Animal Crackers

Adapted from an earlier broadway musical by the same name, Animal Crackers, from 1930 is one of the many comedies filmed by the Marx Brothers.  The film stars the four of them - Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, and Zeppo Marx, as well as Lillian Roth and Margaret Dumont.

Groucho is Captain Spalding, returned from an African exploration, and entertains Mrs. Rittenhouse (Dumont) at a party with such classics as "One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don't know."  Zeppo is Spalding's assistant, Horatio Jamison.  Chico is Signor Emanuel Ravelli, who is apparently in charge of the music at the party, along with The Professor (Harpo).  Lillian Roth plays Mrs. Rittenhouse's niece.

The plot, as much as there is one, revolves around a valuable painting being unveiled at the party and various people stealing/swapping the painting for various reasons that don't always make sense.

I seem to remember the Marx brothers being funnier than this movie was.  Maybe it's just this particular movie, but most of Animal Crackers was just not funny.  It suffers from scenes going on for far too long, something which many comedies of the time seemed to.  I don't know if we just don't have the same attention span anymore or if comedic timing has just evolved successfully, or perhaps a bit of both.  I'm sure many of the jokes were much funnier for people alive in the 20's, but if you're not a history buff, they probably won't do it for ya.

The Marx Brothers had some smarter humour than, say, the Three Stooges, but that is their downfall as it dates them terribly.

**(2/5 stars)