In her interviews and press profiles, Dumont preserved the myth of her on-screen character: the wealthy, regal woman who never quite understood the joke. Dumont was so important to the success of the Marx Brothers films, she is one of the few people mentioned by Groucho in his short acceptance speech for an honorary Oscar (the other four are Harpo, Chico, his mother, and his companion Erin Fleming. He falsely informed the audience that she rarely understood the humor of their scenes together and would ask him, 'Why are they laughing, Julie?' ('Julie' was her nickname for Julius, Groucho's birth name). I'll write you twice a week.ĭecades later in his one man show at New York's Carnegie Hall, Groucho mentioned Dumont's name and got a burst of applause.

Groucho: Really? He must be a big boy by now.ĭumont's character would often give a short, startled or confused reaction to such insults, but would not otherwise respond and appeared to forget the insult quickly.ĭumont's presumed ladylike innocence, in contrast to Groucho's perpetual leer, was fodder for Groucho's oft-stated comment that the brothers had to explain jokes like this to her: Groucho (to the other brothers, during a battle sequence in Duck Soup): Remember, you're fighting for this woman's honor, which is probably more than she ever did!Īnd this, from A Night at the Opera: Dumont: Do you have everything, Otis? Groucho: I've never had any complaints yet!īut there could be fleeting moments of touching consideration shown by Groucho in their faux romances, as in the party scene from The Big Store: Dumont: Oh, I'm afraid after we're married a while a beautiful young girl will come along and you'll forget all about me. Or her age (in their last film pairing, The Big Store): Dumont (kittenish after Groucho steals a peck): You make me think of my youth. Married! I can see you right now in the kitchen, bending over a hot stove. I'll need a vacation if we're going to get married. Say, you cover a lot of ground yourself! You'd better beat it I hear they're going to tear you down and put up an office building where you're standing!Īnd: Groucho: Why don't you marry me? Dumont: Why, marry you? Groucho: You take me, and I'll take a vacation. Groucho: Well, that covers a lot of ground.

I was gonna ask for the whole wig!ĭumont also endured dialogue about her characters' (and thus her own) stoutish build, as with these lines, also from Duck Soup: Dumont: I've sponsored your appointment because I feel you are the most able statesman in all Freedonia. A typical exchange, from Duck Soup, follows: Groucho: Oh, uh, I suppose you'll think me a sentimental old fluff, but would you mind giving me a lock of your hair? Dumont (smitten): A lock of my hair? Why, I had no idea you. Groucho once said that many people believed they were married in real life, even though they were not. Her work in A Day at the Races earned her a Best Supporting Actress Award from the Screen Actors Guild, film critic Cecilia Ager suggesting that a monument be erected in honor of her courage and steadfastness in the face of the Marx Brothers' antics. Suzanna Dukesbury in At the Circus (1939), and Martha Phelps in The Big Store (1941). Claypool in A Night at the Opera (1935), Emily Upjohn in A Day at the Races (1937), Mrs. Gloria Teasdale in Duck Soup (1933), Mrs. Rittenhouse in Animal Crackers (1930), Mrs. Performing with the Marx Brothers, Dumont played wealthy high-society, posh-voiced widows whom Groucho alternately insulted and romanced for their money. In 1929 they filmed the screen version of The Cocoanuts.

In October 1928, their next Broadway show, Animal Crackers, opened, and Dumont was again cast as the wealthy society dowager and their straight woman. Potter alongside the Four Marx Brothers in their Broadway production of The Cocoanuts in 1925. Kaufman, who hired her to play the dowager Mrs. She then came to the attention of writer George S.

Margaret dumont on the markx brothers