucho Marx and Margaret Dumont.

Animal Crackers was the second Marx Brother’s movie. It was based on their stage hit and like all their movies has just a hint of plot but plenty of zaniness. Groucho plays famed explorer Captain Jeffrey T. Spaulding having just returned from darkest Africa to attend a soirée in his honor thrown by the wealthy Mrs. Rittenhouse (the always unflappable Margaret Dumont) at her mansion.

Among those in attendance are Harpo as The Professor, Chico as Signor Emanuel Ravelli and Zeppo as Horatio Jamison. As usual the brothers create a constant stream of madcap mayhem. All that really happens in the way of a story is the theft of a valuable painting.

This is the movie where Groucho famously wears a pith helmet. Upon making his entrance he sings “Hello, I Must Be Going” and then delivers his most famous one-liner of them all. "One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don't know." He then adds, "As I say, we tried to remove the tusks. But they were embedded so firmly we couldn't budge them. Of course, in Alabama the Tuscaloosa, but that is entirely ir-elephant to what I was talking about."

Chico and Harpo have one hilarious bit where they keep putting their leg in the hand of unaware strangers and Harpo does his usual chasing of women. They also each play the piano and Harpo plays the harp of course. Zeppo just looks handsome.

As usual Groucho steals the show. Whether insulting Margaret Dumont, "Why, you've got beauty, charm, money! You have got money, haven't you? Because if you haven't, we can quit right now." Or simply spouting nonsense, "And east is east and west is west, and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce, they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does." He was the king of the zinger and a master of the non-sequitur. "Tell me, what do you think of the traffic problem? What do you think of the marriage problem? What do you think of at night when you go to bed, you beast?"

If you want to find fault you could say the sound quality is not so great and the camera work is pretty static but neither of these flaws keeps the movie from being funny. Very few comedies cause me to convulse with laughter. Animal Crackers does. This is the Marx Brothers at the zenith of their absurdist lunacy. Do yourself a favor and watch it soon.
 

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