Programme notes CH 04 — The Matinee
Animal Crackers
An explorer is carried into a Long Island house party, and the party never recovers.
The Marx Brothers’ second picture is their Broadway hit photographed at Paramount’s Astoria studio, and it never pretends otherwise: the camera sits still so the brothers don’t have to. Groucho is Captain Spaulding, borne in on a litter to his own theme song; the plot — one stolen painting, then two forgeries of it — exists to be interrupted. Watch Groucho step out of a scene to announce a “strange interlude” and confide in us, O’Neill parodied into a running wink at the camera. And watch Margaret Dumont, who plays every line as if she were in a drawing-room drama. That is why she is the funniest person in the film.
Credits — follow anyone
- Directed by
- Victor Heerman
- Photographed by
- George J. Folsey
- With
- Groucho Marx · Zeppo Marx · Margaret Dumont · Harpo Marx · Chico Marx · Lillian Roth
Every name is a door — each opens onto everything else that person made in the network.
The thread · every thread
The same summer, the same class: in 1930 the Setons of Fifth Avenue and Mrs. Rittenhouse of Long Island both throw a party to show what money looks like. Barry’s hero wants out of the house; the Marx Brothers want in, and leave with the silverware up their sleeves.
The Marx Brothers’ first two pictures, both Broadway hits by Kaufman photographed at Astoria with the camera nailed down. Watch Margaret Dumont in each: a year apart, she has already decided that the way to play opposite Groucho is never to notice he is joking.