Animal Crackers
Animal Crackers 1930 Movie Poster
Directed by	Victor Heerman
Written by	Bert Kalmar Harry Ruby George S. Kaufman
Starring	Groucho Marx Harpo Marx Chico Marx Zeppo Marx Lillian Roth Margaret Dumont
Music by	Bert Kalmar Harry Ruby
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	August 28, 1930
Running time	97 min
Country	United States
Language	English
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Animal Crackers is a 1930 comedy film, in which mayhem and zaniness ensue when a valuable painting goes missing during a party in honor of famed African explorer Captain Spaulding. The film was both a critical and commercial success upon initial release, and remains one of the Marx Brothers' most beloved and often-quoted movies. Animal Crackers is a 1930 comedy film, and one of the Marx Brothers most beloved and oft-quoted movies. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (570x866, 88 KB) Poster for Animal Crackers This image is of a movie poster, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by either the publisher of the movie or the studio which produced the movie in question. ... Bert Kalmar (16 February 1884 - 18 September 1947) was a popular United States songwriter, born in New York City. ... Harry Ruby (October 29, 1895 – February 23, 1974) was an American songwriter and screenwriter. ... George Simon Kaufman (November 16, 1889 - June 2, 1961) was an American playwright, director, producer, humorist, and drama critic noted for his many collaborations with other writers and his contributions to 20th century American comedy. ... Groucho redirects here. ... This article is about Harpo Marx, brother of Groucho et al. ... Leonard Marx, known as Chico, (March 22, 1887 – October 11, 1961) was one of the Marx Brothers. ... Herbert Marx (February 25, 1901 – November 29, 1979) is best known as Zeppo Marx, the name he used when he performed with his brothers, The Marx Brothers. ... Lillian Roth (December 13, 1910 - May 12, 1980) was an American singer and actress. ... Margaret Dumont (born October 20, 1889; died March 6, 1965) was an American comedic actress. ... Bert Kalmar (16 February 1884 - 18 September 1947) was a popular United States songwriter, born in New York City. ... Harry Ruby (October 29, 1895 – February 23, 1974) was an American songwriter and screenwriter. ... Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American motion picture production and distribution company, based in Hollywood, California. ... is the 240th day of the year (241st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1930 (MCMXXX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display 1930 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Comedy film is genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humor. ... This article is about the comedian siblings. ... This article is about motion pictures. ...

Stars and direction

Poster for the film.

The film stars the four brothers, Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, and Zeppo Marx, as well as Lillian Roth and Margaret Dumont. It was directed by Victor Heerman and adapted from a successful 1928 Broadway play by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, also starring the Marx Brothers and Margaret Dumont. (See Animal Crackers). Groucho redirects here. ... Leonard Marx, known as Chico, (March 22, 1887 – October 11, 1961) was one of the Marx Brothers. ... This article is about Harpo Marx, brother of Groucho et al. ... Herbert Marx (February 25, 1901 – November 29, 1979) is best known as Zeppo Marx, the name he used when he performed with his brothers, The Marx Brothers. ... Lillian Roth (December 13, 1910 - May 12, 1980) was an American singer and actress. ... Margaret Dumont (born October 20, 1889; died March 6, 1965) was an American comedic actress. ... Year 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses of Broadway, see Broadway. ... George Simon Kaufman (November 16, 1889 - June 2, 1961) was an American playwright, director, producer, humorist, and drama critic noted for his many collaborations with other writers and his contributions to 20th century American comedy. ... Morrie Ryskind (born Morris Ryskind 20 October 1895 in New York City, New York, USA - 24 August 1985 in Washington, DC), was a Jewish-American Hollywood and Broadway writer, lyricist, and director. ... Animal Crackers was a musical play with music and lyrics by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby. ...

The part of Hives the butler was played by Robert Greig, a character actor who appeared in over 100 films (many in the role of a butler). He also appeared with the Marx Brothers in Horse Feathers. A 15-second clip of the Marx Brothers, filmed in Multicolor on the set of Animal Crackers during the Captain Spaulding scene, was recently discovered (see "External Link" section below). Horse Feathers (1932) was the fourth Marx Brothers film. ... Multicolor is a subtractive natural color process for motion pictures. ...

Plot

The plot concerns Groucho, as explorer Captain Geoffrey T. Spaulding, attending a party in his honor at the estate of society matron Mrs. Rittenhouse, and investigating the theft of a valuable painting during the party.

Cast

• Groucho Marx as Captain Spaulding^[1]
• Harpo Marx as The Professor
• Chico Marx as Signor Emanuel Ravelli
• Zeppo Marx as Horatio Jamison
• Margaret Dumont as Mrs. Rittenhouse
• Lillian Roth as Arabella Rittenhouse
• Louis Sorin as Roscoe W. Chandler
• Hal Thompson as John Parker
• Margaret Irving as Mrs. Whitehead
• Kathryn Reece as Grace Carpenter
• Robert Greig as Hives
• Edward Metcalf as Inspector Hennessey

Groucho redirects here. ... This article is about Harpo Marx, brother of Groucho et al. ... Leonard Marx, known as Chico, (March 22, 1887 – October 11, 1961) was one of the Marx Brothers. ... Herbert Marx (February 25, 1901 – November 29, 1979) is best known as Zeppo Marx, the name he used when he performed with his brothers, The Marx Brothers. ... Margaret Dumont (born October 20, 1889; died March 6, 1965) was an American comedic actress. ... Lillian Roth (December 13, 1910 - May 12, 1980) was an American singer and actress. ...

Jokes

Four of Groucho's best known quips:

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

(The American Film Institute listed this at number 53 in the 100 Greatest Movie Quotes of All Time.)^[2]

Then, we tried to remove the tusks, ... but they were embedded in so firmly, we couldn't budge them. Of course, in Alabama the Tusk-a-loosa. But that's entirely ir-elephant to what I was talking about.

Africa is God's country--and He can have it.

We took some pictures of the native girls, but they weren't developed. But we're going back again in a couple of weeks!

They got away with that joke, but the censors cut a line from the song "Hooray for Captain Spaulding" in which Spaulding sang, in an aside about Mrs. Rittenhouse, "I think I'll try and make her", as in "seduce her". Tuscaloosa is a city in west central Alabama in the southern United States. ...

The song was a hidden reference to a real Captain Spaulding, an army officer arrested a few years earlier for selling cocaine to Hollywood residents. See Hollywood Babylon, by Kenneth Anger. Groucho later used a somewhat jazzed-up version of the Spaulding song as the theme music for his TV quiz show, You Bet Your Life, and it ultimately became his all-purpose introductory theme in general. Hollywood Babylon book cover Hollywood Babylon is a book by Kenneth Anger, an ex-child actor, avant-garde filmmaker, occultist, and author, which details the sordid scandals of many famous and infamous Hollywood denizens from the 1900s to the 1950s. ... Kenneth Anger Kenneth Anger (born February 3, 1927 in Santa Monica, California as Kenneth Wilbur Anglemyer) is an underground avant-garde film-maker and author. ... You Bet Your Life is an American radio and television quiz show. ...

Other quotes from Groucho:

"Ever since I met you [Mrs. Rittenhouse], I've swept you off my feet."

"You mind if I don't smoke?"

"There's one thing I've always wanted to do before I quit: Retire."

"I was outside the cabin smoking some meat. There wasn't a cigar store in the neighborhood!"

The film also showcases the well-known Chico-Harpo scene in which Chico keeps asking Harpo for "a flash" (meaning a flashlight), and Harpo—not understanding—produces from his bottomless trenchcoat and baggy pants a "fish", a "flask", a "flute", a "flush", etc. Eventually he begins searching for the flashlight in the dark with a flashlight. Immediately after successfully pulling out the flashlight, thunder is heard and the lights go out. For other uses, see Cigar (disambiguation). ... // This article refers to standard poker hands only, otherwise refer to non-standard poker hand In poker, certain combinations of cards, or hands, outrank other hands, based on the frequency with which these combinations appear. ...

The often under-utilized Zeppo figures in a well-known gag in which Groucho dictates a letter to his lawyers, in rambling pseudo-legalese. Zeppo gets to one-up Groucho: When asked to read the letter back, Zeppo informs him, "You said a lot of things I didn't think were very important, so I just omitted them!" whereupon a minor skirmish ensues.

Re-release

Poster for the film.

Forty-four years after its original release, in June 1974, Animal Crackers was once again released in theaters. The film had been tied up in a copyright dispute since 1957, when Universal Pictures -- which owned all pre-1948 Paramount films -- renewed the copyright for the picture but neglected to renew the music rights or the rights to the original Broadway play. The 1974 re-release was big news at the time since the Marx Brothers were enjoying a resurgence in popularity among younger audiences. At the New York City re-release premiere, which Groucho attended, a riot broke out and he required police escort. Not to be confused with copywriting. ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... Groucho Marx poses for an NBC promotional photograph Julius Henry Marx, known as Groucho Marx (October 2, 1890 - August 19, 1977), was an American comedian, working both with his siblings, the Marx Brothers, and on his own. ...

Musical numbers

Groucho's songs, "Hello, I Must Be Going" and "Hooray for Captain Spaulding", both written by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby, became recurring themes for Groucho through the years. The latter song became the theme of Groucho's radio and TV game show You Bet Your Life. The original full version of "Hooray for Captain Spaulding" was edited in compliance to the Hays Code when it was re-released in 1936: the sexually suggestive line "I think I'll try and make her" was removed - it came after Mrs. Rittenhouse's line: "He was the only white man to cover every acre." The only known recording of the original dialogue can be heard on the CD Boxed Set The Marx Brothers Sing & Play issued in 1995 & 2000 by Chansons Cinema, and made from un-edited European prints of the film. Hello, I Must Be Going is a song from the Marx Brothers 1930 film Animal Crackers, sung by Groucho just before the dialogue that preceded the song Hooray for Captain Spaulding. Both songs, plus the dialogue between them, suggest that the Captain is something of a humbug. ... Bert Kalmar (16 February 1884 - 18 September 1947) was a popular United States songwriter, born in New York City. ... Harry Ruby (October 29, 1895 – February 23, 1974) was an American songwriter and screenwriter. ... You Bet Your Life is an American radio and television quiz show. ... The Production Code (also known as the Hays Code) was a set of industry guidelines governing the production of American motion pictures. ...

• You Must Do Your Best Tonight (Hives and Footmen)
• I Represent (Zeppo)
• Hooray for Captain Spaulding Part I (The Cast)^[3]
• Hello, I Must Be Going (Groucho)
• Hooray for Captain Spaulding Part II (Cast)
• Gypsy-chorus
• Why Am I So Romantic? (John)
• I'm Daffy Over You
• Silver Threads Among the Gold
• My Old Kentucky Home (Marx Brothers)

References in popular culture

• "Hello, I Must Be Going" became a theme in Oliver Stone's miniseries Wild Palms. It was the title of the final episode, and sung by villain Senator Kreutzer (Robert Loggia) as he died. Phil Collins also titled his second album after the song.

William Oliver Stone (born September 15, 1946), known as Oliver Stone, is a three-time Academy Award winning film director and screenwriter. ... Wild Palms is a six hour mini-series, which first aired in 1993 on the ABC Network in the United States. ... Robert Loggia (born January 3, 1930) is an American Academy Award and Emmy Award nominated film and television actor who specializes in character parts. ... For other uses, see Phil Collins (disambiguation). ...

References

Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 92nd day of the year (93rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 92nd day of the year (93rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

See also

• List of United States comedy films

This is a list of United States comedy films. ...

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Animal Crackers (film)

• Animal Crackers at the Internet Movie Database
• Animal Crackers at the TCM Movie Database
• Full description of Animal Crackers from Filmsite.org
• Internet Broadway Database entry on Animal Crackers
• Marx Brothers filmed in Multicolor on the set of Animal Crackers
• Watch Animal Crackers at Google Video
• Hooray for Captain Spaulding

v • d • e American films of the 1930s 1930 • 1931 • 1932 • 1933 • 1934 • 1935 • 1936 • 1937 • 1938 • 1939