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Straight Lady:
The Life and Times of Margaret Dumont, “The Fifth Marx Brother”
When death took comedy star Margaret Dumont in March 1965, no doubt many had to be reminded just who she had been. Millions of Marx Brothers’ fans around the world would recognize her immediately as Groucho’s long-suffering foil in many of their films. For more than four decades, the statuesque funny lady played the role of an austere dowager and grand dame of the social set on stage and screen. Margaret starred opposite such comedic geniuses as W. C. Fields, Laurel and Hardy, Jack Benny, and Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, but she was known best for the inspired pairing with Groucho Marx.
In the Marx Brothers’ film Duck Soup, her military allies pelted her with fruit for singing their national anthem. In A Day at the Races, employees of a health resort showered her with water from an overhead sprinkler system. In Animal Crackers, bridge playing opponents cheated her out of a win and threw cards at her. In A Night at the Opera, she waited more than an hour for Groucho to arrive for their date and eventually found him sitting behind her with another woman. “Mr. Driftwood, you invited me to dine with you at seven o’clock,” Margaret’s character, Mrs. Claypool, scolded Groucho who played Otis B. Driftwood. “It is now eight o’clock and no dinner.” Groucho is outraged by the reprimand and scolds her for having his back to him throughout the meal. “When I invite a woman to dinner, I expect her to have to look at my face. That’s the price she has to pay.” Whether she was playing the widow of the president of Freedonia, a wealthy hypochondriac residing at the Standish Sanitarium, or a respectable Manhattan hostess, Margaret suffered each insult or physical assault with a classic assurance that made her the greatest grand dame in the history of filmed comedy.
