Margaret Dumont
Photoplayd Industry Rating
Not enough rated films yet to compute a weighted score.
Roles are weighted by involvement: director 1.0, screenwriter 0.7, lead 0.8, supporting 0.4, crew 0.1.
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).
Known for
Credits
Bathing Beauty (1944)
as Mrs. Allenwood
What a Way to Go! (1964)
as Mrs. Foster
Duck Soup (1933)
as Gloria Teasdale
A Night at the Opera (1935)
as Mrs. Claypool
That's Entertainment, Part II (1976)
as (archive footage)
Auntie Mame (1958)
as Noblewoman in Play (uncredited)
A Day at the Races (1937)
as Emily Upjohn
Wise Girl (1937)
as Mrs. Bell-Rivington
Tales of Manhattan (1942)
as Mme. Langehanke (uncredited)
Up in Arms (1944)
as Mrs. Willoughby
Little Giant (1946)
as Mrs. Hendrickson
Born to Sing (1942)
as Mrs. E. V. Lawson
The Cocoanuts (1929)
as Mrs. Potter
About Face (1942)
as Mrs. Culpepper
Animal Crackers (1930)
as Mrs. Rittenhouse
The Big Store (1941)
as Martha Phelps
The Horn Blows at Midnight (1945)
as Mme. Traviata / Miss Rodholder
The Hollywood Clowns (1979)
as (archive footage)
At the Circus (1939)
as Mrs. Suzanna Dukesbury
Shake, Rattle and Rock! (1956)
as Georgianna Fitzdingle
Dramatic School (1938)
as Pantomime Teacher
Rendezvous (1935)
as Mrs. Hendricks (uncredited)
The Dancing Masters (1943)
as Louise Harlan
Susie Steps Out (1946)
as Mrs. Starr
Song and Dance Man (1936)
as Mrs. Whitney
Wonderland of California (1933)
as Self
Stop, You're Killing Me (1952)
as Mrs. Whitelaw
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? (1975)
as Self (archive footage)
Reckless (1935)
as Woman in Audience Yelling 'Get Off the Stage' (uncredited)
The Girl Habit (1931)
as Blanche Ledyard
Around the World with Nellie Bly (1960)
as Dowager #1
A Tale of Two Cities (1917)
as Aristocrat (uncredited)
After Office Hours (1935)
as Mrs. Murchison (uncredited)
Zotz! (1962)
as Persephone Updike
Storm at Daybreak (1933)
as Duchess Sophie (uncredited)
Sunset in El Dorado (1945)
as Aunt Dolly / Aunt Arabella
Kentucky Kernels (1934)
as Mrs. Baxter
Youth on Parole (1937)
as Mrs. Abernathy
Anything Goes (1936)
as Mrs. Wentworth
Hollywood: The Dream Factory (1972)
as Self (archive footage)
Hidden Hollywood II: More Treasures from the 20th Century Fox Vaults (1999)
as (archive footage)
The Life of the Party (1937)
as Mrs. Penner
The Marx Brothers in a Nutshell (1982)
as (archive footage)
Gridiron Flash (1934)
as Mrs. Fields
Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941)
as Mrs. Hemogloben
Sing Your Worries Away (1942)
as Flo Faulkner - Landlady
Diamond Horseshoe (1945)
as Mrs. Standish
Seven Days Ashore (1944)
as Mrs. Croxton-Lynch
For Beauty's Sake (1941)
as Mrs. Franklin Evans
Enemies of Women (1923)
as French Beauty
High Flyers (1937)
as Martha Arlington
Three for Bedroom C (1952)
as Mrs. Agnes Hawthorne
Rhythm Parade (1942)
as Ophelia MacDougal
Arbor Day (1936)
as Woman Outside (uncredited)
Fifteen Wives (1934)
as Sybilla Crum
Here, Prince (1932)
as The Queen of Deleria (uncredited)
Gypsy Sweetheart (1935)
as Mrs. Van Updyke