Animal Crackers (1930)

Animal Crackers A Marx Brothers comedy classic where Groucho Marx plays an African explorer named Captain Spaulding, Zeppo is his stenographer Jamison, Chico is an Italian named Signore Ravelli and Harpo a Professor. The action takes place at the home of wealthy Mrs Rittenhouse who holds a soiree celebrating Captain Spaulding's return during which a valuable painting is stolen.

The Bridge interest takes place after 36 minutes and 3 seconds, when Chico and Harpo play against Mrs Rittenhouse and another lady who show remarkable patience at the goings on.

There's a novel bidding sequence of :
1 Spade, 3 Spades, 4 Spades, 1 Club.

Also a useful bid of 'One' and when the opponents ask 'One what?' the answer is 'Tell you later'. Mixed in with this is extra zaniness with ripped up cards, four Aces of Spades in the pack ...

The scene lasts 4 minutes and 24 seconds. One of the best lines is when Chico refers to the game as Contact Bridge. In 1930 I imagine they still made the distinction between Contract and Auction and it must be one of the first films to feature Contract, which although certainly NOT invented by Harold S. Vanderbilt on 31 October 1925 like the history books say, (don't get me started on this please) was not popularized much before that date.

Summary

Bridge relevance
A high rating since the film does feature the main components of Bridge, from cutting for partners, shuffling the deck and dealing, through to bidding and play - albeit in a highly surreal manner. Maybe mercifully they didnt get round to scoring though.

 
 
Previous   |   Table of Contents   |   Next