Margaret Dumont
Acting
Margaret Dumont would probably consider it a tragedy that she is best-known for her performances as the ultimate straight woman in seven of the Marx Brothers' films (including most of their best). By all accounts she never understood their jokes (offscreen and on), which is of course a major reason why she's so funny. Apart from a small role in a 1917 Dickens adaptation, she spent her early career on the stage, ending up with the Marxes in the late 1920s in the stage versions of The Cocoanuts (1929) and Animal Crackers (1930), and was given a Paramount contract at the same time they were. She played similar roles alongside other great comedians, including W.C. Fields, Laurel & Hardy and Jack Benny and also played straight dramatic parts (her chief love), but few of them made much impact - it is as Groucho Marx's foil that she ranks among the immortals, and she died shortly after being reunited with him on "The Hollywood Palace" (1964).
Hidden Hollywood II: More Treasures from the 20th Century Fox Vaults
(archive footage)
The Marx Brothers in a Nutshell
(archive footage)
The Hollywood Clowns
(archive footage)
That's Entertainment, Part II
(archive footage)
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
Self (archive footage)
Hollywood: The Dream Factory
Self (archive footage)
What a Way to Go!
Mrs. Foster
Zotz!
Persephone Updike
Around the World with Nellie Bly
Dowager #1
Auntie Mame
Noblewoman in Play (uncredited)
Shake, Rattle and Rock!
Georgianna Fitzdingle
Stop, You're Killing Me
Mrs. Whitelaw
Three for Bedroom C
Mrs. Agnes Hawthorne
Susie Steps Out
Mrs. Starr
Little Giant
Mrs. Hendrickson
Sunset in El Dorado
Aunt Dolly / Aunt Arabella
Diamond Horseshoe
Mrs. Standish
The Horn Blows at Midnight
Mme. Traviata / Miss Rodholder
Bathing Beauty
Mrs. Allenwood
Seven Days Ashore
Mrs. Croxton-Lynch
Up in Arms
Mrs. Willoughby
The Dancing Masters
Louise Harlan
Rhythm Parade
Ophelia MacDougal
Tales of Manhattan
Mme. Langehanke (uncredited)
About Face
Mrs. Culpepper
Sing Your Worries Away
Flo Faulkner - Landlady
Born to Sing
Mrs. E. V. Lawson
Never Give a Sucker an Even Break
Mrs. Hemogloben
The Big Store
Martha Phelps
For Beauty's Sake
Mrs. Franklin Evans
At the Circus
Mrs. Suzanna Dukesbury
Dramatic School
Pantomime Teacher
Wise Girl
Mrs. Bell-Rivington
High Flyers
Martha Arlington
Youth on Parole
Mrs. Abernathy
The Life of the Party
Mrs. Penner
A Day at the Races
Emily Upjohn
Arbor Day
Woman Outside (uncredited)
Song and Dance Man
Mrs. Whitney
Anything Goes
Mrs. Wentworth
A Night at the Opera
Mrs. Claypool
Rendezvous
Mrs. Hendricks (uncredited)
Reckless
Woman in Audience Yelling 'Get Off the Stage' (uncredited)
Gypsy Sweetheart
Mrs. Van Updyke
After Office Hours
Mrs. Murchison (uncredited)
Kentucky Kernels
Mrs. Baxter
Gridiron Flash
Mrs. Fields
Fifteen Wives
Sybilla Crum
Duck Soup
Gloria Teasdale
Storm at Daybreak
Duchess Sophie (uncredited)
Wonderland of California
Self
Here, Prince
The Queen of Deleria (uncredited)
The Girl Habit
Blanche Ledyard
Animal Crackers
Mrs. Rittenhouse
The Cocoanuts
Mrs. Potter
Enemies of Women
French Beauty
A Tale of Two Cities
Aristocrat (uncredited)