At the Circus
At the Circus | |
---|---|
Cinematography | Leonard M. Smith |
Edited by | William H. Terhune |
Music by | Franz Waxman |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Loew's, Inc. |
Release date |
|
Running time | 87 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
At the Circus is a 1939
Plot
Goliath, the circus
Jeff's friend and circus employee, Antonio 'Tony' Pirelli, summons attorney J. Cheever Loophole to investigate the situation. Loophole discovers Carter's moll, Peerless Pauline (whose circus act consists of walking upside-down with suction cups on her shoes), is hiding the money, but she outwits him and he fails to retrieve it. Later, Tony and Punchy search Goliath's stateroom on the circus train for the money, but are unsuccessful.
With Carter about to foreclose on the circus, Loophole discovers that Jeff's aunt is the wealthy Mrs. Susanna Dukesbury, and he tricks her into paying $10,000 for the Wilson Wonder Circus to entertain the Newport 400, instead of a performance by French conductor Jardinet, and his symphony orchestra. The audience is delighted with the circus; when the blustery Jardinet arrives, Loophole, who delayed the Frenchman's arrival on the SS Normandie by implicating him in a dope ring, disposes of the conductor and his orchestra by having Tony and Punchy cut the moorings on a floating bandstand as they play Wagner's prelude to act III of Lohengrin at the water's edge.
Meanwhile, Carter and his henchmen try to burn down the circus, but are thwarted by Tony and Punchy, along with the only witness to the robbery: Gibraltar the gorilla, who also retrieves Jeff's money from Carter after a big trapeze finale, which features Tony shooting Mrs. Dukesbury out of a cannon.
Cast
- Groucho Marx as Attorney J. Cheever Loophole
- Chico Marx as Antonio "Tony" Pirelli
- Harpo Marx as "Punchy"
- Kenny Bakeras Jeff Wilson
- Florence Rice as Julie Randall
- Eve Arden as Peerless Pauline
- Margaret Dumont as Mrs. Susanna Dukesbury
- Nat Pendleton as Goliath the Strongman
- Fritz Feld as Jardinet
- James Burke as John Carter
- Jerry Maren as Little Professor Atom (credited as Jerry Marenghi)
- Barnett Parker as Whitcomb
- Edmund Mortimer as Judge Chanock (uncredited)
- Irving Bacon as Telegraph clerk (uncredited)
- Frank Orth as Diner cook (uncredited)
- Charles Gemora as Gibraltar the Gorilla (uncredited)
- Emory Parnell as Ringmaster (uncredited)
- Ralph "Tex" Madsen - Circus Performer on Train as “Tallest Texan Cowboy” (uncredited)
Production notes
Comedy legend Buster Keaton's career had long been on the downside, and he was reduced to working for scale at MGM as a gag man. Keaton's complex and elaborate sight gags did not mesh well with the Marx Brothers' brand of humor, and was sometimes a source of friction between the comedian and the brothers.[1] When Groucho called Keaton on the incompatibility of his gags with the Marx Brothers, Keaton responded, "I'm only doing what Mr. Mayer asked me to do. You guys don't need help."[2]
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.[3]
The name of Groucho's character in this film, J. Cheever Loophole, recalls that of real-life financier
Groucho was aged 48 during the filming of At the Circus, and his hairline had begun receding. As such, he took to wearing a
At the Circus screenwriter Irving Brecher stood in for an ailing Groucho when publicity stills for the film were first taken. Brecher bore a marked resemblance to Groucho and is nearly unrecognizable in the photos, sporting Groucho's greasepaint mustache, eyebrows and glasses.
Groucho as J. Cheever Loophole was originally introduced in a key scene set in a courtroom which was filmed, but cut from the picture.
One of Groucho's oft-repeated stories about the filming At the Circus concerned the gorilla skin that an actor wore. On The Dick Cavett Show taped June 13, 1969, he said that the actor was too hot inside the skin under the bright lights, and during lunch he went to the studio commissary and poked several holes in the skin with an icepick. Upon discovering the holes, the manager of the gorilla skin became extremely angry and took the skin away. MGM scoured southern California for a replacement and finally located an orangutan skin in San Diego. An orangutan is much smaller than a gorilla, so a shorter actor was hired to fit inside it. Groucho said he received many inquiries about this, and some viewers he happened to meet would ask him why the gorilla was noticeably smaller in the second half of the picture.
Musical numbers
- "Step Up And Take A Bow" (Arlen/Harburg)
- "Lydia, the Tattooed Lady" (Arlen/Harburg)
- "Two Blind Loves" (Arlen/Harburg)
- "Swingali" (Arlen/Harburg)
- "Blue Moon"
- "Beer Barrel Polka"
Reception
Reviews from critics were generally not as positive as those for earlier Marx Brothers films.
References
- ^ Groucho, Harpo, Chico and sometimes Zeppo.
- ISBN 1-905287-11-9.
- ^ "Versatility Required In Marx Bros. Film". The Montreal Gazette. Montreal. Jan 2, 1940. Retrieved 19 May 2013.
- ^ Nugent, Frank S. (November 17, 1939). "THE SCREEN; Marxes Well Under Their Top in 'At the Circus' at the Capitol--New Films at Rialto and Palace". The New York Times. Retrieved June 25, 2019.
- ^ "Film Reviews". Variety. New York: Variety, Inc. October 18, 1939. p. 14.
- Film Daily. New York: Wid's Films and Film Folk, Inc.: 7 November 17, 1939.
- ^ "At the Circus". Harrison's Reports. New York: Harrison's Reports, Inc.: 167 October 21, 1939.
- ^ Mosher, John (November 25, 1939). "The Current Cinema". The New Yorker. New York: F-R Publishing Corp. p. 83.
- ^ "Picture Theaters At the Motion". Ottawa Citizen. Ottawa. November 11, 1939. Retrieved May 19, 2013.