Animal Crackers
About Animal Crackers
Mrs. Rittenhouse gives a Long Island party for Captain Jeffrey T. Spaulding, back from Africa. Roscoe W. Chandler's painting After the Hunt, by Beaugard, is the prize of the house. Arabella Rittenhouse and John Parker plan to swap in John's copy. Mrs. Whitehead and Grace Carpenter put in a copy of their own. During a blackout, Signor Emanuel Ravelli and the Professor try a switch too. The copies are sorted out and the original comes back.
Cast & crew
More about Animal Crackers
Victor Heerman directed. Morrie Ryskind adapted the 1928 musical by George S. Kaufman and Ryskind, with songs by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby. Paramount shot it at the Astoria Studios and released it on August 28, 1930.
Themes
Reviews
Mordaunt Hall, in the New York Times, called it a further example of amusing nonsense and wrote that the absurdities brought gales of laughter.
Look
George J. Folsey photographed the Astoria production.
Music
Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby wrote the songs, including Hooray for Captain Spaulding and Why Am I So Romantic?
Preservation
Restored in 2016 from a British Film Institute print, including shots cut for the 1936 reissue. It entered the public domain in the United States in 2026.
Notes
- Groucho Marx plays Spaulding. Harpo is the Professor. Chico is Ravelli. Zeppo is the secretary Horatio Jamison. Margaret Dumont plays Mrs. Rittenhouse. Lillian Roth plays Arabella.
- U.S. and Canadian rentals were reported at $3,100,000.
- A 1936 reissue cut material that a 2016 restoration, from a British Film Institute print, put back. The film was re-released in 1974.
Scenes
- The lights go out and Ravelli and the Professor try their own switch of the painting.
Influenced by
- The 1928 stage musical Animal Crackers
