At the Circus

At the Circus (also called The Marx Brothers at the Circus) is a 1939 Marx Brothers comedy film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in which they save a circus from bankruptcy. The movie is notable for Groucho Marx's classic rendition of "Lydia the Tattooed Lady". The supporting cast includes Margaret Dumont, Eve Arden, Florence Rice and Kenny Baker.

Plot

Goliath, the circus strongman (Nat Pendleton, one of the Darwin football players in Horse Feathers) and the midget, Little Professor Atom (Jerry Maren) are accomplices of the bad guy John Carter (James Burke) who is trying to take over the Wilson Wonder Circus. Jeff Wilson's girlfriend, Julie Randall (Florence Rice), performs a horse act in the circus. In the animal car on the circus train, Goliath and Atom knock out Jeff Wilson (Kenny Baker) and steal $10,000, which Jeff owes Carter. But they unintentionally leave a cigar as evidence.

Tony (Chico) summons Groucho, as attorney J. Cheever Loophole, to handle the situation. Loophole caves in when he sees the muscular Goliath, and gets nowhere with Little Professor Atom. Loophole's attempts to obtain a cigar from Atom to compare with the one found at the scene of the crime are foiled by Tony, who each time offers to give him one of his own cigars. In order to help Wilson, he first tries to get the hidden money from Carter's moll, Peerless Pauline (Eve Arden), but fails. Tony and Punchy search Goliath's stateroom on the circus train for the money, but are unsuccessful.