At the Circus (1939)

The Marx Brothers try to help the owner of a circus recover some stolen funds before he finds himself out of a job.

Director:

Edward Buzzell

Writer:

Irving Brecher (screen play)

Stars:

Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Groucho Marx	...	J. Cheever Loophole
Chico Marx	...	Antonio
Harpo Marx	...	'Punchy'
Kenny Baker	...	Jeff Wilson
Florence Rice	...	Julie Randall
Eve Arden	...	Peerless Pauline
Margaret Dumont	...	Mrs. Suzanna Dukesbury
Nat Pendleton	...	Goliath
Fritz Feld	...	Jardinet
James Burke	...	John Carter
Jerry Maren	...	Little Professor Atom (as Jerry Marenghi)
Barnett Parker	...	Whitcomb

Storyline

Jeff Wilson, the owner of a small circus, owes his partner Carter $10000. Before Jeff can pay, Carter lets his accomplices steal the money, so he can take over the circus. Antonio Pirelli and Punchy, who work at the circus, together with lawyer Loophole try to find the thief and get the money back.

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Plot Keywords:

circus | song | circus midget | deception | damsel in distress | 

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Taglines:

NOT SUITABLE FOR GENERAL EXHIBITION (Australian one-sheet poster)

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Genres:

Comedy | Musical

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 October 1939 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Day at the Circus

Filming Locations:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

87 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This film was first telecast in Chicago Wednesday 20 February 1957 on WBBM (Channel 2) ,followed by Seattle 22 February 1957 on KING (Channel 5), by New York City 4 March 1957 on WCBS (Channel 2), by Philadelphia 15 March 1957 on WFIL (Channel 6), by New Haven CT 22 March 1957 on WNHC (Channel 8), by Portland OR 26 March 1957 on KGW (Channel 8), by Altoona PA 30 March 1957 on WFBG (Channel 10), and by Hartford CT 17 May 1957 on WHCT (Channel 18); its first television showing in San Francisco occurred 26 April 1958 on KGO (Channel 7); but its first Los Angeles telecast did not take place until 27 January 1959 on KTTV (Channel 11).

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Goofs

When Jeff first gets on the train, his badge keeps changing position on his coat.

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Quotes

Mrs. Suzanna Dukesbury: Now, be sure; when the Normandy docks tomorrow in New York, the Jardinet and his entire orchestra come directly here.
J. Cheever Loophole: This bedroom will be awfully crowded.

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Connections

Spoofs Mickey's Polo Team (1936)

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Soundtracks

My Melancholy Baby
(1911) (uncredited)
Music by Ernie Burnett
Played a bit on a trombone in the "Swingali" number

User Reviews

The Problems Of Circus Movies.

The decline of the Marx Brothers does not begin with ROOM SERVICE, which is hysterical at it's conclusion, but with AT THE CIRCUS. Groucho always insisted that had Irving Thalberg lived his care would have made the other films in the contract after A DAY AT THE RACES as good as that and A NIGHT AT THE OPERA. This meant that the film had to be taken on the road as a Vaudeville show, and the material tested carefully. But Thalberg was dead, and Louis B. Mayer was quite unsympathetic to these three clowns who were...well clowns, and who had gotten too good a sweetheart contract from Thalburg in terms of profits. Mayer thought of comedians as interchangeable, and could not care about allowing talented ones to test their material - you hand them a script and that was that: they are paid to make it funny. If they don't you fire them.

So it is traditional to blame AT THE CIRCUS, GO WEST, and THE BIG STORE on Mayer's hostility. That hostility played a major role (there is just no denying it), but in the case of AT THE CIRCUS there is another point that is frequently overlooked. In movies by comedians, it was rare for a circus comedy to be really funny. W.C.Fields, YOU CAN'T CHEAT AN HONEST MAN was an exception - a truly funny circus comedy, but it's strength was the film record of Field's radio feud with ventriloquist dummy Charlie McCarthy. Had it been set in a movie studio or a bank or a foreign country it would have been just as successful. But other comedians were not as lucky. Charlie Chaplin worked two years on THE CIRCUS, and while a good film it was not the great film he hoped to make. The atmosphere of a circus should have been inviting to comics - after all, here clowns were really clowns. But for some reason the special needs of movie funny-men were hard to translate into the atmosphere of the big top. Possibly the best use of the big top as a comic background was in Laurel & Hardy's short film THE CHIMP. The first quarter of the film shows how they wreck the circus (which was on it's last legs anyway). But the remaining three quarters of the film deal with the boys problems with a rooming house owned by a jealous Billy Gilbert, and the title "chimp" they hope to sell to a zoo.

With the Marxes the circus just does not absorb them too much. Groucho is there, hired as a lawyer to assist Kenny Baker and his pal Chico. Harpo, as Chico's brother, is a circus roustabout. But there is little example of their involvement in the circus life of the troop or of the animals (Harpo should have been involved with circus horses, anyway). Bits of the film are actually quite good - like Chico and Harpo trying to find papers in Nat Pendleton's (the circus strongman's) room. They manage to turn it into a Christmas nightmare for poor Pendleton. And Groucho certainly has two great moments: the business of trying to get on the circus train without knowing the password (even one of the animals knows the password), and his singing "Lydia The Tattooed Lady".

There were some cuts, apparently. Groucho had a sequence where his trial skills were shown in a court presided over by Edgar Kennedy. One wishes they had kept that in the film. The poor portions, mostly tied to the sickeningly sweet and naive Kenny Baker (fighting the crooked James Burke) are overwhelming. At least Groucho was able to have another session with Margaret Dumont as Mrs. Dukesberry (Baker's aunt), and poor Margaret gets shot out of a cannon in the end. But the drab spots outnumber the good ones. Not too bad, but still just mediocre as a result.