At the Circus

Laurence Stallings (uncredited)

***At the Circus*** is a 1939 film starring the Marx Brothers released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in which they help save a circus from bankruptcy. The film contains Groucho Marx's classic rendition of "Lydia the Tattooed Lady". The supporting cast includes Florence Rice, Kenny Baker, Margaret Dumont, and Eve Arden. The songs, including "Lydia the Tattooed Lady", "Two Blind Loves", and "Step Up and Take a Bow", were written by the team of Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg.

## Plot

Goliath, the circus strongman and the midget, Little Professor Atom, both employed by Wilson's Wonder Circus, are accomplices of bad guy John Carter who is trying to take over the circus, owned by Jeff Wilson. Julie Randall, Jeff's girlfriend, performs a horse act in the circus. Jeff has hidden $10,000 in cash, which he owes to Carter, in the cage of Gibraltar the gorilla. When Jeff goes to retrieve the money to give to Carter from Gibraltar's cage on the circus train, Carter has Goliath and Atom knock out Jeff and steal the $10,000.

Jeff's friend and circus employee, Antonio 'Tony' Pirelli, summons attorney J. Cheever Loophole to investigate the situation. Loophole discovers Carter's moll, Peerless Pauline, is hiding the money, but she outwits him and he fails to retrieve it. Later, Tony and his partner Punchy search Goliath's stateroom on the circus train for the money, but are unsuccessful.

With Carter about to foreclose on the circus, Loophole discovers that Jeff's aunt is the wealthy Mrs. Susanna Dukesbury, and he tricks her into paying $10,000 for the Wilson Wonder Circus to entertain the Newport 400, instead of a performance by French conductor Jardinet, and his symphony orchestra. The audience is delighted with the circus; when the blustery Jardinet arrives, Loophole, who delayed the Frenchman's arrival by implicating him in a dope ring, disposes of the conductor and his orchestra by having Tony and Punchy cut the moorings on a floating bandstand as they play Wagner's prelude to act III of *Lohengrin* at the water's edge.

Meanwhile, Carter and his henchmen try to burn down the circus, but are thwarted by Tony and Punchy, along with the only witness to the robbery: Gibraltar the gorilla, who also retrieves Jeff's money from Carter after a big trapeze finale, which features Tony shooting Mrs. Dukesbury out of a cannon.

## Cast

* Groucho Marx as Attorney J. Cheever Loophole
* Chico Marx as Antonio "Tony" Pirelli
* Harpo Marx as "Punchy"
* Kenny Baker as Jeff Wilson
* Florence Rice as Julie Randall
* Eve Arden as Peerless Pauline
* Margaret Dumont as Mrs. Susanna Dukesbury
* Nat Pendleton as Goliath the Strongman
* Fritz Feld as Jardinet
* James Burke as John Carter
* Jerry Maren as Little Professor Atom (credited as Jerry Marenghi)
* Barnett Parker as Whitcomb
* Edmund Mortimer as Judge Chanock (uncredited)
* Irving Bacon as Telegraph clerk (uncredited)
* Frank Orth as Diner cook (uncredited)
* Charles Gemora as Gibraltar the Gorilla (uncredited)
* Emory Parnell as Ringmaster (uncredited)

## Musical Numbers

* "Step Up And Take A Bow" (Arlen/Harburg)
* "Lydia, the Tattooed Lady" (Arlen/Harburg)
* "Two Blind Loves" (Arlen/Harburg)
* "Swingali" (Arlen/Harburg)
* Blue Moon"
* "Beer Barrel Polka"

## Trivia

* Groucho was aged 48 during the filming of *At the Circus*, and his hairline had begun receding. As such, he took to wearing a toupee in the film and would do the same for the following film, *Go West*
* The name of Groucho's character in this film, J. Cheever Loophole, recalls that of real-life financier J. Cheever Cowdin. Groucho as J. Cheever Loophole was originally introduced in a key scene set in a courtroom which was filmed, but cut from the picture.
* One of Groucho's oft-repeated stories about the filming *At the Circus* concerned the gorilla skin that an actor wore. On *The Dick Cavett Show* taped June 13, 1969, he said that the actor was too hot inside the skin under the bright lights, and during lunch he went to the studio commissary and poked several holes in the skin with an icepick. Upon discovering the holes, the manager of the gorilla skin became extremely angry and took the skin away. MGM scoured southern California for a replacement and finally located an orangutan skin in San Diego. An orangutan is much smaller than a gorilla, so a shorter actor was hired to fit inside it. Groucho said he received many inquiries about this, and some viewers he happened to meet would ask him why the gorilla was noticeably smaller in the second half of the picture.
* Reviews from critics were generally not as positive as those for earlier Marx Brothers films.