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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
At the Circus (1939)

At the Circus (1939)

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Released 16-Nov-2004

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Comedy Main Menu Audio
Short Film-Dog Daze
Short Film-Cartoon - Jitterbug Follies
Theatrical Trailer
Rating ?
Year Of Production 1939
Running Time 83:23
RSDL / Flipper No/No Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 2,4,5 Directed By Edward Buzzell
Studio
Distributor

Warner Home Video
Starring Groucho Marx
Chico Marx
Harpo Marx
Kenny Baker
Florence Rice
Eve Arden
Margaret Dumont
Nat Pendleton
Fritz Feld
James Burke
Jerry Maren
Barnett Parker
Case ?
RPI Box Music Harold Arlen


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame Full Frame English Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s)
French Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s)
Italian Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio None
16x9 Enhancement No
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.37:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English
French
Italian
German
Spanish
Dutch
Arabic
Bulgarian
Romanian
English for the Hearing Impaired
Italian for the Hearing Impaired
Smoking Yes, lots of cigars
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    This is not one of the best Marx Brothers films, but it's still entertaining. The failings lie mostly in the script, or possibly the direction of the script; the performances are mostly quite reasonable.

    The plot is standard Marx Brothers stuff: Jeff Wilson (Kenny Baker, not the man inside R2-D2), owner and operator of the Wilson Wonder Circus, wants to marry Julie Randall (Florence Rice), one of the performers in the circus (she has a singing and horse act). The catch is that Jeff borrowed $10,000 from Mr Carter (James Burke), and Carter is plotting to make sure that Jeff cannot repay the money in time, because Carter wants to foreclose on the circus.

    Punchy (Harpo) works as the sidekick of Goliath, the circus strongman. Antonio (Chico) is a general assistant. They want to help Jeff. Antonio sends a telegram to fetch a lawyer, J Cheever Loophole (Groucho) because he suspects that there may be problems with paying off Carter. Carter has a number of henchpeople, including Goliath, Professor Atom (a midget), and Peerless Pauline (a woman who walks on the ceiling).

    There are a number of gags in this film that fall flat — they may be partly funny (depending on your sense of humour), but the punch lines don't come off. And the sequence of events in the film don't seem coherent — there is supposed to be just one day involved, yet multiple days pass... Odd. The lawyer shows up on the train after being refused entry. And the climax is nothing short of ridiculous.

    Groucho makes a couple of comments direct to camera — I don't like that. The intro to the Swingali number is a little inappropriate by today's politically correct standards.

    Perhaps this is best watched when you are not feeling judgmental — say, on a Friday evening with a few beers and plenty of friends (or a few friends and plenty of beers...).

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Transfer Quality

Video

    This DVD is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and is not 16x9 enhanced. This film was made in the Academy ratio (1.37:1), so this will do nicely.

    The picture is reasonably clear, but not especially sharp. Shadow detail is very good, all things considered — better than some of the other films in this collection. Film grain is not troubling. Low level noise is no problem.

    This is a black-and-white film. The blacks are deep black; whites are bright white; there are plenty of shades of grey in between. There are a number of instances of false-colour rainbows visible on certain finely patterned fabrics (see 68:01 for an obvious example); there are no other colour-related artefacts.

    There are lots of film artefacts — mostly small flecks and specks, and the occasional fine scratch. Most irritating, however, are the reel change markings, appearing at 18:05, 38:19, 56:00, and 75:11.

    There's some aliasing, but it's not too distracting. Moiré is not a big problem (it's mostly masked by false-colour rainbow). There's nothing significant in the way of MPEG artefacts.

    There are subtitles in English and eight other languages, plus captions in English and Italian. I watched the English, and they are fairly accurate, fairly well-timed (occasionally a little off), and quite easy to read.

    The disc is single-sided, single-layer. That means no layer change. There's only a short film and a couple of shorts, so it all seems to fit onto the one layer.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The soundtrack is provided in English, Italian and French. I only listened to the English. It's Dolby Digital 1.0 at 192kbps — that's indisputably mono, just like the original theatrical soundtrack. There is occasional hiss and crackle in the soundtrack.

    The dialogue is mostly clear, and is easy enough to understand. There are a few audio sync problems with the dialogue, but they are minor. There's a bit of mismatch with a few of the musical instruments, and the occasional obvious lip-syncing to songs.

    Harold Arlen is responsible for the music, and it is a reasonable score, although it sounds a bit clichéd to modern ears. Groucho's rendition of Lydia the Tattooed Lady is, umm, interesting...

    The surrounds and subwoofer (and even the mains!) are not used by this soundtrack.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

Menu

    The main menu is static, with music. It's easy to operate.

Short: Dog Daze (10:38)

    This is a black-and-white short featuring Our Gang, a bunch of child actors of the era. It's not very well-acted.

Cartoon: Jitterbug Follies (8:45)

    This black-and-white cartoon features Count Screwloose and J R Wonderdog. No, I have never heard of them, either.

Original Theatrical Trailer (3:06)

    This is a long trailer, but typical of the era. The audio contains a fair bit of hiss.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    The Region 1 collection of Marx Brothers films contains 7 films. The Region 4 collection has only 5. Both collections are 5 discs, however. The Region 1 disc containing At the Circus is a double-sided disc, with Room Service on the other side. What we have here in Region 4 is essentially the At the Circus side of that double-sided disc — even the extras are the same.

    The Region 1 transfer isn't quite as good as the Region 4 — it is a bit harsher in contrast, shows slightly less shadow detail, and some excess edge enhancement; it also seems to have more film artefacts (more white flecks). I prefer the Region 4.

    It's hard to justify buying a 5 movie collection over a 7 movie collection, but I do prefer the quality of the R4 transfers...

Summary

    A lesser Marx Brothers film, but still entertaining. They have clearly put less effort into this DVD.

    The video quality is acceptable.

    The audio quality is quite reasonable for a mono soundtrack.

    The extras are interesting, but don't have a lot to do with the film.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Tony Rogers (bio-degrading: making a fool of oneself in a bio...)
Monday, January 03, 2005
Review Equipment
DVDPioneer DV-S733A, using Component output
DisplaySony VPH-G70 CRT Projector, QuadScan Elite scaler (Tripler), ScreenTechnics 110. Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationDenon AVC-A1SE
SpeakersFront Left, Centre, Right: Krix Euphonix; Rears: Krix KDX-M; Subwoofer: Krix Seismix 5

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