75. Duck Soup (1933)

Directed By Leo McCarey



Synopsis

Rufus T. Firefly becomes the ruler of Freedonia! Hilarity ensues.

Review

The Marx brothers... I am sure this was pretty funny in 1933, and in some points it still is now, Groucho Marx's delivery is perfect and his surplus of double entendres is amusing, even if it becomes very old very soon. Where this film really gets points is in its visual gags.

The jokes have dated terribly, I am sure that if you live in the States and have been watching these films since you were a kid they are pretty funny, because admit it, no matter how shit something is, if you found it funny when you were 5 you will find it funny always.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, I come to the Marx brothers with a clean slate; it's the first Marx brothers film I've seen. This means that I really don't have any emotional relation to it, and the jokes just seem to simple and puerile. However, the visual gags are brilliant. You can tell that there is a lot of influence from surrealist movies and that is a good thing.

The two big musical numbers are very funny, and the last one spoofing music genres of the time is particularly so. The mirror scene, imitated endlessly since 1933 is also brilliant as is the hat scene and the whole of the war scene at the end.

If you haven't seen it don't expect it to be that funny, but some moments are comedy perfection. Buy it at Amazon UK or US.

Final Grade

6/10

Trivia

Duck Soup:



From Wikipedia:


* Duck Soup was the last film to feature the Four Marx Brothers. Zeppo Marx departed the act after the film was completed.

* Breaking with their usual pattern, neither Harpo's harp nor Chico's piano is used in the film, although Harpo briefly pretends to play harp on the strings of a piano, strumming chords in accompaniment to a music box that is playing the unlikely chime tune, "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" (from a rival studio's Three Little Pigs, released the same year as Duck Soup).

* The film was banned in the Italy of Benito Mussolini, who took it as a personal insult. The brothers were reportedly ecstatic when this happened.

* In one of the set-pieces in which Chico and Harpo harass Edgar Kennedy, the three of them all end up exchanging hats: Harpo wearing Kennedy's derby, Chico wearing Harpo's top hat, and Kennedy wearing Chico's "pinhead" hat. Harpo often doffed his hat on-screen, but Chico very rarely removed his pointed hat. For a few seconds on-screen, Chico's head is uncovered, revealing the wavy hair that was similar to Groucho's (before baldness began to set in).

* In the battle scenes, Firefly is dressed in several uniforms. He wears a different costume in almost every sequence until the end of the film, including American Civil War outfits (first Union and then Confederacy), a British palace guard uniform [it looked Napoleonic to me, but Wiki knows best], a Boy Scout Scoutmaster's uniform, and even a coon-skin Davy Crockett cap. Meanwhile, the exterior view of the building they are occupying changes appearance from a bunker to an old fort, etc. Some analysts say that all the war costumes suggest that the scene symbolizes all American wars. As the Boy Scouts have never formally engaged in war, it is more likely that the writers were merely trying to get laughs.

* Scenes from Duck Soup play a significant role in a scene near the end of the Woody Allen film Hannah and Her Sisters.

* When the film was first released, the city of Fredonia, New York, complained about the possible negative implications the film could reflect on the city. The Marx Brothers replied, in typical Marx fashion, "Change the name of your town: You're hurting our picture." (According to urban legend, Groucho would use a similar idea in defending the title of A Night in Casablanca).

* Some sources say that the script was originally titled Firecrackers.

* Bananas, written and directed by Woody Allen, was loosely modelled after Duck Soup.

* The film was spoofed in Animaniacs as the full-episode sketch "King Yakko". One specific gag from the original, the constant singing of the Fredonian national anthem, was spoofed in particular with a Perry Como charicature.