Synopsis
The well-known explorer and hunter Captain Spaulding has just returned from Africa, and is being welcomed home with a lavish party at the estate of influential society matron Mrs. Rittenhouse when a valuable painting goes missing. The intrepid Captain Spaulding attempts to solve the crime with the help of his silly secretary Horatio Jamison, while sparring with the anarchic Signor Emanuel Ravelli and his nutty sidekick The Professor.
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Cast
- Groucho MarxCaptain Jeffrey T. Spaulding
- Harpo MarxThe Professor
- Chico MarxSignor Emanuel Ravelli
- Zeppo MarxHoratio Jamison
- Lillian RothArabella Rittenhouse
- Margaret DumontMrs. Rittenhouse
- Louis SorinRoscoe Chandler
- Hal ThompsonJohn Parker
- Margaret IrvingMrs. Whitehead
- Kathryn ReeceGrace Carpenter
Recommendations
- 100
Entertainment Weekly
One of the five essential Paramount comedies. - 83
The A.V. Club
Animal Crackers leaves the song-and-dance to Groucho in the great "Hooray For Captain Spaulding," sends Harpo running after screaming blondes in the background, and breaks down the fourth wall for a wry Eugene O'Neill parody. - 80
Time Out
The Marx Brothers' second film and one of their best, satirising the rich at play as they infiltrate a society party and beome involved with a stolen painting. - 80
The New Yorker
It was a Broadway musical comedy, slightly adapted, and filmed in Astoria--and it looks stagey. But the film is too joyous for cavilling. - 75
LarsenOnFilm
If your sense of humor leans heavily on wordplay and vaudevillian puns, you might even find the movie to be hilarious. - 75
TV Guide Magazine
Exceedingly stagy and theatrical, even by 1930's standards, but is nevertheless very funny and highly enjoyable. - 70
The New York Times
A further example of amusing nonsense. - 70
Variety
First give Paramount extreme credit for reproducing Animal Crackers intact from the stage, without too much of the songs and musical numbers.
