Return of Movies I have Seen: Animal Crackers

It had occurred to me that I had never viewed The Marx Brothers' Animal Crackers all the way through in one sitting as an adult. I had seen it in a Cambridge, MA theater (Was it the Orson Welles?) as a boy of ten or 11, just after it had been rereleased after being out of circulation for decades. It was the height of the Marxes' revival (Stars Wars would soon come along and kill all nostalgia), and the house was packed.

I was bored.

Ugh, I thought. It's a stage play, like the Cocoanuts. Worse, it seemed to have no plot, save for some stuff about a stolen painting. At least the Cocoanuts had something like a conventional film comedy, with a climax and all.

Then I saw it in 1979, when CBS aired it in prime time, even if it was in summer. I was still too young for it, but I thought, this may be the last time a TV network ever shows a film this old. I think I was right.

I also think I caught some of it when visiting my sister one time, but it was Christmas or Thanksgiving, and I didn't pay it much heed.

So, I popped in the DVD and hit play.

At first, it was just something playing on the TV. Much as I love the Marxes, I was watching it with a detached air of interest, as a historical curio. The stagy production, crackling soundtrack, and old film print didn't help. I love old movies, but early talkies were always my kryptonite.

Then, about ten minutes in, I fell asleep.

I shook myself awake about 20 minutes later. I found I'd perked up enough so I might be able to sit through it.

Then, I found it wasn't so hard to follow.

Then I found myself being entertained.

Then I started laughing.

I got it. I was finally able to see though the production and just watch the Marxes. It really does show them in their prime, and though I disagree with the Onion A.V. Club "Gateway to Geekery" article that recommends it as the first Marx film you should see, it ranks high in their short list of movies, and maybe the best example of the pre-Hollywood Marx Brothers.

I think I'd rank it fifth or so, because I still think movies are better when they're movies, but it has a special status as the best example of what the Marxes were like in the medium that made esteem famous, the stage.

I heard that anyone who saw them on stage said that their best film work is just a shadow of their stage work. I can't help feeling that they're right.

Oh, and that 20 minutes I slept though? I watched them the next day before returning the disc. I laughed a lot.

Movies I have seen

A Town Called Panic: A French -- excuse me -- Belgian animated film with all the characters played out by the kind of action figures boys would play with before licensing took over. There's Horse, Cowboy, and Indian, who all live in a house like a little family. Horse is the "adult" while Cowboy and Indian act adolescent siblings (Cowboy is the younger, stupider one; Indian, the slightly less stupid bully). It's pretty funny for awhile, but this is based on a TV series, and they just couldn't come up with a story to last for even the 75 or so minutes that it takes up. And yes, they eat waffles.

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves: Universal made some really fun sword & sandal adventure flicks to make everybody forget there was a war for 90 minutes. Cobra Woman and Arabian Knights are ridiculous but diverting movies, and both star Maria Montez, a Dominican woman who couldn't act but had great screen presence. (She inspired a lot of drag queens.) Because of this, I had great hopes for Ali Baba, but it's dry, straightforward rehash of Adventures of Robin Hood, except that it's no fun. Heck, it has Andy Devine as an Arabian Little John, and he plays his part straight through most of the movie! Turhan Bey stands in for Sabu, who had appeared in the previous two flicks, and he's okay. Unfortunately, the movie star Jon Hall, the kind of cookie cutter stiff leading man I've always hated.

Seabiscuit: Man, what a disappointment. After reading the great biography by Laura Hillenbrand, I had to sit through this dreamy, over-the-top Great Depression allegory. I might have liked it more if I had never read the book, whose descriptions of races will keep you at the edge of your seat. (Especially if like me, your knowledge of the horse is limited to the many references to him in old Warner Brothers cartoons.)

1939 was the great year for movies...unless you like comedy

It's been said a lot: 1939 was Hollywood's best year, or simply the best year for movies, period.

But not if you like comedy.

Just look at a typical list of great 1939 films:

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Babes In Arms
Beau Geste
Dark Victory
Destry Rides Again
Drums Along the Mohawk
Gone With the Wind
Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Gunga Din
Hunchback Of Notre Dame
Intermezzo
The Little Princess
Love Affair
Midnight
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Ninotchka
Of Mice and Men
Only Angels Have Wings
The Roaring Twenties
Stagecoach
Stanley and Livingstone
The Wizard of Oz
The Women
Wuthering Heights
Young Mr. Lincoln

See many comedies in there? Okay, Destry, Ninotchka, and The Women have been called comedies, but the first is primarily a western, and will never be confused with say, Blazing Saddles, and The Women is more of an acerbic drama with lots of good one-liners. Only Ninotchka is truly a comedy, though a romantic comedy.

So what happened to the real comedies in 1939?

The Marx Brothers began a three picture stint at MGM that allowed the studio to finally prove that could f-up the Marx Brothers' reputations. The best thing you can say about At the Circus is that it has Groucho singing "Lydia the Tattooed Lady." The second best thing you could say is that it's better than the two films that followed it.

Laurel and Hardy walked away from Hal Roach of a contract dispute and found themselves utterly alone in the world. They made The Flying Deuces, a good movie but not up to their best standards. Still, as with the Marxes, it was better than most anything that would follow it, including a couple of more pictures with Hal Roach.

W.C. Fields somehow resisted the decline his fellow comedians suffered, and was yet to make what some regard as his best film, the Bank Dick. In 1939, he made You Can't Cheat an Honest Man, which is funny but a bit awkward because it's also supposed to be a vehicle for Charlie McCarthy.

Age and censorship had been sending Mae West's fortunes in a slow spiral for years, and she produced no film in 1939. She'd bounce back next year in her collaboration with Fields, My Little Chickadee.

The Hal Roach Our Gang (AKA Little Rascals) series closed up shop and moved to MGM, where comedy goes to die.

The Three Stooges soldiered along, continuing to produce great two-reelers before tightening budgets and Curly's health problems took their toll. Their eight shorts for this year include Oily to Bed and Oily to Rise, which is hilarious, if not quite the equal of 1938's Violent is the Word for Curly or 1940's A-Plumbing We Will Go.