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Margaret Dumont
Acting
Biography
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 …
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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).
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BODY OF WORK
Margaret Dumont's Filmography
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Hidden Hollywood II: More Treasures from the 20th Century Fox Vaults
as (archive footage)
The Marx Brothers in a Nutshell
as (archive footage)
The Hollywood Clowns
as (archive footage)
That's Entertainment, Part II
as (archive footage)
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
as Self (archive footage)
Hollywood: The Dream Factory
as Self (archive footage)
What a Way to Go!
as Mrs. Foster
Zotz!
as Persephone Updike
Around the World with Nellie Bly
as Dowager #1
Auntie Mame
as Noblewoman in Play (uncredited)
Shake, Rattle and Rock!
as Georgianna Fitzdingle
Stop, You're Killing Me
as Mrs. Whitelaw
Three for Bedroom C
as Mrs. Agnes Hawthorne
Susie Steps Out
as Mrs. Starr
Little Giant
as Mrs. Hendrickson
Sunset in El Dorado
as Aunt Dolly / Aunt Arabella
Diamond Horseshoe
as Mrs. Standish
The Horn Blows at Midnight
as Mme. Traviata / Miss Rodholder
Bathing Beauty
as Mrs. Allenwood
Seven Days Ashore
as Mrs. Croxton-Lynch
Up in Arms
as Mrs. Willoughby
The Dancing Masters
as Louise Harlan
Rhythm Parade
as Ophelia MacDougal
Tales of Manhattan
as Mme. Langehanke (uncredited)
About Face
as Mrs. Culpepper
Sing Your Worries Away
as Flo Faulkner - Landlady
Born to Sing
as Mrs. E. V. Lawson
Never Give a Sucker an Even Break
as Mrs. Hemogloben
The Big Store
as Martha Phelps
For Beauty's Sake
as Mrs. Franklin Evans
At the Circus
as Mrs. Suzanna Dukesbury
Dramatic School
as Pantomime Teacher
Wise Girl
as Mrs. Bell-Rivington
High Flyers
as Martha Arlington
Youth on Parole
as Mrs. Abernathy
The Life of the Party
as Mrs. Penner
A Day at the Races
as Emily Upjohn
Arbor Day
as Woman Outside (uncredited)
Song and Dance Man
as Mrs. Whitney
Anything Goes
as Mrs. Wentworth
A Night at the Opera
as Mrs. Claypool
Rendezvous
as Mrs. Hendricks (uncredited)
Reckless
as Woman in Audience Yelling 'Get Off the Stage' (uncredited)
No Poster
Gypsy Sweetheart
as Mrs. Van Updyke
After Office Hours
as Mrs. Murchison (uncredited)
Kentucky Kernels
as Mrs. Baxter
Gridiron Flash
as Mrs. Fields
Fifteen Wives
as Sybilla Crum
Duck Soup
as Gloria Teasdale
Storm at Daybreak
as Duchess Sophie (uncredited)
Wonderland of California
as Self
No Poster
Here, Prince
as The Queen of Deleria (uncredited)
The Girl Habit
as Blanche Ledyard
Animal Crackers
as Mrs. Rittenhouse
The Cocoanuts
as Mrs. Potter
Enemies of Women
as French Beauty
A Tale of Two Cities
as Aristocrat (uncredited)