Horsefeathers images

Saw it again last night.  Its place in the canon is well-earned, from the shout-out to Ben Hur...

Chariot off-tackle

 ...to the literary references...

"This is the first time I've been out in a canoe since I saw The American Tragedy"

...to the very subtle gender play.

Oh football's TOTALLY not gay

James Pierce, left, would go on to star in the 1927 film Tarzan and the Golden Lion (shown here, with lion).  Nat Pendleton, right, was an Olympic wrestler (shown here, with lion).

The Brothers also crush the now-extinct College Widow trope, and Groucho shows how he woos in earnest, as opposed to his more mercantile operations when in the vicinity of Margaret Dumont.

Wagstaff: Are you Miss Bailey? Come, come! One of us is Miss Bailey, and I'm not! 

Connie: I'm Miss Bailey, and who are you?

Wagstaff: [He pulls out an invisible calling card] I'm Professor Wagstaff. Who are you?

Connie: Miss Bailey!

Wagstaff: Ah, then you are Miss Bailey! Thought you could slip one over on me, didn't you? Listen, Madam, you've got to give my son up.

Connie: Give him up?

Wagstaff: You can't take him from me! He's all I've got in the world, except a picture of George Washington crossing the Delaware.

Connie: But, Professor, I...

Wagstaff: Whatever you say is a lie! He's only a shell of his former self which nobody can deny. Whoopee! I tell you, you're ruining that boy, you're ruining him. [sitting in her lap] Did my son tell you you have beautiful eyes?

Connie: Why, yes.

Wagstaff: Told me that, too! Tells that to everyone he meets! Oh, I love sitting on your lap. I could sit here all day if you didn't stand up.

Sadly, even in the pre-Code era some things were just not done; among them, apparently, playing cards while an institution of higher learning burns to the ground.  All we have are a few stills to remind us of what might have been: