AT THE CIRCUS (1939)

The ‘tasteful’ house-style that tipped M-G-M films toward ‘respectable’ film-goers during Hollywood’s Golden Age (compared to Paramount’s naughty Euro-Sophistication or Warners’ urban rough & tumble), an æsthetic now fusty & slightly ridiculous, was anathema to the rude tradition of classic film comedians.  So, credit M-G-M Production Chief Irving Thalberg for trying to fix it . . . twice.  Each time signing Bests-in-the-Field during career doldrums.  First, Buster Keaton after three flops (all now celebrated), taming eccentricity with sentiment to earn a well-deserved success in THE CAMERAMAN/’28.  The problem was the alarmingly fast drop in quality that followed.  (Financially, the films continued to be unaccountably successful.)  Two years after Buster left the studio, Thalberg tried again, this time with The Marx Brothers after DUCK SOUP/’33 tanked.  (It too now celebrated.)  Taming Dadaist energy by having the boys godfather romance, adding sentiment & narrative to gags, and A NIGHT A THE OPERA/’35 still holds its own against previous anarchy.  The problem was the alarmingly fast drop in quality that followed.  A DAY AT THE RACES/’37 is usually rated higher than this third outing, but now offers little to choose between them.  Both fighting an all but disqualifying decision to place the boys in an environment that fits like a glove (race track/circus) rather than an environment that makes them outsiders (Grand Opera House).  At least CIRCUS runs twenty minutes shorter, with neat, effective musical solos for Chico & Harpo.  (Harpo again backed by simple Black Folk in a manner meant to be progressive, now looking condescending . . . or worse.)  Groucho gets his best song (Arlen/Harburg’s ‘Lydia, the Tattooed Lady,’ lyrics slightly bowdlerized), and just as many funny comeback lines as in RACES.  (Hilarious when he counts all 400 Society Swells.)  Tenorino Kenny Baker & talent-challenged Florence Rice are hopeless dweebs in the romance department, and the staging of the action climax is nearly as poor as Groucho’s ‘Lydia’ was, though director Edward Buzzell gets a move on compared to Sam Wood’s snoozy RACES.   Added Attraction: HARPO SPEAKS!  Well, sneezes: ‘AHH-Chooo!’   Two films followed at M-G-M, both with added comic relief characters.  Comic relief?  For The Marx Brothers?

DOUBLE-BILL: The Marxes must have known something had gone off, trying an experiment between RACES and CIRCUS by adapting ROOM SERVICE, a straight B’way farce, to their needs as a one-off @ R.K.O.  Square Pegs in Round Holes.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Working at M-G-M, that’s legendary theater caricaturist Al Hirschfeld giving Chico’s faux Italian something beyond a Sicilian’s ‘olive’ complexion on our poster.