Groucho frequently claimed that Margaret Dumont never understood Groucho's humor. But she gave an interview once in which she claimed that she actually did understand the Marx Brothers' humor but felt that she had to play her stuffy, high society-type characters in their films absolutely serious in order to provide a sharp contrast to their humor.
I have no doubt whatsoever she understood every bit of the humour. She had a wonderful grasp of playing the straight woman. Not unlike the niche Carol Cleveland filled with the Monty Python gang. You could never take anything Groucho said seriously anyway. He was a lot like Robin Williams in that regard. He was always playing a character, even during interviews.
I would really love to read that interview. Her timing was just so spot on from Animal Crackers on up, I cannot believe she didn't get the joke most of the time.
@@AlanCanon2222 of course she got all of his jokes, but she played dumb in order to stay in character. In her own words: "I'm not a stooge, I'm a straight lady. There's an art to playing straight. You must build up your man, but never top him, never steal the laughs from him"
I just LOVED Groucho and Margaret Dumont together!!!! Even if she didn't understand what it was Groucho was saying, they were still MAGICAL TOGETHER!!!! And I think it's pretty neat that Margaret's last televised performance was with Groucho!!!! Rest in Peace Margaret, Groucho, Chico, Gummo and Harpo!!!! Oh, and Zeppo!!!! I think I have them ALL!!!!
6:20 "I think women are sexy when they got their clothes on.... And if later they take them off then you've triumphed" Great line! He was still so sharp and funny.
When I watch the old Marx Brothers films I'm always amazed at how well the humour has held up over ther decades.The way Groucho delivered his lines seems so contemporary to me even now.They were truly well ahead of their time.
Groucho talks about Irving Thalberg & Margaret Dumont. 1449pm. 24.8.23. different era, I know, but I can't find anything amusing about the Marc brothers...maybe refer back to his sincere early acting career where he was taken humorously....
Chaplin envied Groucho's funny, witty eloquency, he told him he wished he had that way with words, Chaplin never felt comfortable in interviews, even when he was plugging his pictures, while Groucho could improvise the most clever comebackers.
I just tried doing "M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I" to the tune of the Mickey Mouse song, like what Groucho was sort of doing, and it actually works! Just thought that was fun.
A unique perspective. WC fields in International House heard heiress Peggy Hopkins Joyce remark "I'm sitting on something" when she plops down into the passenger seat, to which he replied: "I lost mine in the stock market." Perhaps the funniest topical gag ever. That was the same USA Groucho is talking about. Since he grew up in Vaudeville, perhaps he is painting a wash over the real situation.
Don't cry for her. She was the widow of a wealthy sugar manufacturer who died of the Spanish Flu in 1918; she worked just for the hell of it, and had a great career on stage and screen, both before and after the Marx Brothers. She was 82 when she passed -- not a bad run.
@@roberthaworth8991 The heart attack and dying before the show aired is not necessarily the sad part. What is sad, if it's true and Groucho wasn't just speculating, is buying her own roses and thinking she was still a great contemporary star.
@prodigiesofpeace You've captured how I'm feeling right this second. I'm 57, born in 1953 and I remember sitting in front of the box at my cousins' place (we didn't have TV until 1959) and the people who were on TV then were definitely of a different class. People like Groucho & his bros seemed to have a certain warmth, in fact everything felt different in those days. Probably just me remembering the "good Old days" after all I was 7 yrs old and you "should" feel warm and safe at that age.
Cripes; I just watched this again. Julius Marx was VERY sharp in this, really on. Lots of mutual admiration between him and Cavett. A clip like this really makes me miss Groucho.
A little disappointing in that he did not say what I have heard him say in interviews before: how wonderful an actress Dumont was and how dear she was to him.
Those two had been in two hit Broadway shows together -- The Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers. The stage is a much more intimate experience than film, and b/c it's done live you have to really trust the other actors. They trusted each other.
I know he def trusted her, I just didn’t care for how he described her as sad and bought her own roses. I hope he was just attempting a joke. I just discovered these films and I’m loving them.
Actually after watching the Honors Oscar speech he didn’t call her that there, but I know he did call her that in another interview. I’ve now watched four of their films, they’re freaking hilarious. Margaret Dumont is perfect in all of them too. All I was saying was I didn’t care for how he said the story about her by the stage door. Doesn’t meant I think any less.
Groucho was pulling everyone's leg on this one. Margaret Dumont was as smart as they come. She could not have played off Groucho so magnificently if she was clueless. In fact, she said on more than one occasion that she knew exactly what was going on. In another interview Groucho mentioned that Margaret had done a picture because "she needed the money". That was also an inside joke. The woman was loaded. Richer than all the Marx Brothers put together. She married John Moller Jr in 1910. He was a sugar heir and an industrialist. He died in 1918 of the flu and left her everything. This is probably why in every picture Margaret played a rich widow. Seems to me Groucho portrayed Margaret as clueless to protect her image and memory as a lady of dignity and class. The brothers got pretty raunchy at times and it was better to say she understood none of the off-color lowbrow gags and sexual innuendo. I've always been deeply infatuated with Margaret Dumont and I'm sure Groucho was as well. She was just so perfect.
after watching this i dont see how you can claim groucho was pulling anyones leg...he definitely wants you to believe he is telling the truth about her...and belittling her with the flower bit..is not the mark of a gentleman...as they say
you are making stuff up..you don't accuse a woman of being a has been...so depressed she no longer can even get someone to buy her flowers...because you think she is watching you from heaven...even the thought borders on psychotic megalomania...@@specialrelationship
@ Leon Allan Davis. The story that Margaret Dumont died penniless is probably a myth. From the information you include in your posted comment about her marriage to a wealthy industrialist, she probably died a very wealthy woman and did not need money when she continued performing towards the end of her life.
@@michaelbarlow6610 Someone should put together a book about all the nonsense movie folks got up to back then. Couple favorite stories to illustrate. Before Talulah Bankhead became famous, she was a "nice girl". The daughter of a famous Alabama politician. Groucho tells the story about his brother Chico who was one of the legendary swordsman in Hollywood. Right up there with Errol Flynn, minus the booze and dope. The Marx brothers were at a fancy affair and Groucho warned Chico to be on his best behavior. Chico promised, scout's honor. Chico meets Talulah and after exchanging pleasantries, says, "I would really like to fuck you!" And Talulah says, "and so you shall, my old fashioned boy! And so you shall!" Second story. In 1940. It seems that Paulette Goddard was having dinner at a fancy Hollywood restaurant with the famous director Anatole Litvak. She crawled under the table and gave him a very noisy blowjob, in front of all the other diners. Waiters had to put up screens to block the view. Litvak was forced to flee back to Europe for a couple years. Sure was fun back in those days....
Exactly. Carny code. Keep the wool over the audiences' eyes even just that little bit to keep up the illusion. As you said, she could not have provided what she did had she not understood Groucho perfectly.
@danutcase66 definitly. As you an tell by my username i'm a very avid watcher of Chaplin and discovered the marx brothers quite quickly and I'm the kind of person that when i like something i try to find out as much about it as possible. The first thing i ever read about the marx brothers that really sparked my love for them is the book "Hello I Must be Going". I also read his autobiography and I absolutely loved it. God Bless that man, "I'm going to live forever or die trying," -Groucho Marx :)
Someone made a comment on a blogsite (or something similar) who compared my late Auntie, film/TV actress Gloria Talbott, to be the horror film genre equivalent of Margaret Dumont, which seems (@ least to me) like a rather interesting statement, and accessing both of their output I believe I can understand as to why. Dumont was great.
Another censored Groucho line was this one in the "Captain Spaulding" number:DUMONT (singing about Africa): "He is the only white man who's covered every acre."GROUCHO (speaking, aside to audience): "I think I'll try to make her!"CHORUS (singing): "Hooray, hooray, hooray!"Groucho's line was routinely cut out in copies distributed prior to the 2000s.
Julius Henry Marx, más conocido como Groucho Marx (Nueva York, 2 de octubre de 1890-Los Ángeles, 19 de agosto de 1977), fue un actor, humorista y escritor estadounidense, conocido principalmente por ser uno de los miembros de los hermanos Marx. Es considerado el cómico más influyente de todos los tiempos, siendo sus frases, a pesar del paso del tiempo, destacadas en la cultura pop por generaciones, incluso en la época actual. Falleció en Los Ángeles a causa de una neumonía. Poco antes de morir, la Academia de Hollywood le había concedido un Óscar honorífico, en reconocimiento a toda su carrera cinematográfica.
from what I gather she did get the jokes and was just a good actress, but when the rumour started that she didn't understand the jokes it was just too good a story to pass up for the marx brothers
Didn't know he was a Democrat, now I love him even more. When he said once they start making money they become Republicans, that is so true, even until this day.
@prodigiesofpeace i couldnt agree more. Today's entertainment is disgusting...all the comedians base everything off sex and drugs. Groucho would make snide comments but my father said once "the good thing about the marx brothers is that in their movies there weren't tits flying around,". When I'm watching a ridiculous show like Jersey Shore I always mutter "this is disgusting," and people tell me that I sound like someone born in the Golden days of entertainment. Amen to what you say.
Reading the comments about Dumont. I work with a woman who does not get sarcasm or double entendres AT ALL. She's smart enough to understand that it can be humor - but just can't make the connection. That could have been Margaret Dumont.
Groucho was a comedic genius. One of a kind. His ad libs are as good as anyone today. I'll bet few Millennials or Gen Z have heard of the Marx Brothers, which is a shame.
I don't know if I believe him about Margaret Dumont. I think she understood everything the Marx brothers were doing and reacted with an appropriate level of dismay and curiosity off stage. His final story about her is a bit cold too; it would have been nicer if he had sent her flowers for performing with him.
he obviously was attacking Margaret Dumont as he always did...because he never wanted anyone to believe she had anything to do with his success...this was the only avenue he could use and have idiots like the ones here think he didnt mean anything by it...groucho was a small weak man....
Julius Henry Marx, más conocido como Groucho Marx (Nueva York, 2 de octubre de 1890-Los Ángeles, 19 de agosto de 1977), fue un actor, humorista y escritor estadounidense, conocido principalmente por ser uno de los miembros de los hermanos Marx. Es considerado el cómico más influyente de todos los tiempos, siendo sus frases, a pesar del paso del tiempo, destacadas en la cultura pop por generaciones, incluso en la época actual. Falleció en Los Ángeles a causa de una neumonía. Poco antes de morir, la Academia de Hollywood le había concedido un Óscar honorífico, en reconocimiento a toda su carrera cinematográfica.
Julius Henry Marx, más conocido como Groucho Marx (Nueva York, 2 de octubre de 1890-Los Ángeles, 19 de agosto de 1977), fue un actor, humorista y escritor estadounidense, conocido principalmente por ser uno de los miembros de los hermanos Marx. Es considerado el cómico más influyente de todos los tiempos, siendo sus frases, a pesar del paso del tiempo, destacadas en la cultura pop por generaciones, incluso en la época actual. Falleció en Los Ángeles a causa de una neumonía. Poco antes de morir, la Academia de Hollywood le había concedido un Óscar honorífico, en reconocimiento a toda su carrera cinematográfica.
Julius Henry Marx, más conocido como Groucho Marx (Nueva York, 2 de octubre de 1890-Los Ángeles, 19 de agosto de 1977), fue un actor, humorista y escritor estadounidense, conocido principalmente por ser uno de los miembros de los hermanos Marx. Es considerado el cómico más influyente de todos los tiempos, siendo sus frases, a pesar del paso del tiempo, destacadas en la cultura pop por generaciones, incluso en la época actual. Falleció en Los Ángeles a causa de una neumonía. Poco antes de morir, la Academia de Hollywood le había concedido un Óscar honorífico, en reconocimiento a toda su carrera cinematográfica.
