"I could dance with you till the cows come home. On second thought, I'd rather dance with the cows till you came home!" --Groucho Marx in Duck Soup (Paramount Pictures, 1933)
Groucho said this as the leader of Freedonia, His Excellency Rufus T. Firely. As usual, he was poking fun at someone kind of "stuffy." In this case, it was the widow, Mrs. Teasdale, played by the stoic Margaret Dumont. Dumont is sometimes referred to as the "Fifth Marx Brother" for her ability and willingness to play stuffy straight woman alongside the zany Marx Brothers. (Zeppo Marx, who appeared in several of the early movies, was the lesser-known fourth.)
The Marx Brothers movies, though settings change, generally follow a template. Chico and Harpo are friends who engage in a lot of slapstick comedy. Harpo, of course, doesn't speak and mimes everything. Chico usually gets in a piano solo, and Harpo usually gets in a harp solo (although that didn't happen in Duck Soup).
Groucho usually plays someone with an outlandish name who has "failed upward." He gets into some sort of position with a little bit of authority though some misunderstanding of his actual abilities. Comedy ensues.
I like Groucho's work best of the three in the movies. However, you couldn't have three of the same or it wouldn't work. But Groucho is always reeling off one-liners like this, and you (or at least I did the first few times) have to listen hard for the multiple meanings of what he's saying.
In another post at another time, perhaps I shall cover the pathos that Groucho's life actually encapsulated.
Here, though, I shall move on to look at (literally) Margaret Dumont. She was born as Juliette Baker. For all the jabs Groucho took at her about her looks, she was a real beauty when she was younger.
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| Margaret Dumont, photo in public domain |
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| Margaret Dumont & Groucho Marx in The Cocoanuts (1929); public domain |
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