Animal Crackers (1930 film)

Society matron Mrs. Rittenhouse hosts a weekend party at her Long Island mansion in honor of renowned African explorer Captain Jeffrey T. Spaulding, who has recently returned from his expeditions. The evening's entertainment includes the unveiling of art patron Roscoe W. Chandler's newly acquired painting, After The Hunt, by artist Beaugard. Musical accompaniment is provided by Signor Emanuel Ravelli and his silent partner, known only as the Professor.

Captain Spaulding arrives dramatically in a sedan chair but announces his immediate departure while performing "Hello, I Must Be Going." Meanwhile, Mrs. Rittenhouse's daughter Arabella devises a plan to advance her fiancé John Parker's artistic career. Having painted a nearly perfect copy of the Beaugard work during his art studies, John hopes to substitute his version for the original, thereby impressing Chandler with his talent when the deception is revealed. Arabella enlists Ravelli's assistance in executing the switch.

Unbeknownst to Arabella, two other guests—Grace Carpenter and Mrs. Whitehead—have conceived an identical scheme, though their motivation is to embarrass Mrs. Rittenhouse rather than promote artistic talent. Grace has also created a copy of the painting, albeit of inferior quality, and the conspirators persuade Hives, the Rittenhouse butler and Mrs. Whitehead's former employee, to make the substitution. In their ignorance of the first plot, they inadvertently remove John's superior copy rather than the original.

The situation becomes further complicated when Ravelli and the Professor encounter Chandler and recognize him as "Abie," a fish peddler from Czechoslovakia operating under an assumed identity.{{efn|Some sources{{sfn|Mitchell|2012|p=20}}{{sfn|Kanfer|2000|p=134}} say that Ravelli identifies this character as "Abe Kabibble", which is one of the identities that he guesses (and is quickly discarded) before the positive identification as "Abie". "Abe Kabibble" was the lead character in comic strip Abie the Agent, which was about a Jewish car salesman who looked somewhat like the Chandler character.{{sfn|Coniam|2015|p=43}}}} During a nighttime thunderstorm that puts out the mansion's lights, Ravelli and the Professor attempt their own painting switch in darkness, only to be interrupted by Captain Spaulding and Mrs. Rittenhouse.

At the painting's public unveiling, Chandler immediately detects the substitution due to Grace's copy's poor craftsmanship and realizes his valuable artwork has been stolen. John, observing the revealed painting, mistakenly believes his own work is still in place and becomes discouraged by Chandler's negative reaction. A second power outage occurs during the commotion, and when illumination returns, even the substitute painting has vanished.

Police arrive the following day to investigate the theft. John discovers Grace's inferior copy and realizes to Arabella that multiple parties have attempted the same deception. After retrieving another version from the Professor, John and Arabella present their findings to Captain Spaulding. The Professor is apprehended, and all three paintings are recovered and sorted out. When Chandler briefly mistakes John's skillful copy for the genuine Beaugard, he recognizes the young man's artistic ability and commissions him for a series of portrait paintings.

In the film's conclusion, the Professor escapes custody and employs a Flit gun to spray the assembled guests with a sedative substance, rendering everyone unconscious. After successfully incapacitating all present, the Professor knocks himself out as well, ending the film with all characters sprawled unconscious on the floor.

• Groucho Marx as Captain Jeffrey Spaulding{{efn|On the opening cast card, Groucho is billed as "Jeffrey Spaulding". A newspaper headline shown immediately after the credits identifies him as "Captain Geoffrey T. Spaulding"}}
• Harpo Marx as The Professor
• Chico Marx as Signor Emanuel Ravelli
• Zeppo Marx as Horatio Jamison
• Lillian Roth as Arabella Rittenhouse
• Margaret Dumont as Mrs. Rittenhouse
• Louis Sorin as Roscoe W. Chandler
• Hal Thompson as John Parker
• Margaret Irving as Mrs. Whitehead
• Kathryn Reece as Grace Carpenter
• Robert Greig as Hives, the butler
• Edward Metcalf as Inspector Hennessey
• The Music Masters as Six Footmen

Following the commercial success of the Marx Brothers' previous film, The Cocoanuts, Paramount Pictures was eager to produce a followup. The studio signed the comedy team in February 1930, initially planning to commission an original screenplay from Ben Hecht since Paramount had not yet secured the rights to the brothers' then-current Broadway musical Animal Crackers from producer Sam H. Harris. However, by March, Paramount had obtained the film rights and began pre-production with the goal of commencing filming in May.{{sfn|Bader|2022|p=345}}

Much of the cast, including the Marx Brothers, Robert Grieg, Margaret Dumont, Louis Sorin, and Margaret Irving, reprised their roles from the Broadway production. Notably, the love interests from the play - Alice Wood as Arabella Rittenhouse and Milton Watson as John Parker - were replaced by Lillian Roth and Hal Thompson. In Lillian Roth's autobiography I'll Cry Tomorrow, she remembered being told at a party of her casting by Paramount's head of West Coast production, B. P. Schulberg. They started by talking about her behavior on set, in which she describes herself as having been "temperamental and difficult". She then remembers Schulberg saying "We're sending you back to New York to be kicked in the rear by the Marx Brothers until you learn how to behave." She viewed this as a punishment, saying "I was stunned. I left him standing [...] and ran crying into another room. But his word was law."{{cite book |last1=Roth |first1=Lillian |title=I'll Cry Tomorrow |date=1954 |publisher=Frederick Fell, Inc |location=New York |isbn=1563708345 |page=84}}

In addition to Roth, the Marxes themselves were also known for their behavior issues. The performers were notorious for arriving late and departing early. Chico would regularly leave during production breaks to gamble, and never return.{{sfn|Bader|2022|p=333}} To handle Roth and the Marxes, Paramount enlisted director Victor Heerman, who was known for his disciplinary approach with unruly performers.{{cite book|last=Kanfer|first=Stefan|title=Groucho: The Life and Times of Julius Henry Marx|year=2000|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|isbn=0-375-70207-5|p=132}}

Rumors have circulated claiming that Captain Spaulding was named after an army officer arrested a few years earlier for selling cocaine to Hollywood residents, but Groucho denied this, saying "Contrary to popular mythology, Captain Spaulding's name wasn't taken from that of a Hollywood dope peddler. The name was concocted by two New Yorkers who'd spent little time in California: Kaufman and Ryskind."{{cite book|last=Marx|first=Groucho|title=The Groucho Phile|year=1976|publisher=Bobbs-Merrill Co.|isbn=0883654334|page=106}}

Paramount was determined to avoid the technical difficulties that had plagued The Cocoanuts. During the early sound era, film studios faced significant challenges in capturing quality audio recordings. The earlier film's production had been hampered by primitive sound recording technology, forcing directors to employ cumbersome workarounds to capture dialogue without background interference. These limitations required minimal camera movement and unusual measures such as soaking paper props in water to prevent audible crinkling—a technique particularly noticeable during the famous Why a Duck? sequence.{{sfn|Mitchell|2012|p=76}} By 1930, recording technology had advanced sufficiently to eliminate most of these constraints, though music still required on-set recording rather than post-production dubbing, complicating the editing process.{{sfn|Bader|2022|p=347}}

To streamline the stage-to-screen adaptation—a process that presented unique challenges during the early sound era—Paramount addressed another issue from The Cocoanuts, which had originally run longer than its Broadway source and required extensive cuts to achieve a manageable runtime.{{sfn|Mitchell|2012|p=76}} The studio enlisted co-author Morrie Ryskind to accompany the Marx Brothers on tour, observing performances from the theater's rear with script and notebook in hand to identify material suitable for elimination.{{sfn|Bader|2022|p=346}} The revision process resulted in significant structural changes to the original musical. Entire characters and scenes were removed, with some roles consolidated for narrative efficiency. The stage version's separate female love interest was merged with the character of Arabella Rittenhouse, while the wealthy financier Roscoe Chandler was combined with art dealer Monsieur Doucet.{{cite book |last1=Coniam |first1=Matthew |title=The Annotated Marx Brothers: A Filmgoer's Guide to In-Jokes, Obscure References and Sly Details |date=February 19, 2015 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-9705-8 |page=32 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2oyoBgAAQBAJ |language=en}}

In the end, it was director Heerman who provided the most drastic cuts, insisting on the removal of most of the musical numbers, including the play's grand finale, which featured the brothers as 18th-century French courtiers romancing Madame du Barry.{{sfn|Coniam|2015|p=33}} When the Marx Brothers, Ryskind, and composers Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby objected to removing the musical elements, Heerman screened early test footage for an invited audience.{{sfn|Kanfer|2000|p=134}} The positive response to this preview convinced the creative team to support Heerman's vision, though the director agreed to retain the Hooray for Captain Spaulding number at Ryskind's urging.{{sfn|Bader|2022|p=346}}

Filming began in May at the Astoria Studios in Queens. The Rittenhouse manor set, built by art director William Saulter, included a detailed lawn and interior, and was the largest built to that point in the Astoria building.{{sfn|Bader|2022|p=345}}

In spite of Heerman's disciplinary approach, the Marxes continued to misbehave. Lillian Roth remembered the filming as being "one step removed from a circus. First Zeppo, the youngest, sauntered into the studio, about 9:30. At 10 somebody remembered to telephone Chico and wake him. Harpo, meanwhile, popped in, saw that most of the cast was missing, and strolled off. Later they found him asleep in his dressing room. Chico arrived about this time. Groucho, who had been golfing, arrived somewhat later, his clubs slung over his shoulder. He came in with his knees-bent walk, pulled a cigar out of his mouth, and with a mad, sidewise glance, announced, "Anybody for lunch?" Work resumed at mid-afternoon, and then it was five o'clock, and they were finished for the day."{{sfn|Roth|1954|p=84-85}} Chico, who was married at the time, began seeing Roth's sister Ann. This relationship carried on for years; in her memoir Growing Up With Chico, Chico's daughter Maxine described it as having nearly ended her parents' marriage.{{cite book|last=Marx|first=Maxine|title=Growing Up with Chico|year=1980|publisher=Prentice-Hall|isbn=087910-059-1|p=107-111}} While rumors have persisted that Heerman constructed an actual jail cell to confine his stars, the director denied this, saying "These were adult men [...] and they didn't have to be locked in."{{sfn|Bader|2022|p=347}} Contemporary reports support this, describing a makeup trailer that was decorated to resemble a jail cell, complete with "Animal Crackers Hoosegow" painted on its exterior, which was never locked, but served as a relaxation space for the performers.{{sfn|Bader|2022|p=347}}

During the screen tests for Animal Crackers, some shots were filmed using Multicolor, an early color process. This footage, the earliest known color film of the Marx Brothers, is notable for an appearance by Harpo without his usual costume and wig. The footage was later incorporated into a short film entitled Wonderland of California, despite the fact that Animal Crackers was both set and filmed in New York. Although shooting the film entirely in color would have been prohibitively expensive, this Multicolor footage was later used to help persuade Howard Hughes to invest in the process; he later used it for one scene in his film Hell's Angels.{{cite book |last1=Bader |first1=Robert S. |title=Four of the Three Musketeers: The Marx Brothers on Stage |date=September 15, 2022 |publisher=Northwestern University Press |isbn=978-0-8101-4575-7 |url= |language=en|page=346}} Approximately 15 seconds of this footage resurfaced in the 1990s, and was aired as a part of the 1998 Turner Classic Movies documentary Glorious Technicolor. The American Widescreen Museum, [http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/oldcolor/oldcolor.htm Early Color Motion Pictures], WidescreenMuseum.com, 2003. Accessed February 8, 2010.

Several viewers of Animal Crackers have observed that the brothers' characters appear to be played by stand-ins during the blackout sequence where the paintings are switched.{{sfn|Coniam|2015|p=47}} There is no known documentation that indicates whether stand-ins were used in this scene, nor why they would have been used, or what their identities would have been. Some have hypothesized that Zeppo may have doubled for Groucho, since he sometimes did so on stage, but there is no evidence of this.{{sfn|Coniam|2015|p=48}} Matthew Coniam, author of The Annotated Marx Brothers, identifies the brothers' official stand-ins as Jack Cooper (for Harpo), Packey O'Gatty (for Chico), and Henry Van Bousen (for Groucho).{{sfn|Coniam|2015|p=49}}

Principal photography forAnimal Crackers was complete by mid-June, although Harpo, who had developed glandular fever, had to be brought back over the July 4th weekend to film his harp solo.{{sfn|Bader|2022|p=348}}

Because the film industry had adopted the Motion Picture Production Code in 1930, the producers of Animal Crackers had to submit their script for approval prior to filming. This process resulted in multiple cuts to the original material, although much content survived because the code wasn't strictly enforced until 1934. Several scenes and lines were removed or modified during pre-production. References to Arabella Rittenhouse's drinking were cut, including the line "Don't worry, mother, I won't disgrace you. I can hold my liquor with any of them." The censors also removed references to Mussolini and required changes to Jamison's lyric, transforming "the women hot, the champagne cold" to the more acceptable "the women warm, the champagne cold." Perhaps most significantly, an entire sequence involving Zeppo was eliminated—one in which he attempted to pull "an intimate undergarment out of a woman's bosom with his teeth," followed by a "scene on the couch with the girl throwing her legs in the air and exposing her crotch after he bites her."{{Cite book| last = Louvish | first = Simon | author-link = Simon Louvish | title = Monkey Business: The Lives and Legends of the Marx Brothers | publisher = St. Martin's Press |year=2000| location = New York | isbn = 978-0-312-25292-2|p=209-211}}

After filming was complete, censors suggested another round of cuts, though these were largely ignored by the studio. The proposed deletions included suggestive double entendres such as "We took some pictures of the native girls but they weren't developed. We are going back in a couple of weeks" and "Signor Ravelli will oblige us at the piano. His first selection is 'Somewhere My Love Lies Sleeping' with a male chorus."{{sfn|Louvish|p=209-211}} The most notable post-production censorship involved Captain Spaulding's signature song. The line "I think I'll try to make her"—which followed Mrs. Rittenhouse's declaration that "He was the only white man to cover every acre"—was flagged for removal but initially retained. This innuendo survived the film's original 1930 release; when the film was re-released in 1936, the Production Code's enforcement was stringently enforced, and the line was cut. It was long believed that this footage had been lost forever, until an early print was discovered in the archives of the British Film Institute.{{Cite news|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/04/marx-brothers-horse-feathers|title=If There's a Marx Brothers Revival Coming, It Will Begin This Weekend|last=Liebenson|first=Donald|newspaper=HWD|access-date=October 18, 2016}}

• He's One of Those Men (Hives and Footmen)
• I Represent the Captain (Zeppo)
• Hooray for Captain Spaulding Part I (The Cast){{cite web |url=http://members.tripod.com/Cleo256/marx/spaulding.html |title=Lyrics to Hooray for Captain Spaulding |access-date=April 2, 2007 | archive-url= https://archive.today/20070404035821/http://members.tripod.com/Cleo256/marx/spaulding.html| archive-date= April 4, 2007 | url-status= live}}
• Hello, I Must Be Going (Groucho)
• Hooray for Captain Spaulding Part II (Cast)
• Why Am I So Romantic? (Arabella and John, and as a harp interlude with Harpo)
• I'm Daffy Over You (Chico){{efn|The refrain to "I'm Daffy Over You" is sometimes confused with the 1950s song "Sugar in the Morning"}}
• Silver Threads Among the Gold (Chico)
• Brief piano interlude (Harpo)
• Gypsy-chorus (a.k.a. Anvil Chorus) (Chico)
• My Old Kentucky Home (Marx Brothers)

The songs from Animal Crackers have maintained a lasting presence in popular culture. Groucho's songs, "Hello, I Must Be Going" and "Hooray for Captain Spaulding", both written by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby, became recurring themes for the actor through the years. Both songs have seen impact beyond the brothers, as well. "Hello, I Must Be Going" inspired British musician Phil Collins to title his 1982 album after the song. The tune has also been featured prominently in film soundtracks, accompanying the opening credits of Woody Allen's Whatever Works (2009) and serving as a thematic element in Oliver Stone's miniseries Wild Palms, where it was both the title of the final episode and performed by villain Senator Kreutzer (Robert Loggia) as he died. "Hooray For Captain Spaulding" has similarly endured. An instrumental version of the song served as the theme music for most of the run of Groucho Marx's quiz show You Bet Your Life. Additionally, Woody Allen incorporated both English and French performances of the song in a scene toward the end of his 1996 movie musical Everyone Says I Love You, at a party scene in Paris where all the guests are dressed as Groucho Marx. Chico's piano composition "I'm Daffy over You" would be played again in their next feature film, Monkey Business, in the film's score and by Harpo on the harp.

Critics have noted that the brothers function as anti-establishment figures who systematically dismantle social hierarchies and cultural pretensions. Their anarchic behavior exposes the absurdity of high society's rituals and the hollowness of its claims to sophistication. Captain Spaulding's ridiculous explorer persona and the art theft plot satirize the wealthy's obsession with cultural status symbols. As Simon Louvish observes, "Inexorably, the Brothers get to trash 'polite' society, stripping it of its pretensions and conceits. Abie the Fishpeddler is exposed, the police are confounded, and the sweet hopes of youth are realized."{{sfn|Louvish|2000|p=218}}"

However, Louvish also identifies the Marx Brothers as participants in this social structure, saying "somewhere in the story is the idea that society - despite, or even because of, its absurdities - will triumph, in the end, against the revolutionaries, who are not, at the end of the day, out to destroy it, but to join it, under their own quirky terms."{{sfn|Louvish|2000|p=218-219}} He identifies Captain Spaulding as a "social climber"{{sfn|Louvish|2000|p=216}} and Harpo's final act of anesthetizing himself alongside the party guests as evidence that the brothers, who present themselves as bomb-throwers, ultimately want to join the establishment.{{sfn|Louvish|2000|p=219}}

Animal Crackers showcases the Marx Brothers' signature brand of anarchic humor, relying heavily on puns, non-sequiturs, and the subversion of norms. Their comedic techniques are diverse, ranging from Groucho's verbal assaults and quick wit to Harpo's silent, visual gags and Chico's misinterpretations and musical interludes.

Avant-garde author Antonin Artaud wrote about Animal Crackers's anarchism in his 1938 collection The Theater and its Double. Artaud saw the film as bringing about a "liberation through the medium of the screen of a particular magic which the ordinary relation of words and images does not customarily reveal, and if there is a definite characteristic, a distinct poetic state of mind that can be called surrealism, Animal Crackers participated in that state altogether". He goes on to say that the type of humor exemplified by the film has "a sense of essential liberation, of destruction of all reality in the mind."{{cite book |last1=Artaud |first1=Antonin |title=The Theater and its Double |date=1958 |publisher=Grove Press Inc |location=New York |page=142}} For Artaud, an essential element of the film's humor lies in its surrealist logic, where one moment does not naturally follow from the next.

The surrealist quality that Artaud identified manifests throughout the film in various ways. Groucho's dialogue exemplifies this surrealist quality through its unexpected twists and logical absurdities. This can be seen in lines like "Africa is God's country – and He can have it"; "You mind if I don't smoke?"; and the line listed among the AFI's 100 Greatest Movie Quotes: "One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don't know." The listener's expectations of the end of the joke are subverted.

The film also subverts existing surrealist material, playing against audience expectations. Groucho performs a parody of the play Strange Interlude by Eugene O'Neill, in which the characters surrealistically break the fourth wall, addressing the audience in a deep, droning voice to deliver philosophical asides that comment on the plot. Groucho does the same, but comically devolves the speech into a recitation of stock market prices: "And in those corridors I see figures, strange figures, weird figures: Steel 186, Anaconda 74, American Can 138..."{{efn|This dialogue can also be seen as a commentary on Groucho's real-life financial woes following the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Groucho had heavy investments in Anaconda Copper and, after having lost everything in the crash, experienced a bout of depression and insomnia.{{cite web| url = http://ww.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=114181633| title = Comedy And The Economic Crash Of 1929}}}} This technique demonstrates what Artaud identified as the Marx Brothers' ability to destroy 'all reality in the mind'—here, the reality of highbrow theatrical convention.

Marxian surrealism can be seen in the well-known Chico–Harpo "flash" scene, as well: a classic example of miscommunication leading to escalating absurdity. Chico repeatedly asks Harpo for "a flash" (meaning a flashlight), prompting Harpo to produce a series of unrelated items from his seemingly bottomless coat, including a fish, a flask, a flute, and a "flit" gun, highlighting his literal interpretation and physical comedy.

Zeppo Marx, often considered the "straight man" of the group, also participates in the comedic dynamic. In a notable scene, Groucho dictates a convoluted letter to his lawyers, and Zeppo, when asked to read it back, informs him, "You said a lot of things I didn't think were very important, so I just omitted them." This unexpected act of rebellion against Groucho's verbose instructions demonstrates Zeppo's unique comedic contribution. Joe Adamson, in Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Sometimes Zeppo, observed that this scene disproved the common notion that Zeppo was the least of the Marx Brothers: "It takes a Marx Brother to pull something like that on a Marx Brother and get away with it."

Animal Crackers premiered on August 28, 1930, at the Rialto Theatre in New York.{{sfn|Bader|2022|p=348}} It ran 99 minutes. Like its predecessor The Cocoanuts, it was a financial success. Estimates from its release weekend were around $30,000, which was enough to put it in first place at the box office.{{cite news|date=September 3, 1930|title='Crackers' at Par., L.A., $30,000|journal=Variety|location=Los Angeles|page=8}} By June 1932, the film had earned $1.5 million in worldwide theatrical rentals.{{cite news|date=June 21, 1932|title=Big Sound Grosses|journal=Variety|location=New York|page=62}} In 1936, the film was reissued with several small cuts to accommodate the Production Code. This version ran about 98 minutes.{{sfn|Mitchell|2011|p=19}}

Contemporary reviews were mostly positive. {{Rotten Tomatoes prose|97|8|30}}.{{cite web|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/animal_crackers|title=Animal Crackers|website=Rotten Tomatoes|publisher=Fandango Media|access-date=June 3, 2025|archive-date=May 6, 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250506135017/https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/animal_crackers|url-status=live}} {{MC film|77|9}}{{cite web|url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/animal-crackers-1930/|title=Animal Crackers Reviews|website=Metacritic|publisher=Fandom, Inc.|access-date=June 3, 2025|archive-date=May 29, 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250529134825/https://www.metacritic.com/movie/animal-crackers-1930/|url-status=live}} Critic Mordaunt Hall of The New York Times gave it a positive review, describing it as a "further example of amusing nonsense ... This mad affair suits the principals and its absurdities brought forth gales of laughter yesterday afternoon." He added the caveat that "It is, however, the sort of thing that will only appeal to those who revel in the work of these four brothers."{{cite news |last1=Hall |first1=Mordaunt |title=THE SCREEN; The Marx Brothers |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1930/08/29/archives/the-screen-the-marx-brothers.html |access-date=3 June 2025 |agency=The New York Times |date=August 29, 1930}}

The trade publications gave Animal Crackers positive coverage. The Film Daily compared it favorably to The Cocoanuts, saying "The four Marx Brothers are back in the talkers, this time doing better than in their first. Their popular brand of comedy pervades the picture, so much in fact that there is little footage left for a love plot of any importance. While most of the repartee is nonsense, it gets the laughs and that's what counts."{{cite news |title=Animal Crackers |url=https://archive.org/details/filmdailyvolume55354newy/page/512/mode/2up |access-date=4 June 2025 |work=The Film Daily |date=August 3, 1930}} By contrast, given the film's immediate financial success, the positive review in Variety focused more on the implications for the film industry in successfully translating a stage comedy to the screen, saying "Perhaps a little trade stuff here might serve better than a waste of words to tell about a dough film that's already in". They went on to predict that the public would stop going to see touring shows, opting instead to wait for the release of the film: "[G]iving Paramount extreme credit for reproducing Animal Crackers intact from the stage. [...] That is of such benefit it asks why Animal Crackers on stage at $5.50, when even the ruralites know they will see it later on the screen for 50 or 75c?"{{cite news |last1=Silverman |first1=Sime |title=Animal Crackers (With Songs) |url=https://archive.org/details/variety100-1930-09/page/n17/mode/2up |access-date=4 June 2025 |work=Variety |date=September 3, 1930}}

Paramount Pictures did not originally contract for renewal rights to the play and failed to renegotiate when they expired. Consequently, the studio's rights to the play expired in 1956 and reverted to the original authors: playwrights George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, composer Harry Ruby, and lyricist Bert Kalmar.{{cite book|last=Mitchell|first=Glenn|title=The Marx Brothers Encyclopedia|year=2012|edition=3rd|publisher=Titan Books|isbn=9780857687784|page=25}} When MCA Inc. acquired the film rights in 1958, they attempted to secure the stage play rights but could not meet Kaufman's and Ryskind's financial demands.{{cite news|newspaper=Minneapolis Tribune|page=1D|last=Maltin|first=Leonard|author-link=Leonard Maltin|date=June 23, 1974|title=Lost, strayed or ? - where are those classic films of today?}}

These legal restrictions prevented theatrical releases and television broadcasts in the United States, though the film could be shown on Canadian television, which fell outside the restricted territory. Marx Brothers fans could only access the film through 16mm copies of Canadian TV prints circulating among collectors. Some theaters risked showing these inferior, unauthorized copies to audiences, but these revivals received little publicity and escaped MCA's attention. One such screening occurred at the Old Town Music Hall in Anaheim, California, in December 1973. UCLA student and Marx Brothers enthusiast Steve Stoliar attended and subsequently contacted Groucho Marx to seek his support for a campaign to persuade Universal to re-release the film.{{sfn|Stoliar|2011|p=26}} Groucho agreed to appear at UCLA for a publicity event.{{cite book |last1=Stoliar |first1=Steve |title=Raised Eyebrows: My Years Inside Groucho's House |date=2011 |publisher=BearManor Media |location=Albany, GA |isbn=978-1-59393-652-5 |pages=32}}

On February 7, 1974, Groucho and his assistant Erin Fleming visited UCLA under the auspices of Stoliar's newly formed "Committee for the Re-release of Animal Crackers" (CRAC).{{sfn|Stoliar|2011|p=28}} The event attracted approximately 200 students, generated over 2,000 signatures on re-release petitions, and drew several reporters. Universal quickly responded to the publicity. A studio spokesman told the UCLA Daily Bruin that they were "delighted" by the interest and claimed: "we have negotiated with the heirs of the writers (Morrie Ryskind and George S. Kaufman), but they were asking much more than we wanted to spend. Just recently we reached an agreement, and we're waiting to sign the contracts."{{cite news |last1=Silverstein |first1=Stuart |title=Groucho Returns to College |work=UCLA Daily Bruin |date=February 8, 1974}} Although Kaufman had died by then, Ryskind was still alive, and would remain so until 1985.

The UCLA appearance generated national press coverage and led to Groucho's appearance on The Merv Griffin Show. In April 1974, Universal Vice President Arnold Shane informed Groucho and Stoliar that the studio was "delighted with the response of the students." To gauge public interest, Universal screened a new print at the UA Theater in Westwood on May 23, 1974. Groucho made a personal appearance. Encouraged by the enthusiastic response—with lines stretching around the block for months—Universal screened the film at New York's Sutton Theater on June 23. Groucho attended this premiere as well, where a near-riot erupted and police escort was required. Following these successful screenings, Animal Crackers entered national release.{{sfn|Stoliar|2011|p=36-42}} Animal Crackers continued to be withheld from television until July 21, 1979, when CBS broadcast a special showing of the film.{{cite news |last1=O'Connor |first1=John J |title='Animal Crackers' Makes Belated Debut |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1979/07/20/111048628.html?pageNumber=64 |access-date=30 May 2025 |work=The New York Times |date=July 20, 1979}}

The complete, uncut version of Animal Crackers—which had been available only in an edited form since its 1936 reissue—was restored in 2016 from a 35mm duplicate negative held by the British Film Institute.{{cite web |last1=Cearns |first1=Liz |title=Newly-Discovered Marx Brox. Footage |url=https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Newly-Discovered-Marx-Bros-Footage-20160916 |website=Broadway World |access-date=30 May 2025}} Universal Pictures released the restoration in DCP format for theatrical distribution and on Blu-ray for home video as part of The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection, featuring optional commentary by film historian Jeffrey Vance.{{cite web |title=The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection (The Cocoanuts / Animal Crackers / Monkey Business / Horse Feathers / Duck Soup) - Restored Edition [Blu-ray] |url=https://www.amazon.com/Brothers-Collection-Cocoanuts-Crackers-Business/dp/B0DQ2D47X5/ |website=amazon.com |access-date=30 May 2025}}

• Captain Spaulding is mentioned in the song "Lydia, the Tattooed Lady" written by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg. Groucho performs the song in the Marx Bros. film, At the Circus (1939); Virginia Weidler also sings it in The Philadelphia Story (1940).
• "Captain Spaulding" is one of many Marx Brothers character-related pseudonyms for Sid Haig's murderous clown character, John Cutter, in Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses and its sequel The Devil's Rejects.
• The film is referenced in Murray Takes a Stand, a 1976 episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
• In the TV series M*A*S*H, in which actor Alan Alda's portrayal of Hawkeye Pierce is inspired by Groucho, early episodes featured a character named Captain Calvin Spalding, played by musician Loudon Wainwright III.

• List of United States comedy films
• Kalmar and Ruby songwriting team

{{Notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category|Animal Crackers (1930 film)}}

{{Wikiquote}}

• {{IMDb title|0020640|Animal Crackers}}
• {{Tcmdb title|67408|Animal Crackers}}
• [http://www.filmsite.org/anim.html Full description of Animal Crackers from Filmsite.org]
• [http://www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=10753 Internet Broadway Database entry on Animal Crackers]
• {{YouTube|Kvje18C018M|Multicolor test filmed on set of Animal Crackers}}
• [http://members.tripod.com/Cleo256/marx/spaulding.html Hooray for Captain Spaulding]

{{Marx Brothers}}

{{George Kaufman}}

{{Victor Heerman}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:1930 films

Category:1930 comedy films

Category:American black-and-white films

Category:American comedy films

Category:Films based on musicals

Category:Films directed by Victor Heerman

Category:Films scored by Harry Ruby

Category:Films set in country houses

Category:Films set on Long Island

Category:Films shot at Astoria Studios

Category:Marx Brothers (film series)

Category:Paramount Pictures films

Category:1930s English-language films

Category:1930s American films