Hooray for Capt. Spaulding

Lilly did my heart good last night when, at the end of Animal Crackers on DVD, she asked if there were any more movies with them, especially the one who doesn’t talk. I reminded her of Duck Soup, which we have on VHS, and assured her that there were others as well, which we will watch by and by.

I remember seeing Animal Crackers when it was re-released in the movie theaters in 1974. I don’t remember whether I saw it again after that on tape, though I might have in Japan, when I often rented tapes, all in English with Japanese subtitles, from a conveniently located rental video (and CD!) store on Nagaikoen-dori with a better stock of titles than Blockbuster or Hollywood or their ilk.

With the marvel of DVD, I watched “Hooray for Capt. Spaulding” a few extra times, including moments when the kids were asleep and not making much noise. I’m pretty sure I learned the word “schnorrer” from that scene. Not a word you hear much -- or ever -- it’s a Yiddish confection meaning someone who wheedles others into supplying their needs, a concept that needs a word, certainly. “Moocher” doesn’t quite cover the same territory.

Guests: Hooray for Captain Spaulding, the African explorer!
Capt. Spaulding: Did someone call me schnorrer?
Guests: Hooray, hooray, hooray!
Horatio Jamison: He went into the jungle where all the monkeys throw nuts.
Capt. Spaulding: If I stay here, I'll go nuts.
Guests: Hooray, hooray, hooray! He put all his reliance/In courage and defiance/And risked his life for science.
Capt. Spaulding: Hey, hey!
Mrs. Rittenhouse: He is the only white man who covered every acre...
Capt. Spaulding: I think I'll try and make her...
Guests: Hooray, hooray, hooray!

The line “I think I’ll try and make her…” isn’t actually in the movie, even to this day. On the DVD version there’s a jumpy cut immediately after Mrs. Rittenhouse’s (Margaret Dumont’s) line. According to the imdb, the Hayes Office insisted on the line’s deletion. I would have thought that as a precode movie, Animal Crackers could have gotten away with something like that, but apparently the Hayes Office had some say even before the Production Code started being enforced.

I also spent extra time with the bridge game scene with Chico, Harpo and Margaret Dumont; the scene in which Chico asks Harpo to produce a “flash,” (flashlight) only to get flesh, fish and other things -- I remember the theater audience roaring during that scene; and the surreal exchange between Capt. Spaulding (Groucho), and Roscoe W. Chandler (Louis Sorin).

Actually, the surreality of that conversation is pretty much all on Groucho’s part, as you’d expect. I’d forgotten this line of his: “Well, art is art, isn't it? Still, on the other hand, water is water. And east is east and west is west, and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce, they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does.”