At The Circus - Plot

Plot

The circus strongman (Nat Pendleton, one of the ringer football players in Horse Feathers), and the midget (Jerry Maren) are accomplices of the bad guy Carter (James Burke) who is trying to take over the circus. In the animal car, they knock Wilson (Baker) out and steal his $10,000 (about $163,000 in 2011 dollars). Groucho, as lawyer J. Cheever Loophole, arrives to handle the situation. He caves in when he sees Pendleton and makes an absolute fool of himself with Little Professor Atom. (He knocks the furniture over in Atom's tiny room and the midget threatens to sue. Groucho, ever ready to solicit business, offers his card, which Atom accepts!) In order to help Wilson, he first tries to get the money from Carter's moll, Peerless Pauline (Eve Arden), but fails miserably.

Then he calls on Mrs. Dukesbury (Margaret Dumont), and cons her into paying $10,000 for the Wilson Circus to entertain the Newport 400, instead of a performance by an orchestra conducted by a Frenchman named Jardinet (Fritz Feld). The "400 of Newport" are delighted with the circus; when Jardinet arrives, Groucho, who also delayed Jardinet by implicating him in a "dope ring," disposes of the Frenchman and his orchestra by having them play on a floating bandstand down at the water's edge. Chico and Harpo cut the mooring rope and the musicians play the Prelude to Act Three of Lohengrin by Wagner, serenading the waves. Meanwile, Carter and his cronies try to burn down the circus, but are thwarted by the brothers, along with the only witness to the robbery - the gorilla (Charles Gemora), who also retrieves Wilson's ten thousand dollars.