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At the Circus (1939)

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36 comments in total

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14 out of 19 people found the following comment useful :-
Too Much Music in This Nearing-The-End MB Film, 23 febrero 2007

Author: ccthemovieman-1 de Lockport, NY, United States

I love the Marx Brothers, but that doesn't mean all their films are gems. By the end of the 1930s, their best pictures were all behind them. Although still entertaining, they slipped a bit in quality. This is one example, except I would still rate it as "decent" (hence, the '5' rating).

One thing for sure: the comedy was a lot better than the music, although that was usually the case in most of their movies....but more so here. Even though I got my share of laughs, most the gags in this movie come in 5-10-minute "bits" and many of them go on too long. I still Chico provides the best humor among the boys. Except for "Lydia, The Tattooed Lady," the songs in here are weak and there are too many of them.

Silly, but still fun to watch, generally-speaking. I just skip through most of the songs.

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9 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
low on the Marxist totem pole, 9 noviembre 2004

Author: dr_foreman

I used to think that "At the Circus" was the worst Marx Brothers movie, but that was before my exposure to the agonies of "Room Service." It's one of the worst, at any rate.

The "action" starts off with bad rear-screen projection and a tedious musical number involving characters we don't even know yet. Can't you just hear an ill wind blowing through these early scenes, seeming to whisper "this movie's gonna suuuuck"? Well, I can. It's almost fifteen minutes before Groucho turns up, and nearly an hour before Margaret Dumont makes an appearance. Somebody better bring me a beer (or ten) to dull the boredom...

Ah, but I complain overmuch. There is still good material here, diamonds in the rough. Though Groucho delivers his lines like he only first read the script yesterday, and didn't like it much, he comes alive as soon as he's alone with Dumont. And Harpo really shines in a mediocre vehicle like this; his antics are alway charming even in the midst of his brothers dropping bombs. Certain segments - searching the strongman's room, walking on the ceiling with Eve Arden - work wonderfully. Trouble is, the thing doesn't hang together as a whole, mostly because I don't care about the characters played by Kenny Baker and Florence Rice.

Ah, the young couple - the albatross around the neck of all late Marx Brothers movies. Whereas I could tolerate the likes of Allan Jones, Baker comes across cloying and stupid, and he's got one of those helium-sucker voices that just drives me up the wall. Rice is pretty - pretty enough that I wonder why she's got such a loser boyfriend - but what does she actually do? Our resident couple barely even interacts with the Marx Brothers, so I have a hard time believing that they're all friends, much less that they'd be so invested in each others' fates. "A Night at the Opera" did the same plot, better.

And so, in my generosity, I bestow the big two stars on this movie. I like it for the same reason I like "Rocky IV"; it's more footage in a good series. Not necessarily good footage, but more. And it's more enjoyable than both (a) work and (b) going to a poetry reading at my grad school, so I guess it's got to be worth something.

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4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
AT THE CIRCUS (1939) ***, 10 octubre 2004
Author: MARIO GAUCI (marrod@onvol.net) de Naxxar, Malta

This was my third time watching AT THE CIRCUS and, the characteristically anaemic leads (who somehow always seem to be able to carry a tune) notwithstanding, I've always been kind of partial to this one (even if the end result is, decidedly, a notch or two below their finest work). Plot and setting provide several opportunities for the Marxes to shine, both as a team and individually: Groucho (as always) is the film's trump card, however, especially in his rendition of 'Lydia, the Tattooed Lady' and the separate scenes he shares with befuddled aristocrat Margaret Dumont and scheming circus performer Eve Arden; other highlights include Groucho and Chico's interrogation of the suspicious-looking dwarf, Chico and Harpo's frenzied search for stolen money in the strong-man's room (while the latter is asleep!), and the typically busy climax in which Dumont receives the ultimate humiliation.

AT THE CIRCUS is the Marxes' third best MGM picture (demonstrating a steady decline for them from picture to picture) but it's still inferior to the later A NIGHT IN CASABLANCA (1946), in my opinion – or any of their early Paramount films, for that matter.

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7 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
At the Circus (1939) **, 24 noviembre 2005

Author: JoeKarlosi de U.S.A.

Middle-of-the-road Marxes, with some good scenes and laughs unevenly weighted down by those ever-intrusive and out-of-place musical numbers that so often plagued these movies. No, I'm not referring to Groucho's spirited rendition of 'Lydia the Tattooed Lady'; I'm talking about hearing those two useless lead lovers crooning their sappy romantic tunes to each other ('Two Blind Loves', which is sung over and over at intervals throughout the picture, is especially grating on the nerves). There is also a song and dance sequence that comes out of left field later in the film that really feels out of place and gets in the way of things.

There are certainly some witty Groucho zingers, as well as vintage Harpo madness, to be found here. It's just that there's not enough consistency and too much of the fluff. It's a pity the filmmakers just didn't realize that it's the Marx Brothers we're here to see; not Kenny Baker and Florence Rice.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
An enjoyable enough diversion, 28 noviembre 2000

Author: Andy Aldridge (grange85) de London

OK, I accept (and suspect that there will be little argument) that At The Circus is a long way from the Marx Brothers finest hour. There isn't the pace of Duck Soup or the wonderfully constructed whole of A Night At The Opera, but within this film there is enough to make an hour and a half pass quite enjoyably.

A few fine set pieces, notably the midget/cigar routine and Harpo & Chico trying to find the money in the strongman's bedroom. A fine rendition of Lydia. And you can never really see enough of a Groucho/Dumont double act.

The story IS incidental, and the love interest occasionally irritates...but then this is a Marx Brothers films and that generally is the case.

It may not be top drawer Marx Brothers but it is still the Marx Brothers.

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
The Boys Go To the Big Top, 30 diciembre 2002

Author: telegonus de brighton, ma

No, this isn't the Cecil B. De Mille big top opus, it's the Marx Brothers one. The boys were slowing down a bit when they made it, and as it came out in 1939, it kind of got buried under all the other movies of that remarkable film year, and is now somewhat neglected. This is a pity, for while it isn't their best movie, it's far from their worst. The plot isn't worth going into,--does anyone really want a synopsis of a Marx Brothers film?--and grande dame Margaret Dumont is on hand as the woman of Groucho's nightmares come to life. Kenny Baker and Florence Rice are the leads, and I've seen far worse. This isn't a belly laugh movie but it's very amusing. The production values are excellent, and the circus itself is fun, and so is the gorilla. Every comedian should encounter a gorilla at least once in his career. At the Circus is Groucho's chance, and it provides the movie with its funniest moment. This isn't a great comedy, but it's a very good movie.

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4 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
The Problems Of Circus Movies., 16 marzo 2006

Author: theowinthrop de United States

The decline of the Marx Brothers does not begin with ROOM SERVICE, which is hysterical at it's conclusion, but with AT THE CIRCUS. Groucho always insisted that had Irving Thalberg lived his care would have made the other films in the contract after A DAY AT THE RACES as good as that and A NIGHT AT THE OPERA. This meant that the film had to be taken on the road as a Vaudeville show, and the material tested carefully. But Thalberg was dead, and Louis B. Mayer was quite unsympathetic to these three clowns who were...well clowns, and who had gotten too good a sweetheart contract from Thalburg in terms of profits. Mayer thought of comedians as interchangeable, and could not care about allowing talented ones to test their material - you hand them a script and that was that: they are paid to make it funny. If they don't you fire them.

So it is traditional to blame AT THE CIRCUS, GO WEST, and THE BIG STORE on Mayer's hostility. That hostility played a major role (there is just no denying it), but in the case of AT THE CIRCUS there is another point that is frequently overlooked. In movies by comedians, it was rare for a circus comedy to be really funny. W.C.Fields, YOU CAN'T CHEAT AN HONEST MAN was an exception - a truly funny circus comedy, but it's strength was the film record of Field's radio feud with ventriloquist dummy Charlie McCarthy. Had it been set in a movie studio or a bank or a foreign country it would have been just as successful. But other comedians were not as lucky. Charlie Chaplin worked two years on THE CIRCUS, and while a good film it was not the great film he hoped to make. The atmosphere of a circus should have been inviting to comics - after all, here clowns were really clowns. But for some reason the special needs of movie funny-men were hard to translate into the atmosphere of the big top. Possibly the best use of the big top as a comic background was in Laurel & Hardy's short film THE CHIMP. The first quarter of the film shows how they wreck the circus (which was on it's last legs anyway). But the remaining three quarters of the film deal with the boys problems with a rooming house owned by a jealous Billy Gilbert, and the title "chimp" they hope to sell to a zoo.

With the Marxes the circus just does not absorb them too much. Groucho is there, hired as a lawyer to assist Kenny Baker and his pal Chico. Harpo, as Chico's brother, is a circus roustabout. But there is little example of their involvement in the circus life of the troop or of the animals (Harpo should have been involved with circus horses, anyway). Bits of the film are actually quite good - like Chico and Harpo trying to find papers in Nat Pendleton's (the circus strongman's) room. They manage to turn it into a Christmas nightmare for poor Pendleton. And Groucho certainly has two great moments: the business of trying to get on the circus train without knowing the password (even one of the animals knows the password), and his singing "Lydia The Tattooed Lady".

There were some cuts, apparently. Groucho had a sequence where his trial skills were shown in a court presided over by Edgar Kennedy. One wishes they had kept that in the film. The poor portions, mostly tied to the sickeningly sweet and naive Kenny Baker (fighting the crooked James Burke) are overwhelming. At least Groucho was able to have another session with Margaret Dumont as Mrs. Dukesberry (Baker's aunt), and poor Margaret gets shot out of a cannon in the end. But the drab spots outnumber the good ones. Not too bad, but still just mediocre as a result.

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4 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Groucho, Chico, and Harpo -- A Three Ring Circus, 16 marzo 2006

Author: bkoganbing de Buffalo, New York

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Perhaps in over all quality At the Circus is considered in the lower half of Marx Brothers screen efforts. But any film that introduces one of Groucho Marx's famous patter songs, Lydia the Tattooed Lady can hardly be considered all that bad.

Probably Lydia is the song most identified with Groucho with the possible exception of his theme Hooray for Captain Spalding. In fact the captain along with the wreck of the Hesperus, Andrew Jackson, and the good woman's Social Security number all make their way into those highly educational lyrics. You can learn a lot from Lydia.

The rest of the score that Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg wrote is not as good though. The songs are sung quite nicely by Kenny Baker and a dubbed Florence Rice. Baker was the singer on the Jack Benny radio program at the time and was at the height of his popularity. The year before he had introduced his two big hits and the last two big hits of the career of George Gershwin with Our Love is Here to Stay and Love Walked In. Baker went to Broadway later on and co-starred with Mary Martin in One Touch of Venus.

Of course Margaret Dumont as a grande dame and in this case the rich aunt of circus owner Kenny Baker makes her obligatory appearance to be conned unmercifully by Groucho. But Groucho himself gets conned but good by circus trapeze performer Eve Arden. Other than Chico with that Tootsie Frootsie Ice Cream bit in A Day at the Races, this is the only time I remember someone getting the better of Groucho.

In fact the trapeze figures prominently in the mad finale involving the three Marxes, Eve Arden, villain James Burke, Margaret Dumont and a very phony gorilla.

That last shot of Fritz Feld conducting a symphony orchestra on a floating bandstand sailing out to sea without a clue is something else. Do you think anyone ever rescued them?

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
"Have you got a pencil, I left my typewriter in my other pants.", 28 septiembre 2005

Author: classicsoncall de United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Future viewers of "At The Circus" be warned - "Lydia, Oh Lydia (The Tattooed Lady)" is one of those tunes that stays with you long after the movie is over. It happened the first time I watched this film, and it's happening right now as I write this review. That's not necessarily a bad thing, provided you don't drive your family crazy with the lyrics over and over again.

That's one of the bright spots of this Marx Brothers escapade, in a film that spotlights a ten thousand dollar circus heist, an inverted ceiling walker/aerial trapeze artist (Eve Arden), and a club wielding gorilla named Gibraltar. Put all those elements together and you have an amusing and entertaining little number, though not generally credited as one of the Marx Brothers finest.

Perennial wealthy Groucho patron Margaret Dumont makes her appearance rather late in this movie, befuddled as usual about attorney J. Cheever Loophole's intentions, which are actually commendable - he's attempting to negotiate a ten thousand dollar payday to save the Wilson Wonder Circus from the clutches of evil financier Carter (James Burke). Earlier, owner Jeff Wilson (Kenny Baker) fell victim to Carter's strong arm and henchman Goliath (an unrecognizable Nat Pendleton), who in concert with circus midget Little Professor Atom (Jerry Maren), stole the money that would have given Wilson clear ownership. The clichéd theme is rounded out by Wilson's romantic interest Julie Randall (Florence Rice), who probably should have been given more to do than just look pretty.

The movie boasts a rather involved musical number featuring Harpo and a large, young black cast before settling into a standard harp routine. In an amusing sketch, Chico's character Antonio Perelli continually frustrates Groucho's attempt to interrogate the little professor about the stolen money. Later, Chico and Harpo team up to wreak havoc in Goliath's stateroom; the feathers fly (literally) as they try to find the missing stash. Goliath by the way, bears such a striking resemblance to Harpo, that more could probably have been done to capitalize on the similarity.

As in "The Big Store", the movie spirals out of control with a rousing trapeze number featuring the boys, Peerless Pauline and Gibraltar the gorilla. It's vintage Marx Brothers, so swing your way to a good time!

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I loved it, so sue me, 4 abril 2008

Author: SeventyFiveYearOldGuy de United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Maybe it's my age and my relating with the time in which it was released although I was too young when this came out to see it at the time. But now, I find myself loving the whole bit. I truly enjoyed the songs. Kenny Baker was still popular when I was old enough to start appreciating popular song, so I still enjoy hearing him. And then there's Eve Arden who I always enjoyed. Seeing her so very young is a joy. Margaret Dumont as Groucho's foil was as usual great to watch.

I loved so many scenes. The badge scene. The midget scene. Harpo on the ostrich (ostrich races were a deal when I was a kid). And then the last 20 minutes or so. Maybe I'm alone, but I love this and rank it among the Brothers' best.

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