Precisely a decade after 1929’s The Cocoanuts elevated them from vaudeville fame to movie stardom, the Marx Brothers kept rolling. 1939’s At the Circus delivered their ninth film as leads.

Jeff Wilson (Kenny Baker) and his girlfriend Julie Randall (Florence Rice) perform in a circus that he owns. Though wealthy, he forsakes his fortune to operate this enterprise.

However, Jeff finds himself in debt and needs to raise funds fast to keep control of the circus. Strongman’s assistant “Punchy” (Harpo Marx), general hand Antonio Pirelli (Chico Marx) and conniving lawyer J. Cheever Loophole (Groucho Marx) become the main hopes for financial salvation.

As usual, that plot synopsis proves nearly worthless. Marx Brothers movies rarely exist as actual narratives.

Instead, Circus and its cinematic siblings come with story frameworks. As noted, here the motivating factor comes from Jeff’s monetary woes.

From there, the “plot” essentially simply becomes various comedic scenes with Groucho, Chico and/or Harpo along with some tepid romance and music from Jeff and Julie. Sometimes these connect to the narrative, sometimes they don’t.

The truth is that the Mark Brothers never really abandoned their vaudeville roots. Their stage productions worked the same way where they did little more than organize a mix of skits and songs around a general theme.

I hoped that as their cinematic career progressed, the Marx Brothers would become more ambitious and deviate from this formula. Perhaps they eventually embraced more narrative-focused films – I’ve not seen anything after Circus - but I suspect they went the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” route.

That formula runs thin circa Circus. Brief enough to keep us with it, the movie nonetheless fails to find a lot of spark.

Honestly, the short 87-minute running time of Circus becomes its primary asset, especially after the mind-numbing 110-minute length of 1937’s A Day At the Races. Actually, 1938’s Room Service - the flick between Races and Circus - clocked in at an even tighter 78 minutes, but I never saw that one so I couldn’t compare it.

While I appreciate that Circus proves less long-winded than Races, that doesn’t mean it fares better. While Races indeed would’ve prospered from judicious editing, it still came with enough wit to make it enjoyable.

Circus just tends to feel like the Brothers running on fumes. As implied, it relies on the same formula that powered the prior Marx flicks.

That means the standard gags from Chico, Groucho and Harpo. We also find the usual musical numbers as well as a monotonous romance between two “straight” characters.

Actually, that last area works better here than in the past. Though not exactly thrilling, Baker provides a perkier presence than prior “romantic leads” Zeppo Marx or Allan Jones, as those two couldn’t have been less charismatic. At least Baker manages a little personality.

Unfortunately, pretty much everything else about Circus falters. The Brothers seem bored with the usual shtick and fail to find cleverness along the way.

Even the usually reliable Groucho can’t generate laughs. Granted, his bits fare better than those of Chico and Harpo, but Groucho’s repartee simply seems largely free from zing.

As noted, the movie’s brevity means that it doesn’t become a chore to watch. However, it does reveal a tired formula that can’t generate real laughs.

At the Circus appears in an aspect ratio of 1.37:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This became a nice transfer.

Sharpness looked largely solid. Some wide shots lacked great delineation, but the image usually seemed well-defined.

No jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and I saw no edge haloes. With a nice layer of grain, I suspected no intrusive noise reduction, and print flaws failed to mar the presentation.

Blacks seemed dark and rich, while contrast appeared appealing. Shadows came across as smooth and concise. Warner Archive usually does right by these older movies, and Circus offered another fine image.

While not in the same league as the picture, the DTS-HD MA monaural soundtrack of Circus also worked fine. Speech seemed reasonably accurate and distinct, with only a slightly brittle tone at times.

Music came across as fairly bright and lively, though dynamic range seemed limited given the restrictions of the source. Effects were similarly modest but they showed good clarity and accuracy within the confines of 86-year-old stems. This was a more than adequate auditory presentation for an older movie.

A smattering of extras appear, and Leo Is On the Air provides an 11-minute, 28-second radio promo for Circus. It simply provides some musical numbers from the movie, a factor that makes it vaguely interesting for archival reasons but not actually enjoyable.

In addition to the film’s trailer, we find two vintage shorts. The disc includes Short Dog Daze (10:37) and Jitterbug Follies (8:45).

An “Our Gang” effort, the kids deal with threats from a youthful loan shark. I find myself generally allergic to comedies that revolve around children, but this one includes enough cute dogs to make it acceptable.

With Follies, we find an animated tale that features the legendary cartoon characters “Count Screwloose and JR the Wonder Dog”. Never heard of them? Neither have I.

Despite their obscurity, Follies manages some humor, mainly because it comes with an edgy quality rare for shorts. The characters tend to seem genuinely mean and that novelty makes the cartoon intriguing.

A decade into their cinematic career, the Marx Brothers found themselves stuck in a rut with At the Circus. Though watchable, the movie simply fails to deliver the spark and vivacity we expect from the Brothers. The Blu-ray comes with positive picture and audio but it lacks substantial supplements. I suspect the Marx Brothers made worse films but this one nonetheless remains lackluster.