my favorite movie of 1930:

Animal Crackers

(Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Zeppo Marx, Margaret Dumont. Directed by Victor Heerman.)

The first movie on my list that isn’t silent.

In that video, Zeppo — the only straight man among the four Marx Brothers — steals the show when he’s supposed to be writing a business letter for Captain Spaulding (Groucho). Once Groucho is done dictating the letter, Zeppo dryly announces:

You said a lot of things here that I didn’t think were important, so I just omitted them.

Groucho responds:

You’ve left out the body of the letter! All right, send it that way and tell them the body will follow.

I don’t know anywhere to stream Animal Crackers, but you could check JustWatch.

Click here for the full list of my favorite movie(s) of each year from 1920 to 2020.