Animal Crackers (1930) Director: Victor Heerman
“One morning, I shot an elephant in my pajamas.
How he got in my pajamas, I don’t know.”
★★★★★
The second of the classic Marx Brothers films after The Cocoanuts in 1928, and one of their best in my view, Animal Crackers was released by Paramount Pictures –it was the last of the Marx Brothers’ films to draw its plot directly from the stage performance of the same name. After Animal Crackers, the Marx Brothers began implementing newly crafted scripts specifically designed for movie-making, as in the case of Duck Soup. Animal Crackers is an outrageous satire of aristocratic, high society –an endless anarchic lampoon of the old Gilded Age ruling class. Neither Charlie Chaplin nor Buster Keaton were able to get away with these types of brutal jabs!
Animal Crackers opens with an aristocrat named Mrs. Rittenhouse (Margaret Dumont) who hosts a gala at her manor. Captain Spaulding (Groucho Marx) arrives fresh from an African safari ironically singing “Hello, I Must Be Going” and “Hooray for Captain Spaulding” while selling unnecessary insurance to Mrs. Rittenhouse. Signor Emanuel Ravelli shows up (Chico Marx) along with the professor (Harpo Marx), who never speaks. The hijinks and puns are fluid throughout the film as the brothers all become involved in various silly, anarchic situations. Some examples include when Harpo literally bounces a check on the floor, when Chico says “you go Uruguay and I’ll go mine,” and when Groucho says, “One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas I don’t know,” or “We took some pictures of the native girls but they weren’t developed. We’re going back again in a couple of weeks.” One of the funniest scenes occurs when all the characters are gathered round a table playing cards cheating and remaking the rules as they play. Other continuing jokes include when Groucho makes an aside comment to the audience by reciting lines from Eugene O’Neill’s plays, Groucho reintroduces himself to several different characters despite having already met them, Zeppo dictates a nonsensical letter to his attorney, and Chico asks Harpo for a “flash” leading Harpo to continue pulling items out of his pants including a fish, flask, flute, a flit, a flush and others.
The plot of Animal Crackers concerns the stealing and replacing of an expensive painting in the manor. Eventually everyone is knocked out when the police arrive, except the Professor who knocks himself out –another classic from the Marx Brothers!
Notable Groucho Marx quotations in the film:
- “Hello, I must be going
I cannot stay
I came to say
I must be going…” - “Why, you’ve got beauty, charm, money! You have got money, haven’t you? Because if you haven’t, we can quit right now.”
- “One morning, I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don’t know.”
- “We took some pictures of the native girls, but they weren’t developed. But we’re going back again in a couple of weeks.”
- “My name is Spaulding. I’ve always wanted to meet you, Mr. Chandler. As I say, we tried to remove the tusks. But they were embedded so firmly we couldn’t budge them. Of course, in Alabama the Tuscaloosa, but that is entirely ir-elephant to what I was talking about.”
- “You know I’d buy you a parachute if I thought it wouldn’t open.”
- “You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, which doesn’t say much for you.”
- “I’m sick of these conventional marriages. One woman and one man was good enough for your grandmother, but who wants to marry your grandmother? Nobody, not even your grandfather. Think! Think of the honeymoon! Strictly private. I wouldn’t let another woman in on this. Well, maybe one or two. But, no men! I may not go myself.”
- “Do you mind if I don’t smoke?”
- “Africa is God’s country, and he can have it.”
- “Well, all the jokes can’t be good. You’ve got to expect that once in awhile.”
Credits:
- Director: Victor Heerman
- Written by: Harry Ruby, George S. Kaufman, Morrie Ryskind
- Starring:
- Groucho Marx…..Captain Jeffrey Spaulding
- Harpo Marx…..The Professor
- Chico Marx…..Signor Emanuel Ravelli
- Zeppo Marx…..Horatio Jamison
- Lillian Roth…..Arabella Rittenhouse
- Cinematography: George J. Folsey
- Music by: Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby
- Distributed by: Paramount Pictures