What got me were the soliloquies. At least he alluded to Strange Interludes before he launched into the first one so I wasn't totally confused. And the gags are so thick and fast throughout the scene you don't get a break from laughing.
"Anything I retain now is velvet, except the coat that's Prince Albert." (to the audience) "Well all the jokes can't be good, you've got to expect that once in a while."
[In a hilarious, mock-serious parody of Eugene O'Neil] "Hideous, stumbling footsteps creeping along the corridors of time. And in those corridors I see figures. Strange figures. Weird figures. Steel 84. Anaconda 138. American Can 186."
One of my all time favourite Groucho and the magnificent Margaret Dumont scenes. I laughed when I first saw it over 60 years ago and I'm still laughing at it today. Not one comic around nowadays comes even close.
@@averat84 You were doing so well, averat, and then you demonstrated your historical ignorance, and entirely fucked it up. You wound up half-right. America was far more literate and better educated in the twentieth century, before Republican propagandists succeeded in making us increasingly privatize our once-great public school system, and disinvest in our public schools. Exactly CONTRARY to your polemical nonsense, this film is from 1929-30 -- the HIGH POINT of Marxist thought and theory, its popularity in serious intellectual circles, and of its credibilty in American and world political thought. And the movie is adapted directly from George S. Kaufman's musical farce: those hilarious asides Groucho delivers directly to the camera in that pompous, mock-serious voice are a parody of Eugene O'Neil -- a playwright with whose style, at least, the better-educated contemporary audience would've been familiar. The whole scene is a hilarious, pre-code hoot!
" My favourite Comedy sketch, the sarcasm, the irony, the eccentricity, Groucho demeanour, his disposition, sardonic manner, everything combined, oh the heck wit it just watch, he's the master and a natural one at that " ~ 'Neville'
@foster21 He's satirizing Eugene O'Neill's use of soliloquies and asides used by characters in his plays to reveal their inner thoughts. He had just mentioned O'Neill earlier in this scene.
Indeed, when he says "Pardon me while I have a strange interlude", it's a direct reference to O'Neill's 1928 play Strange Interlude. Pop culture references from so long ago. Neat stuff.
As a lifelong Marx Brothers fan, can I just point out that this film was written by George S Kaufman, Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby? Groucho did not write his own lines, although he delivers them brilliantly. He's not ad-libbing here.
Kaufman once stopped someone talking to him and remarked that heard one of the brothers use one of the lines he wrote. He stopped writing for them because they rarely, if ever stuck to the script he wrote.
@@markhardwick8379 I would take that famous anecdote with a very large grain of salt. It's the kind of witty remark Kaufman might have made, but quite obviously not literally the case. Anyway, my comment has to do with their films, not their stage work (which no doubt the Kaufman anecdote relates to). I'm sure Groucho did a lot of ad-libbing on stage, but this is a film and there was a script for it. By the time they were filming, Groucho was not just making it all up on the fly. Kaufman did come back to work on A Night At The Opera. Groucho considered Kaufman to basically be God. He had tremendous respect for him.
oh god, THIS is real comedy!!! i hate how much they've dumbed down movies and tv shows today. . . Groucho made it so if you werent clever enough to catch his jokes the first time around, you were just out of luck.
The "strange interlude" is a parody of an eponymous Eugene O'Neill play that was very popular at the time. In it the actors would stop in the middle of a scene and monologue to the audience about how they really felt.
Pre-code Hollywood. This would not have been possible a few years later, once the studios started enforcing the Production Code. (BTW, I say Hollywood, but the film was shot in Astoria, Queens. They would perform the show on Broadway, and shoot the film on days without matinees.)
"That leaves you one up." "He shot her glance....as a smile played around his lips." "If I were Eugene O'Neill I could tell you what I really think of you two. You know your very lucky the theater gild isn't putting this on.....and so is the gild. Pardon me while I have a strange interlude."
My argument for not having to eat spinach ever again:Grouch is against it! Of course only my dad would find it funny. My mom would just continue arguing
The entire film is like that, but that is why I like it. I believe this was one of their plays that was converted to a movie in the early days of "Talkies": Maybe 1930. Most films of the late 20s and early 30s have that awkward feel to them, in my opinion.
"Animal Crackers" was originally a Broadway play. Groucho, Margaret Irving and Margaret Dumont performed this scene on stage literally hundreds of times before it was ever filmed.
badluckcity same here! I think he’s hilarious along with the rest of his brothers, The Rat Pack (Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr), Laurel and Hardy and Buster Keaton.
LOL wut dude I'm a feminist and I thought this was funny. It's old-fashioned, Groucho is playing a character, and Margaret Dumont was always playing herself, a foolish narcissist. I don't mind seeing somebody like that getting tweaked.
I love the "Strange Interludes".
Sheer brilliance!!!
Groucho's fast-paced wordplay, insults and horrible puns are timeless. 😆
This scene has made me laugh until I cry for years now. I swear, one of the sharpest humorists of the past 100 years.
What got me were the soliloquies. At least he alluded to Strange Interludes before he launched into the first one so I wasn't totally confused. And the gags are so thick and fast throughout the scene you don't get a break from laughing.
pawdees, hear i am speaking of pawdeez, that introspective moment is way too funny
He lifts his pant leg, then puts the other one down on the floor. Simple genius.
Like in horse feathers he keeps opening the umbrella every time he comes in
He also brushes off his skin after he brushes off his pants
"yes we're way past "tense", we're living in bungalows now." Unless you really follow, alot of great puns fly by you.
"Bungalows are graves people who died by mistake."
"Anything I retain now is velvet, except the coat that's Prince Albert."
(to the audience) "Well all the jokes can't be good, you've got to expect that once in a while."
Each time I watch the Marx Bros I find myself laughing at gags I missed last time.
[In a hilarious, mock-serious parody of Eugene O'Neil]
"Hideous, stumbling footsteps creeping along the corridors of time. And in those corridors I see figures. Strange figures. Weird figures. Steel 84. Anaconda 138. American Can 186."
We're way past tents...
One of my all time favourite Groucho and the magnificent Margaret Dumont scenes. I laughed when I first saw it over 60 years ago and I'm still laughing at it today. Not one comic around nowadays comes even close.
It's so amazing how after all these years it's still sooooo funny!!!!
"How happy could be with either of these two, if both of them just went away"
BAHAHAHA genius!
Wow! How the heck, in 1929-1930, they could come up with this type of stuff, is simply beyond me! Total class.
People were actually smarter and classier then. Society and culture has been perverted by Marx’s (the _other_ Marx) influence.
@@kakroom3407, genocide/murder/democide wasn't exclusive to Hitler and the Nazis, and it didn't end them.
Edit: democide autocorrected to democrats.
@@averat84
You were doing so well, averat, and then you demonstrated your historical ignorance, and entirely fucked it up. You wound up half-right. America was far more literate and better educated in the twentieth century, before Republican propagandists succeeded in making us increasingly privatize our once-great public school system, and disinvest in our public schools. Exactly CONTRARY to your polemical nonsense, this film is from 1929-30 -- the HIGH POINT of Marxist thought and theory, its popularity in serious intellectual circles, and of its credibilty in American and world political thought.
And the movie is adapted directly from George S. Kaufman's musical farce: those hilarious asides Groucho delivers directly to the camera in that pompous, mock-serious voice are a parody of Eugene O'Neil -- a playwright with whose style, at least, the better-educated contemporary audience would've been familiar. The whole scene is a hilarious, pre-code hoot!
@Dale Baker There you go! So ahead of their time - pure genius.
I think it's because we used to be somewhat intelligent
Pardon me while I have a strange interlude .
This is the mechanical age!
Timeless and brilliant.
One woman and one man was good enough for your Grandmother but who wants to marry your Grandmother? Nobody. Not even your Grandfather.
We three would make an ideal couple.
" I was using the subjunctive, instead of the past tense" never sounded so funny
chromebone3 we’re way past tents now, we’re using bungalows. It’s the modern age after all.
3:33 -- Margaret Dumont stifles a laugh trying to stay in character.
I think she was an honary Marx brother.
@@karenjordan9607 She was the greatest straight-woman in the business. Dumont said that herself. She wasn't wrong.
That was big of her not to break character.
Oh, that's bigamy! It's big-a-me too.
Lillian Roth isn't in this scene.
"Ever since I've met you, I've swept you off my feet." LOL
" My favourite Comedy sketch, the sarcasm, the irony, the eccentricity, Groucho demeanour, his disposition, sardonic manner, everything combined, oh the heck wit it just watch, he's the master and a natural one at that " ~ 'Neville'
love the pun on bigamy.
I still use it today.
@foster21 He's satirizing Eugene O'Neill's use of soliloquies and asides used by characters in his plays to reveal their inner thoughts. He had just mentioned O'Neill earlier in this scene.
Indeed, when he says "Pardon me while I have a strange interlude", it's a direct reference to O'Neill's 1928 play Strange Interlude. Pop culture references from so long ago. Neat stuff.
@@slashingraven And his work were famously melancholic and brooding.
@@slashingraven I believe 2/3 of the text in the interludes is in fact directly taken from O'Neill's play.
Far ahead of his time.
" Living with your folks. The beginning of the end. " I die
I see figures, strange figures, weird figures, funny funny funny
One of the greatest wits of the 20th century, if not the greatest wit of the 20th century. Of all time for that matter. The one the only Groucho.
Hooray for Captain Spaulding
Doug Boyer I just noticed that reading your comment.
“What’s the matter, son? You don’t like clowns?”
Groucho never stopped being funny, I've heard that his last words were "record SEINFELD for me"
His nurse told him he was dying and he said "Why that's the last thing I'd do"😅
What happens? Nothing, not even ice cream.
living with your folks the beginning of the end.
Millennials, pay attention!
There's something I have to ask you , "Would you wash out a pair of socks for me ? It's my way of saying I love you !!! "
Margaret: No, but I will gladly darn them. Groucho: Whoa, you can't say Darn. This is a family movie!
Lilian Roth is a rare beauty...her life is one of overcoming.
Well, it's got it's advantages, You could live with your folks...and I could live with your folks. And you? You could sell Fuller Brushes.
This whole clip is bigamy, too.
As a lifelong Marx Brothers fan, can I just point out that this film was written by George S Kaufman, Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby? Groucho did not write his own lines, although he delivers them brilliantly. He's not ad-libbing here.
Meanwhile Harpo got to ad-lib all his lines.
Kaufman once stopped someone talking to him and remarked that heard one of the brothers use one of the lines he wrote. He stopped writing for them because they rarely, if ever stuck to the script he wrote.
@@markhardwick8379 I would take that famous anecdote with a very large grain of salt. It's the kind of witty remark Kaufman might have made, but quite obviously not literally the case.
Anyway, my comment has to do with their films, not their stage work (which no doubt the Kaufman anecdote relates to). I'm sure Groucho did a lot of ad-libbing on stage, but this is a film and there was a script for it. By the time they were filming, Groucho was not just making it all up on the fly.
Kaufman did come back to work on A Night At The Opera. Groucho considered Kaufman to basically be God. He had tremendous respect for him.
This movie was rated C by the catholic church back then. My dad snuck in anyway to watch it. Love Grouchos camera time. Pure genius
Groucho's comedy is like a machine gun with telescopic laser sights... ohh will there ever be better
Better! Who wants better when margarine cost much less!
@@x.y.8581 Gave me a laugh. Thank you😂
@@JJamJ Gave you? Next time I'll think to charge you! I could use the dough!
Of course the Re and the Mi would be nice also!
@@x.y.8581 Now you’ve gone too fa.
Toofa consequences - that's what I say!
this is so surreal. no wonder these movies had a big comeback in the 60s
1:46 kills me every time
You can really tell that Robin Williams was a big fan
More of Jonathan Winters
Bill Cosby stole his whole persona from Groucho!
Robin Williams HUNG AROUND his house watching Groucho Marx...
Don’t forget Gabe Kaplan!
Robin Williams Portrays and plays them Except Zeppo, in Aladdin and the King of Thieves. Chico, Harpo and Groucho.
0.45 I've swept you off my feet.
A classic example of the anarchy of the Marx brothers
Witness to genius
Living with your folks--the beginning of the end . . .
He shot her a glance!
Really? Was it an African aglance or a South American one?
oh god, THIS is real comedy!!! i hate how much they've dumbed down movies and tv shows today. . . Groucho made it so if you werent clever enough to catch his jokes the first time around, you were just out of luck.
Margaret Dumot wasn't quick enough, or so I've read.
The "strange interlude" is a parody of an eponymous Eugene O'Neill play that was very popular at the time. In it the actors would stop in the middle of a scene and monologue to the audience about how they really felt.
Groucho once said of Margaret Dumont she was the fifth Marx brother the perfect straight man …for his jokes
Groucho was the greatest of ' em all !
I had her on the 5 yard line. So funny 😁
Pre-code Hollywood. This would not have been possible a few years later, once the studios started enforcing the Production Code. (BTW, I say Hollywood, but the film was shot in Astoria, Queens. They would perform the show on Broadway, and shoot the film on days without matinees.)
It never gets old. Never.
"That leaves you one up."
"He shot her glance....as a smile played around his lips."
"If I were Eugene O'Neill I could tell you what I really think of you two. You know your very lucky the theater gild isn't putting this on.....and so is the gild. Pardon me while I have a strange interlude."
Saw this at the Shakespeare festival on Saturday
"He shot her a glance"
Pardon me while I have a strange interlude. Still one of the best bits
Obviously a big baseball fan...........innit USA!!!!!!!!!!
Just brilliant.
2:36 - 2:58 😂😂😂 out of this world
3:06-3:24 also 😂😂😂😂
Im just a dime store Groucho looking for my 24 karat Margaret Dumont.
“Pardon me while I have a strange interlude.”
The gods looked down and laughed.
My argument for not having to eat spinach ever again:Grouch is against it! Of course only my dad would find it funny. My mom would just continue arguing
No matter what it is or who commenced it, I'm against it!
None of today's comics holds a candle to the Marx Brothers.
Happy Birthday Groucho :)
Grocho is my all time favorite
Its lucky the Theater Guild are not putting this on . Its lucky for the Theater Guild too .
What a player..
Did the home economics money S&P show up. They probably capped that money collection they drew for vows and I got blocked for expansion in Sagittarius
Thanks!
There's something inherently hilarious about a Rittenhouse being wooed by a Marx. XD
Margaret Dumont is great.
Speaking of asses Julius Henry Marx has a great one.
does any one remember his tv show it was on nbc i think in the early to mid 50's . iit was called you bet your life
I watch it sometimes, I Is very good. I believe it ended in 1960 or 1961.
Yeah there are episodes on TH-cam now I think
my dad just said i make jokes like him
Wow, and that’s 1930. Unreal.
God Bless “Prof Quan + Push” er uhhh “Quack n Push”
@HeavensHelp1 Yeah I read that too. It's a fantastic book! The was never actings, that's how she acts in real life ahahaha
strange innertube
I should say you are intruding, I should say you are intruding, sorry I was using the past tense instead of the subjunctive
@HeavensHelp1 Bloody brilliant book!
It's our Olga Corbett
I like how he always insults Mrs. Rittenhouse, then he proclaims his love to her.
lol
Their Paramount movies are the best: their first two movies are stage
reproductons.
Excuse me while I have a strange interlude ...
I wanted Manor institution like boarding 🏫 for family if at all possible
LOL
groucho marx love big women and also do i
*crickets chirping*
Says ceilings there's disc for man tailored apparel's
😆🤣😂
K.D. Lang has let himself go
He should've said, Mrs Rittenhouse, you're grandchild will be an icon.
I love the Marx Brothers, but this scene just felt awkward and forced. In fact for a bit I thought it might be a rehearsal scene someone had filmed.
The entire film is like that, but that is why I like it. I believe this was one of their plays that was converted to a movie in the early days of "Talkies": Maybe 1930. Most films of the late 20s and early 30s have that awkward feel to them, in my opinion.
"Animal Crackers" was originally a Broadway play. Groucho, Margaret Irving and Margaret Dumont performed this scene on stage literally hundreds of times before it was ever filmed.
Not a feminist in sight
Yes only an Italian fog...a bigamist!
I'm a feminist and Groucho is my favourite funny person of all time.
badluckcity same here! I think he’s hilarious along with the rest of his brothers, The Rat Pack (Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr), Laurel and Hardy and Buster Keaton.
LOL wut dude I'm a feminist and I thought this was funny. It's old-fashioned, Groucho is playing a character, and Margaret Dumont was always playing herself, a foolish narcissist. I don't mind seeing somebody like that getting tweaked.
I know! Glorious!!!
No, just no
"I was using past-tense. We're way past tents now, we're living in bungalows." 😒😅🤣