Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hooray for Captain Spaulding!!!, 29 Jan 2001
The Paramount Marx movies are now regarded as perhaps their best, with particular praise going to "Duck Soup" and "Horse Feathers", but their first two pictures, based on Broadway stage hits, are often ignored - or, even worse, dismissed as "stagey". Surely that misses the point? Yes, "Cocoanuts" and "Animal Crackers" are stagey, but you don't have to read much about the Brothers to discover that much of their best work was lost to posterity - a Groucho ad lib heard once by an audience in New York and then lost to time. These films are about as near as we can get to seeing what the Brothers were like on stage and, while they are not nearly as ad libbed as some would have us believe, there are still some great moments. Moments that MGM would never have let them get away with. "Animal Crackers" improves on "The Cocoanuts" in many respects. The plot, of course, doesn't really matter all that much, but the quality of the humour certainly does. There is a much rougher round the edges feel to this than you might find in the MGM films. It may have been performed hundreds of times on Broadway, but it's done with such a freshness (probably due to the indecent haste with which the film was mounted and made) that at some points you could well be watching Groucho up there on the stage. Wondering what he's going to do next. What damage will the Brothers wreak on poor Roscoe W. Chandler? Will Margaret Dumont escape with her dignity intact? Surely...no!...surely Harpo is NOT going to engage in a mock wrestling match with her! And then, before you know it, yes he most definitely is. It's quite a trick to make something so rehearsed seem so spontaneous, but "Animal Crackers" pulls it off with elan. If you think "A Night at the Opera" can't be bettered, then try this - the same writers, similar plot devices but, at times, much, much funnier.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Honest and concise, 30 Jan 2001
By A Customer
"One morning I shot an Elephant in my pyjamas.How he got in my pyjamas I'll never know". This is just one joke from a film that will appeal to fans old & new.From the opening scenes where we're introduced to Capt.Spalding(Groucho)to the closing cutlery scene you're treated to jokes,visual gags and music of the highest calibre.If your a fan you know you won't be dissapointed.If its your first time give it a go ,if you don't laugh once you could well be dead.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Bad, 16 Aug 2009
Mrs Rittenhouse (Margaret Dumont) holds a society party at which
Captain Spaulding (Groucho Marx) is the guest of honour and Roscoe
Chandler (Louis Sorin) will unveil a painting. There are 2 fake
paintings that also turn up at the house and the plot involves these 3
paintings being switched round.......the police are called as the
valuable original seems to have gone missing...
There are only 3 entertaining sections that last about 3 minutes each
in this film: 1 - Chico playing the piano; 2 - Harpo dealing the cards
at a Bridge game: 3 - Chico and Harpo hammering very loudly in the dark
while trying to subtly steal the painting from the wall. That's your
lot. The rest of the film is boring and it's too long. Margaret Dumont
sounds like Anne Widdicombe, ie, she has a terrible voice and there is
no real need for the insipid characters that play the romance story
that runs simultaneously. Harpo has always creeped me out a little and
that's what he does in this film. The brothers should have rehearsed
something funny .......more practice needed....
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