At the Circus (1939)

At the Circus
Directed by Edward Buzzell
Written by Irving Brecher
1939/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing//Warner Home Video DVD

[box] Oh, Lydia, Oh Lydia/ Now have you met Lydia/ Lydia the queen of tattoo

On her back is the battle of Waterloo/ Beside it the wreck of the Hesperus too/ and proudly above waves the red white and blue/ You can learn a lot from Lydia

— “Lydia the Tattooed Lady”, lyric by E.Y. “Yip” Harburg[/box]

Not every great song  written by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg for 1939 films was in The Wizard of Oz.

Jeff Wilson bought a circus in order to be near his beloved singer/horse trainer fiancee. He has even turned enough of a profit to pay back a $10,000 debt that is secured by his business. Unfortunately, the dastardly lender needs, for some unexplained reason, to reacquire the circus so he arranges to steal the money before he can be paid.  Loyal employee Antonio (Chico Marx) sends for lawyer J. Cheever Loophole (Groucho Marx) to come to the rescue.  His elaborate seduction of rich widow Mrs. Dukesberry (Margaret Dumont) saves the day.  With Eve Arden as a circus performer and associate of the bad guy.

I was looking forward to this mostly to see Groucho perform “Lydia” but ended up generally enjoying the whole thing.  It is a musical comedy with too many scenes of the young lovers, singing and otherwise.  However, the Marx Brothers are allowed to do what they do best and the excellent Margaret Dumont makes a reappearance.  It’s not up with the top tier of Marx Brothers movies by any means, but I thought it was entertaining.

Clip – Groucho singing “Lydia the Tattooed lLady”