The Merry Marxes On Second Outing

Animals Crackers (1930) Back Again --- and Then Again

The Hanna Theatre in Cleveland Sat 1,397 for Legit Performances

The second Marx Brothers feature at Paramount and based again on a well-oiled Broadway hit where laughs had been pared down over months to funniest of funny. This and The Cocoanuts are purest of all things Marx in spite of tentative boy-girl subplots, these not so intrusive as similar device would become in the team's later MGM comedies. Were the Marxes adverse-affected by having to perform before stone-silent filming crews as opposed to accustomed roaring crowds? That had to have impact on mood and morale. Groucho compared quality of these movies to stage versions, but I don't recall just where, so many books by and about him. Would be interesting to learn what changes were made when Animal Crackers made its jump from the stage, which raises larger question: Has anyone restaged this play since the Marx Brothers? I don't see offhand how they could, but anything's possible ...

Chicago Gets Animal Crackers in 1974

97 minutes is a touch long. A lot of what goes on in the third act plays like recapitulation of the first. There seems also to be a good deal of Code-cutting in surviving elements. I know Animal Crackers had a reissue in the late forties before the picture disappeared for a long while. Lines are obviously missing, though ones remain that I'm surprised weren't shorn when AC was submitted for a PCA seal. The DVD is soft for an opening reel, gets better and stays so through the remainder. This has to be the only 1930 feature to still be commercially viable in the seventies (City Lights too if we stretch the calendar a year). Universal got out a 1974 theatrical encore so college-age Marxists could have a "new" Bros. shrine to worship, and Groucho was fortunately around to bask in laurels (exhib at the time Mike Cline reports his 35mm print had a muddy track). Colleges could rent Animal Crackers afterward, but it was pricey --- $175 versus 50/50. Still remarkable to me is CBS playing AC in summer 1979 prime-time. Universal was meanwhile offering the pic on new-christened Discovision for $15.95, which according to Variety, had to be increased from $9.95 due to the format's startup costs being "substantially higher" than anticipated.