Cinema Sunday: At the Circus

A few weeks back, I wrote a Cinema Sunday post on a Marx Brothers film called Go West wherein Groucho and this brethren cast themselves in a western. 

Before Go West was released, the Marx Brothers made At the Circus. 

Here is what you need to know about the plot: 

• Good news: Jeff Wilson is living his best life with Wilson's Wonder Circus which he owns and  Julie Randall who he loves.  Julie has a singing horse act. No, the horse doesn't sing; Julie sings while guiding the horse through various tricks. 
• Bad news: Jeff Wilson owes $10,000 to John Carter.
• Good news: Jeff Wilson has $10,000 and can pay John Carter. 
• Bad news: John Carter doesn't want to be paid. He wants to take over the circus for himself. And he doesn't like Julie's act, the fiend. 
• Worse news: John Carter arranges for Goliath, the circus strongman and Little Professor Atom, a dwarf, to steal the $10,000 with Gibraltar the gorilla the only witness to the crime. 
• Worst news: Jeff Wilson will lose not only the circus but Julie Randall will have to go elsewhere to find work. 

So where are the Marx Brothers in all this? 

Tony (Chico) and Punchy (Harpo), circus employees and friends of Jeff, call in attorney J. Cheever Loophole (Groucho) for help. 

And it's all downhill from there.  

Loophole discovers Carter's moll, Peerless Pauline, is hiding the money, but she outwits him and he fails to retrieve it. 

Well, Loophole thinks he knows where Pauline is hiding the money but as he tells the audience, the Hays office* won't let him look there.  

*The Hays office was the enforcer of the production code for American cinema which prohibited a very long list of immoral behavior. Which included Groucho Marx reaching down the front of Eve Arden's leotard. 

Loophole, Tony and Punchy are unable to retrieve the stolen money and Carter about foreclose on the circus. Then Loophole discovers that Jeff's aunt is the wealthy Mrs. Susanna Dukesbury. 

Enter the grande dame of Marx Brothers' comedies,  Margaret Dumont. Dumont plays the matronly sophisticated woman of society who inevitably winds up bamboozled, embarrassed and humiliated by Groucho's antics.

Spoiler alert: Margaret Dumont will be shot out of a cannon before this picture is through.  

Loophole tricks Mrs. Dukesbury into paying for paying $10,000 for the Wilson Wonder Circus to entertain at her latest society soiree.  

Mrs. Dukesbury is expecting French conductor Jardinet and his symphony orchestra. Tony and Punchy cut loose the moorings of a floating bandstand. Jardinet's symphony performs Wagner's prelude to act III of Lohengrin from the middle of a lake. 

Mrs. Dukesbury's audience is very happy with the circus. 

Jeff Wilson has $10,000 again to pay off Carter but Carter ain't taking this one lying down who orders his henchmen try to burn down the circus. 

The henchmen are  thwarted by Tony and Punchy with some help from Gibraltar the gorilla who retrieves Jeff's money from Carter after a big trapeze finale.

And Mrs. Dukesbury (we warned you about this) is shot out of a cannon.

At the Circus has a several musical numbers, most prominently  Groucho Marx's classic rendition of "Lydia the Tattooed Lady".

At the Circus is a fairly enjoyable film but there is a sense of the Marx Brothers in an all too familiar groove. Groucho, Chico and Harpo have done this shtick a few times and it shows. 

There are some comic highlights. Loophole interrogating , Peerless Pauline while she practices her walking upside down routine has some sparkling repartee between Groucho Marx and Eve Arden.  

All in all, At the Circus is not a bad picture but it's a bit removed from the comic heights of the Marx Brothers in their prime.