Animal Crackers (1930)

Animal Crackers: Directed by Victor Heerman. With The Marx Brothers, Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx. Mayhem and zaniness ensue when a valuable painting goes missing during a party in honor of famed African explorer Captain Spaulding.

“Judging by the script, youu0026#39;d never believe that u0026quot;Animal Crackersu0026quot; is over seventy years old. Think of all the u0026quot;postmodernu0026quot; things that happen in this movie: Groucho directly addresses the audience to apologize for a bad joke; Harpo shoots a gun at a statue, only to see the statue come to life and return fire; and Margaret Dumont freezes in time while Groucho has a u0026quot;strange interludeu0026quot; and rambles to the audience about the perils of marriage and living with your folks! Of course, the absolutely ancient and decaying print will remind you that u0026quot;Animal Crackersu0026quot; is older than the hills, but otherwise, itu0026#39;s much fresher and weirder than the stuff that passes for comedy today.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eLike u0026quot;The Cocoanuts,u0026quot; this movie is based on a play, and as such it is considerably longer and stagier than most of the later Marx movies. The pace does drag a bit towards the end, especially since the plot disappears (along with Zeppo) for long segments at a time. But many of the individual segments are classic, including the often (and rightly) praised bridge game and Harpou0026#39;s gag with the cutlery-filled sleeves. Even the music segments hold up well, particularly Chicou0026#39;s piano routine that gets savaged by Groucho.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eInterestingly, there is a prominent romantic subplot to this film, which puts paid to the fallacy that Marx Brothers movies didnu0026#39;t have romances until MGM got its hands on them. However, the romance isnu0026#39;t nearly as intrusive or annoying here as in their later vehicles, so thereu0026#39;s still plenty of reason to be annoyed with good old MGM…”