The Marx Brothers were masters of comedy who entertained audiences for four decades in vaudeville, radio, films and television. Five of their films are on the American Film Institute's list of America's Funniest Movies. "Duck Soup" of 1933 is fifth on the list. "A Night at the Opera" of 1935 is number 12, and "A Day at the Races" of 1937 is number 59. Those are my favorites, and all three have zany plots.
"Animal Crackers" was the second feature film the brothers made, when Zeppo was part of the acting team. In place of a plot it has a thin line of a story used just to string together dozens of vaudeville skits and bits. Some are very dated and of interest only to see what people laughed at a century ago in entertainment theaters.
The filming appears stagy, as if it was done during live vaudeville acts. The performers often speak to the audience off stage. And it has a stage feel even to the point of an echo and sound reverberations as from a sound stage with poor acoustics.
Some of the lines still are funny today. But the long list of routines hardly resembles a movie. It's somewhat interesting and entertaining, but it can't hold a candle to the later great comedies the Marx Brothers gave us.
"Animal Crackers" was the second feature film the brothers made, when Zeppo was part of the acting team. In place of a plot it has a thin line of a story used just to string together dozens of vaudeville skits and bits. Some are very dated and of interest only to see what people laughed at a century ago in entertainment theaters.
The filming appears stagy, as if it was done during live vaudeville acts. The performers often speak to the audience off stage. And it has a stage feel even to the point of an echo and sound reverberations as from a sound stage with poor acoustics.
Some of the lines still are funny today. But the long list of routines hardly resembles a movie. It's somewhat interesting and entertaining, but it can't hold a candle to the later great comedies the Marx Brothers gave us.