At the Circus

At the Circus, a 1939 Marx Brothers film, shares a disc with Room Service. While it's not a top-tier film by the boys, it's much better than Room Service, and has some iconic sequences, perhaps none so much as Groucho singing "Lydia, the Tattooed Lady."

This film was directed by Edward Buzzell. The setting is, natch, a circus, run by a disinherited rich kid (Kenny Baker) who is in love with a horse trainer (Florence Rice). He owes money to an unscrupulous businessman (James Burke), who wants to take over the circus. Baker has the money to pay Burke off, but Burke has the circus strongman (Nat Pendelton) and the midget (Jerry Maren), steal the money.

Enter attorney J. Cheever Loophole, played by Groucho, who is hired by Antonio (Chico) to help save the circus. Along with Punchy (Harpo), the much-abused assistant of Pendleton, they try to find the money and save the circus. Toward the end of the film we are all glad to see Groucho with Baker's aunt, Margaret Dumont, and the two, who are so marvelous together, work their magic. Groucho tells her of the night when he drank champagne from her slipper: "It was two quarts. There would have been more, but you were wearing inner soles."

Unlike Room Service, this film allows for bits of business that the Marx Brothers were known for. There's a wonderful scene in the midget's house, which is made to fit his size. Groucho, Chico, and Harpo try to get him to confess, or at least offer up one of his cigars as evidence. But every time Groucho asks Maren for a cigar, Chico offers one of his own. There's also a scene in which Groucho tries to get the money from Burke's girlfriend, an acrobat played by Eve Arden. When she puts the money down her top, Groucho looks to the camera and says, "How will I get that money without getting in trouble with the Hays Office?"

The film was written by Irving Brecher, and has a few lines that are worthy of S.J. Perelman, such as when Groucho, who is trying to board the circus train in a rainstorm but it is perpetually kept off by Chico, who demands a badge, is pushed into a puddle. Chico asks if he's wet, and Groucho says, "Nonsense! If I was any drier I'd drown."

There are also the requisite musical numbers. Chico plays the piano, Harpo the harp (in a vaguely racist musical number called "Swingali") but Groucho's "Lydia" number steals the show. The song has had a long life through the years--it was heard in The Philadelphia Story the very next year--and it was written by E.Y. Harburg and Harold Arlen, the same composers of "Over the Rainbow" that very same year. If you haven't heard it, look it up on YouTube, it's worth it.