Items13The creator’s order
  1. 1Duck Soup (1933)Duck Soup (1933) 7.7/10 on IMDbReleased Nov 12, 1933The best first date with the brothers, because nothing gets in the way. Groucho's Rufus T. Firefly is handed control of bankrupt Freedonia by the wealthy Mrs. Teasdale and promptly talks the country into war, and Leo McCarey keeps the whole thing to about 70 minutes of insults, sight gags and the…0
  2. 2A Night at the Opera (1935)A Night at the Opera (1935) 7.8/10 on IMDbReleased Nov 15, 1935Their first film at MGM, and the most polished thing they ever made. Irving Thalberg signed the brothers once their Paramount contract ended, and many of the gags were tried out on stage before filming, so set pieces like the tiny ship's cabin that fills up with stowaways, maids and workmen land…0
  3. 3Horse Feathers (1932)Horse Feathers (1932) 7.5/10 on IMDbReleased Aug 19, 1932Groucho as Professor Quincy Adams Wagstaff, the new president of Huxley College, is the purest dose of his contempt for authority, and at 68 minutes the film never outstays its welcome. He opens by singing that whatever it is, he's against it, and spends the rest of the picture trying to buy two…0
  4. 4Animal Crackers (1930)Animal Crackers (1930) 7.4/10 on IMDbReleased Aug 8, 1930Come here for Captain Spaulding, the African explorer whose welcome-home party at Mrs. Rittenhouse's estate gives Groucho one of his most quotable roles and Margaret Dumont an ideal target. The Kalmar and Ruby song that greets him, "Hooray for Captain Spaulding," is the highlight, though many…0
  5. 5Monkey Business (1931)Monkey Business (1931) 7.4/10 on IMDbReleased Sep 19, 1931Their first movie written for the screen rather than carried over from Broadway, and you can feel the freedom. All four brothers play stowaways on a luxury liner, chased by the crew for the entire voyage, and the picture moves from one hiding place to the next with almost no plot to slow it…0
  6. 6A Day at the Races (1937)A Day at the Races (1937) 7.5/10 on IMDbReleased Jun 11, 1937The last great one, with Groucho as Dr. Hugo Hackenbush, a horse doctor posing as the head of a sanitarium, and Chico, as a racetrack ice cream vendor, swindling him with a racing code book in the "Tutsi-Fruitsi" scene, one of their best double acts. The gags were tested in 140 stage shows before…0
  7. 7The Cocoanuts (1929)The Cocoanuts (1929) 6.8/10 on IMDbReleased May 23, 1929Their first feature, shot in 1929 at Paramount's Astoria studio in Queens while the brothers were playing Animal Crackers on Broadway at night. Groucho runs a failing Florida hotel during the land boom, and the land auction he stages with Chico is a riot of misunderstanding. Historically it is a…0
  8. 8At the Circus (1939)At the Circus (1939) 6.8/10 on IMDbReleased Oct 20, 1939Worth it for one number: Groucho, as the lawyer J. Cheever Loophole, singing Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg's "Lydia, the Tattooed Lady," a comic song that became one of his signatures; he was still performing it at Carnegie Hall in 1972. Margaret Dumont is back as well, which always helps. Around…0
  9. 9Go West (1940)Go West (1940) 6.8/10 on IMDbReleased Dec 6, 1940A Western parody with Groucho as S. Quentin Quale, a con man heading west to look for gold, whom Chico and Harpo cheat out of his money before the three end up in the middle of a feud between two families. That early hustle, with each of them trying to out-swindle the others, is the brothers…0
  10. 10Room Service (1938)Room Service (1938) 6.6/10 on IMDbReleased Sep 21, 1938The odd one out: a one-off at RKO, adapted from John Murray and Allan Boretz's stage farce rather than built around the brothers. Groucho plays Gordon Miller, a broke Broadway producer who has sunk every dime into his new play and is hiding his cast in a hotel while he hunts for a backer. The play…0