Almost Lost: The Marx Brothers "Animal Crackers." [18:06]

YouTube ^ | January 28, 2026 | The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

[SunkenCiv]

Each year, based on age and law and international convention, old copyrights expire and once protected works fall into the public domain. Animal Crackers, the second major motion picture to feature the Marx brothers, disappeared for nearly a quarter of a century, and parts of it were nearly forgotten for 86 years, and today it belongs to the public. 

Almost Lost: The Marx Brothers "Animal Crackers." | 18:06 
The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered | 1.62M subscribers | 44,284 views | January 28, 2026

[dynachrome]

Hurray for Captain Spaulding!

[Adder]

That was a good episode!

Always loved “Groucho”: “Say the woid, ya get the boid!” [TV show.]

[Leaning Right]

Mrs. Rittenhouse: Captain, this leaves me speechless.

Capt. Spaulding: Well, see that you remain that way.

[GreenHornet]

While we’re on the subject, let’s not forget Margaret Dumont, “the fifth Marx brother”.

Margaret Dumont's final screen appearance was with Groucho on the variety show "The Hollywood Palace." They reenacted a scene from "Animal Crackers." Margaret Dumont passed away just a few days after this appearance.

[stanne]

“My name is Nora. My boss’s name was Nick. Sadly, no one but the two of us understood why that was funny.”

Sadly, indeed, for people to not know why that’s funny.

[bert]

Recently, in the attempt to see the Thin Man again, I was thwarted.

It has no closed captions I now need to augment the audio

[bert]

What is the understanding of Nick and Nora of which you post?

[OldHarbor]

Tubi has the Thin Man with closed captions. It’s free, no:need to sign up either.

[sauropod]

..

[bert]

Thanks, I’ll go look.

It was Tubi where I recently attempted to watch it absent the captions. Other old movies there also lack captions.

I guess I need to find a switch to turn them on

[BradyLS]

One test: can a joke, bit, sketch, short, or movie stand up by itself without a laugh track?

[tlozo]

[BradyLS]

Disney had their chance!

[stanne]

“We were always welcome to criticize them and anything else we want to. This is America after all.”

When the giant gang of us were little, we were reminded to say ‘I don’t care for it’, if absolutely forced, that is, asked, if we like something that others might enjoy.

We were taught that “it’s a free country, I can say whatever I want” is a mob response to any objection to being polite. The right to free speech keeps us out of most legal trouble, but to be used as an excuse to speak one’s mind rudely, taking away others’ enjoyment, will cause others to distance us socially.

This lesson was reinforced as we found it to be true

Now with social media, anonymity somewhat prevents this check on polite behavior, and to add to the insult, people mob up, gang up.

If a century old film is popular, one would be most careful to not point out the things about it, that they don’t care for, or they’ll be sure to be throwing a wet blanket on the fun.

20 years ago, my grandmother called me from the fab nyc apartment she’d lived in for decades to tell me they were playing the Marx Brothers (a marathon) on
Channel 5.

When we were young adults we watched the Marx bros

We were looking through the boxed set to find A Day at the Races just this past Christmas break

If we hear a loud noise someone will say, ‘you’ve got cockroaches… and the largest one’s got asthma’ and that the Gen Zers

We were looking for a flashlight, I said ‘I gotta have-a-de flush. The kids helped me look, saying ‘da flush, da flisk’

The Marxie’s as they’re known around here are part of the family. But they’re Americana.

[stanne]

“One test: can a joke, bit, sketch, short, or movie stand up by itself without a laugh track?”

We often note this.

One thing about the Marx Bros is, you have to stop, sit and watch. Listen to it.

[Dr. Sivana]

I think I’ve seen clips, but I’ve never seen a prewar comedy that I’ve enjoyed all that much.>/i>

If you haven't, see "My Man Godfrey" with William Powell and Carole Lombard. Lombard is fantastic in that one. All the acting is terrific. Script is excellent. Chemistry is there. It fell into public domain, so it is easy to find for free.

[OldHarbor]

It’s an icon on the bottom right that looks like a word ballon . If you click it, it has English or Off or Advanced Settings for the size and color .

[Dr. Sivana]

Of course I’ve seen the thin man. All six.

His character cut down on the drinking after they have a baby. Kind of of cut down on the humor.

[Dr. Sivana]

They were both just annoying as hell. More annoying than they were funny... Just MHO.

They were absolutely essential to make Groucho's world possible. As it is, the suspension of disbelief is BARELY possible in the early movies, but Harpo and Chico are needed to make it looks like the Marx Brothers have taken over completely. Someone wrote that even Zeppo was needed as the interface between the Marx Brothers and the real world, in that he was "normal" but had an idea of what the other brothers were about.

[stanne]

“His character cut down on the drinking after they have a baby. Kind of of cut down on the humor.”

What comedy has six sequels as did the Thin Man? Or for that matter The Marx Bros? Most have two and the second one rots. They can’t even figure out to name it something other that ‘the original name II’

Of course the quality will be different. The kids around here read the notes. They point out there was a different director later

The favorite around here is the second one. Lt Abrams is a hit.