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

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TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: animalcrackers; films; godsgravesglyphs; lancegeiger; marxbrothers; movies

[SunkenCiv]

Lance Geiger is THG (The History Guy).

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[SunkenCiv]

The weekly digest list of topics is up top.

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If you want to post a transcript, CLICK HERE, and DO NOT PING ME.

[stanne]

What constitutes good comedy, indeed.

[SunkenCiv]

I think I’ve seen clips, but I’ve never seen a prewar comedy that I’ve enjoyed all that much. The Thin Man had five sequels which were played for laughs, but those Powell/Loy were dynamite together. They made 13 films together in total.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0020640/

https://tubitv.com/movies/100045289/animal-crackers

[stanne]

Of course I’ve seen the thin man. All six. What American hasn’t?

[Bullish]

I liked Groucho alot, but I never could really stand the Chico and Harpo characters. They were both just annoying as hell. More annoying than they were funny... Just MHO.

[howlinhound]

They were both professional-quality musicians though. The piano and harp playing were not faked.

[stanne]

Oh geeze

Ya

That’s why the Marx Brothers still play on TCM a hundred years later

[Bullish]

Just my take that I’ve always had on the Marx bros. You’re welcome to have your own. The bits by Chico and Harpo were really stupid. At least Graucho had lots of good lines.

[stanne]

They are a hundred years old. AST their copyrights expire, so has the opportunity and the welcome to criticize them

[Bullish]

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

[glorgau]

Holy cow! Something actually fell out of copyright!

[stanne]

I you were welcome? To criticize tre Marx Brithers? On a milestone announcement?

Don’t wonder if you’re not popular

[Paladin2]

I watched the first half of this movie.

It’s stupid.

[Leaning Right]

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

[freepertoo]

I have been an enormous Marx Brothers fan since that 70s revival. This is wonderful news. Their comedy was years ahead of it’s time.

[freepertoo]

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

[Leaning Right]

I’m a big Marx Brothers fan, too. You might enjoy the “A Night at the Opera” copy that has a commentary by Leonard Maltin. Maltin’s commentary adds a lot.

I got the DVD on Amazon years ago. I just checked. It’s still available on Amazon. It’s the one currently for $11.20.

There are other versions of the movie available. I don’t know if they include the commentary or not.