At the Circus (a.k.a. The Marx Brothers at the Circus) is a 1939 Marx Brothers comedy film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in which they save a circus from bankruptcy. The movie is notable for Groucho Marx's classic rendition of "Lydia the Tattooed Lady". The supporting cast includes Margaret Dumont, Eve Arden, Florence Rice and Kenny Baker.
Plot
The circus strongman (Nat Pendleton, one of the ringer football players in Horse Feathers) and the midget (Jerry Maren) are accomplices of the bad guy Carter (James Burke) who is trying to take over the circus. In the animal car, they knock Wilson (Baker) out and steal his $10,000 (about $163,000 in 2011 dollars). But they unintentionally leave a cigar as evidence.
Groucho, as lawyer J. Cheever Loophole, arrives to handle the situation. He caves in when he sees Pendleton, and gets nowhere with Little Professor Atom. (His attempts to get a cigar from Atom are foiled by Chico, who each time offers to give him one. When Harpo sneezes and knocks the furniture over in Atom's tiny room, the midget threatens to sue. Groucho, ever ready to solicit business, offers his card, which Atom accepts!) In order to help Wilson, he first tries to get the money from Carter's moll, Peerless Pauline (Eve Arden), but fails miserably.
Then he calls on Mrs. Dukesbury (Margaret Dumont), and cons her into paying $10,000 for the Wilson Circus to entertain the Newport 400, instead of a performance by an orchestra conducted by a Frenchman named Jardinet (Fritz Feld). The "400 of Newport" are delighted with the circus; when Jardinet arrives, Groucho, who also delayed Jardinet by implicating him in a "dope ring," disposes of the Frenchman and his orchestra by having them play on a floating bandstand down at the water's edge.
Chico and Harpo cut the mooring rope and the musicians play the Prelude to Act Three of Lohengrin by Wagner, serenading the waves. Meanwhile, Carter and his henchmen try to burn down the circus, but are thwarted by the brothers, along with the only witness to the robbery - Gibralter the gorilla (Charles Gemora), who also retrieves Wilson's ten thousand dollars.
Cast
- Groucho Marx as attorney J. Cheever Loophole
- Harpo Marx as Punchy
- Chico Marx as Antonio 'Tony' Pirelli
- Florence Rice as Julie Randall
- Kenny Baker as Jeff Wilson
- Margaret Dumont as Mrs. Susanna Dukesbury
- Eve Arden as Peerless Pauline
- James Burke as John Carter
- Nat Pendleton as Goliath the Strongman
- Jerry Marenghi as Little Professor Atom
- Fritz Feld as Jardinet
- Barnett Parker as Whitcomb
- Charles Gemora as Gibraltar the Gorilla
Production notes
Buster Keaton worked on the film as a gag man. His career was on the downside and he was forced to work for scale. His complex and sometimes belabored gags did not work well with the Marx Brothers' brand of humor, and was a source of friction between the comedian and the group. When Groucho called Keaton on the inappropriateness of his gags for the Marx Brothers, Keaton responded, "I'm only doing what Mr. Mayer asked me to do. You guys don't need help."
Hundreds of girls applied for the film, with eighteen finally chosen after "rigid tests." They had to be expert ballet dancers, have good singing voices, and they had to be able to prove all this by doing a toe-dance on a cantering bareback horse, while singing in key. Four of the girls were former circus riders. Several of the other girls had ridden in rodeos, either professionally or as amateurs, and the rest had been riding most of their lives.
The name of Groucho's character in this film, J. Cheever Loophole, recalls that of real-life financier J. Cheever Cowdin, who had ties to the film industry. In 1936, Cowdin led a group of investors who had loaned $750,000 to Carl Laemmle and his son Carl Laemmle, Jr., to finance the film Show Boat. Before the release of the film, the investors demanded repayment, but the Laemmles did not have the funds to pay it back. Because of this, Cowdin was able to take control of the Laemmle's Universal Pictures studio and served as the company's president until 1946. Show Boat proved to be a financial success and, had the loan not been called for repayment until after the film's release, the Laemmles would have been able to repay the loan and retain ownership of their film production company.
Groucho was aged 48 during the filming of At the Circus, and his hairline had begun receding. As such, he took to wearing a toupee throughout and would do the same for the following film, Go West.
One of Groucho's stories about the film concerned the fake gorilla skin that an actor wore. During production, the skin was switched from a gorilla to an orangutan, which perplexed some viewers who would ask Groucho about it if they happened to meet him.
Musical numbers
- "Step Up And Take A Bow"
- "Lydia, the Tattooed Lady"
- "Two Blind Loves"
- "Swingali"
- "Blue Moon"
- "Beer Barrel Polka"
Reception
The Nov. 11, 1939 Ottawa Citizen described the film as "a veritable riot of hilarity" and "possibly the nuttiest of the films that Groucho, Chico and Harpo have perpetuated."
References
External links
- At the Circus at the TCM Movie Database
- At the Circus at the Internet Movie Database
- At the Circus at AllMovie