Animal Crackers (1930)

Director:

Victor Heerman

Writers:

George S. Kaufman (play) &
Morrie Ryskind (play) ...

Release Date:

28 agosto 1930 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Musical

Frase comercial:

The maddest comics of them all!

Plot:

Mayhem and zaniness ensue when a valuable painting goes missing during a party in honor of famed African explorer Captain Spaulding.

Plot Keywords:

Art Theft | Marx Brothers | Party | Painting | Artist

Comentarios de los usuarios:

strangely modern and modernly strange

Cast

Groucho Marx	...	Captain Jeffrey T. Spaulding
Harpo Marx	...	The Professor
Chico Marx	...	Signor Emanuel Ravelli
Zeppo Marx	...	Horatio Jamison
Lillian Roth	...	Arabella Rittenhouse
Margaret Dumont	...	Mrs. Rittenhouse
Louis Sorin	...	Roscoe W. Chandler
Hal Thompson	...	John Parker
Margaret Irving	...	Mrs. Whitehead
Kathryn Reece	...	Grace Carpenter
Robert Greig	...	Hives, the Butler
Edward Metcalf	...	Inspector Hennessy

También conocida como:

Conflicto de los Marx, El (Spain) [es]

Duración:

97 min | Argentina:98 min

País:

USA

Idioma:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.20 : 1

Sonido:

Mono

Clasificación:

Argentina:Atp | Spain:T | Portugal:M/6 | South Korea:All | Australia:G | Germany:o.Al. | UK:U | USA:G (1974 re-release)

Filming Locations:

Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivialidades:

Animal Crackers opened at the 44th Street Theater on October 23, 1928 and ran for 191 performances starring the Marx Brothers and Margaret Dumont.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the final scene of the movie, just as Harpo is about to drop all the cutlery from his sleeve, the camera cuts to a close up of Chico. For an instant his hat is pulled down very low, covering his eyes. However, in the scenes before and immediately after, his hat rests normally on his head.

Quotes:

Capt. Spaulding: Pardon me while I have a strange interlude.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Broadway: The American Musical" (2004)

Soundtrack:

Hello, I Must Be Going

strangely modern and modernly strange

Judging by the script, you'd never believe that "Animal Crackers" is over seventy years old. Think of all the "postmodern" 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 "strange interlude" 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 "Animal Crackers" is older than the hills, but otherwise, it's much fresher and weirder than the stuff that passes for comedy today.

Like "The Cocoanuts," 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 Harpo's gag with the cutlery-filled sleeves. Even the music segments hold up well, particularly Chico's piano routine that gets savaged by Groucho.

Interestingly, there is a prominent romantic subplot to this film, which puts paid to the fallacy that Marx Brothers movies didn't have romances until MGM got its hands on them. However, the romance isn't nearly as intrusive or annoying here as in their later vehicles, so there's still plenty of reason to be annoyed with good old MGM...