Animal Crackers (Heerman, 1930)

I had to look up the name of the person credited with "directing" the Marx Brothers' second film Animal Crackers, which was produced at Paramount in 1930, and his name was Victor Heerman. According to IMDB, he was credited with directing 28 pictures from 1916 to 1930, and Animal Crackers was his second-to-last film before he completed an astonishingly undistinguished career with something called Sea Legs, starring Jack Oakie, a comic actor pretty much forgotten today save for his rather amusing parody of Mussolini in Chaplin's The Great Dictator.

Judging this film on a purely technical basis, the whole thing's a mess, even by early talkie standards. It's an exceptionally stagey film, hardly surprising considering its origins as the brothers' final Broadway play, but by 1930, many Hollywood films were able to overcome the technical hurdles that came with the new sound technology and Animal Crackers lags far behind. But, of course, one doesn't watch a Marx Brothers movie to babble on about mise-en-scene and fluid camera movement. It's about the glorious unparalleled anarchy that the four brothers bring to the screen.

The whole thing is a major step up from their first film The Cocoanuts, which was filmed in 1929 at Paramount's Astoria Studios during the day while the brothers performed Animal Crackers on Broadway at night. With a particularly unmemorable Irving Berlin score, The Cocoanuts was bogged down considerably by the romantic subplot featuring an actor named Oscar Shaw, who was unquestionably one of the most uncharismatic personalities ever captured on film. Every frame that features him makes you wish you were dead. Fortunately, there was enough madcap fun to make the film tolerable, but ohhhh, Oscar Shaw. Ohhhh, how I hate you!

There's also a romantic subplot in Animal Crackers, but it's livened up considerably by featuring Lillian Roth as one-half of the couple. Roth made quite a few movies in the early 1930's before her career was derailed by alcoholism, including the extremely odd Madam Satan, and she is, quite simply, adorable. She's the bee's knees, and while she's certainly not the highlight of the film, her subplot at least doesn't destroy it and that's due almost entirely to the power of her charm. It's still a flaw, mind you. This film clocks in at 98 minutes because of it, a good half hour longer than a Marx Brothers movie should be. But it still captures the glorious anarchic spirit that few have ever attempted to replicate. Those who have, often fail. Perhaps it's because they imitate the Marx Brothers' anarchic style rather than injecting their own style into the text? This is why I'm so intrigued by the Goodman's upcoming production of the show. The text, the characters, the songs, everything is tied up with the Marx Brothers. But, really, Captain Spaulding, Emmanual Ravelli and the Professor are characters just like any other. I'm sure Zeppo's character had a name, but really, who cares?

Speaking of Zeppo, he was also Groucho's understudy on stage. Groucho always said he was the funniest in real life.