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Paramount Pictures -- 1930
Written by George S. Kaufman, Morrie Ryskind, Bert Kalmar, and Harry Ruby. Directed by Victor Heerman. Supporting Cast: Lillian Roth, Margaret Dumont, Louis Sorin, Hal Thompson, Margaret Irving, Kathryn Reece, Robert Greig, and Edward Metcalf.
In their second movie for Paramount, the Marx Brothers once again took a successful Broadway play to the silver screen. In this outing, Groucho plays Captain Jeffrey Spalding, the guest of honor at a Long Island party (accompanied by Zeppo as his field secretary, Horatio Jamison) being given by Mrs. Rittenhous (Margaret Dumont). Roscoe W. Chandler (Louis Sorin) is displaying a painting, Beaugard's "After the Hunt," in honor of Captain Spalding's visit. Of course, two of the guests at the party have made copies of this painting and, for their own reasons, want their copies displayed in place of the original. Harpo (as The Professor) and Chico (as Signor Emanuel Ravelli) roll in to add a little music and larceny, and then the fun begins.
This film features one of Groucho's most memorable tunes, "Captain Spalding." An interesting factoid about "Captain Spalding" is that one line of Groucho's lyric was removed from the released version. Originally, Groucho answered Mrs. Rittenhous' line, "He's the only white man who covered every acre," with "I think I'll try to make her." I guess 1930 audiences weren't ready for such a bold line. (If you're interested, you can view all the lyrics to this song at Captain Spalding.) This film also contains one of the few scenes in which Zeppo was actually allowed to be funny, as he takes the liberty of interpreting Groucho's letter to his lawyer, Hon. Charles H. Hungadunga.
This was the last film the Marxes would shoot at Paramount's Astoria Studios in Queens, New York. Part of this complex is now the home of The American Museum of the Moving Image, which has a wonderful permanent display of equipment and paraphernalia from movies and television, as well as various temporary exhibits and films.
The scene in the photo above happens just after the scene introcuding Signor Emanuel Ravelli. This is one of the most famous scenes in the Marx repertoire.
©1995-2006, Frank M. Bland
The pages under www.marx-brothers.org/whyaduck were originally created by Frank Bland for his site www.whyaduck.com. Frank did kindly give me permission to use the contents of his site.
If you find text referring to "I" or "me" on pages under www.marx-brothers.org/whyaduck, this will usually refer to Frank.
