Animal Crackers (1930)

Directed by

Victor Heerman

Genre

comedy film, musical film, slapstick, romantic comedy film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 33m

Rated

G

Rating

6.9 of 10 from 263 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A wealthy society hostess throws a party for an eccentric explorer. The Marx Brothers turn the event into chaos with their nonstop gags and wisecracks.

fast-pacedsillyenergeticzanywhimsicalplayfulmadcap

What happens

Animal Crackers is a 1930 American pre-Code comedy film starring the Marx Brothers and directed by Victor Heerman. It is based on the brothers' 1928 musical Animal Crackers by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, with songs by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby. The screenplay was adapted by Morrie Ryskind. The film features Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Zeppo Marx alongside Margaret Dumont and Lillian Roth. Set at a Long Island society party honoring eccentric African explorer Captain Jeffrey T. Spaulding (Groucho), the film serves as a vehicle for the Marx Brothers' comedy and absurdist routines, with a minimal plot loosely structured around the theft of a valuable painting. Produced by Paramount Pictures at their Astoria Studios in Queens, Animal Crackers was the Marx Brothers' second feature film, following The Cocoanuts (1929). The production faced challenges adapting the stage musical to the emerging sound film format, as musical films were still in their infancy. The studio made extensive cuts to musical numbers and restructured the original material. Director Victor Heerman was hired to manage the disruptive behavior of the Marx Brothers on set. The film was a critical and commercial success upon its original, uncut release. It was reissued in 1936 with cuts made to meet the newer Motion Picture Production Code. The film established several of the Marx Brothers' most famous characters, gags, and songs, with "Hooray for Captain Spaulding" and "Hello, I Must Be Going" becoming signature pieces. The film's humor and surrealist elements influenced comedy filmmaking and earned recognition from avant-garde critics such as Antonin Artaud and filmmakers like François Truffaut and Jim Jarmusch. Legal issues over literary and distribution rights led to the film being withdrawn from circulation in the late 1950s. Following a fan campaign initiated by students and supported by Groucho himself, Universal Pictures, which by then owned the rights, settled the legal dispute in 1974. Animal Crackers was subsequently re-released to theaters and television. It was later restored in 2016 based on an original print found in the British Film Institute, which included material previously censored in 1936. The film entered the public domain in the United States in 2026. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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