Animal Crackers

1930 comedy

Rating: 14/20

Plot: It really doesn't matter a whole lot. Captain Spaulding (Groucho) returns from adventures in Africa in time to get mixed up in a bunch of nonsense about an expensive painting and the crooks attempting to steal it. Zaniness ensues.

Like The Cocoanuts, this one is really stagey. There's an odd mix of almost postmodern humor that is wildly ahead of its time and the really dated romantic subplot with the even more dated musical numbers. And like The Cocoanuts, when the Marx brothers are on screen, the puns and double entendres and non sequiturs are fast and furious and frequently funny. Lots of "Oh, so that's where that line comes from" moments. When the Marxes are nowhere to be found, this is really sort of lame. And I love watching Chico and Harpo playing the piano and harp respectively, but the extended scenes really sort of hurt the pacing of this one.