
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).

Bathing Beauty
1944 · as Mrs. Allenwood

Duck Soup
1933 · as Gloria Teasdale

What a Way to Go!
1964 · as Mrs. Foster

A Night at the Opera
1935 · as Mrs. Claypool

Auntie Mame
1958 · as Noblewoman in Play (uncredited)

About Face
1942 · as Mrs. Culpepper

That's Entertainment, Part II
1976 · as (archive footage)

100 Years at the Movies
1994 · as Self (archive footage)

The Big Store
1941 · as Martha Phelps

Wise Girl
1937 · as Mrs. Bell-Rivington

The Cocoanuts
1929 · as Mrs. Potter

A Day at the Races
1937 · as Emily Upjohn

Up in Arms
1944 · as Mrs. Willoughby

Tales of Manhattan
1942 · as Mme. Langehanke (uncredited)

Animal Crackers
1930 · as Mrs. Rittenhouse

At the Circus
1939 · as Mrs. Suzanna Dukesbury

Hollywood: The Dream Factory
1972 · as Self (archive footage)

Born to Sing
1942 · as Mrs. E. V. Lawson