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Duck Soup (1933)

A review by Damian Cannon.
Copyright © Movie Reviews UK 1997
As the final movie to contain all four Marx brothers Duck Soup stands out as one of their most sustained works. The central character is Rufus T.Firefly (Groucho Marx) who has just been made the dictator of Freedonia, mainly due to the patronage of Mrs.Teasdale (Margaret Dumont). She is both tired of lending money to the corrupt government and has something of a crush on Firefly, hence the deal. In a masterly opening sequence Firefly is due to be presented to diplomats from all countries at a grand ball. However not only is the irreverent leader late, leaving his secretary Bob Rolland (Zeppo Marx) to explain, he also insults everybody he meets - "Will you marry me? Did he leave you any money? Answer the second question first."

Among those he insults is Ambassador Trentino (Louis Calhern), the official from neighbouring Sylvania, who has secretly been fomenting revolution in Freedonia. To further his aims Trentino hires Chicolini (Chico Marx) and Pinky (Harpo Marx) as spies. The only problem is that their incompetence has no bounds - they're either fighting, playing pranks or generally fooling around to the consternation of Trentino. A further sideline is his wooing of Mrs.Teasdale into marriage, which Firefly takes great delight in sabotaging. The one-liners and deliberate misunderstandings fly thick and fast!

Eventually Trentino takes real offence and declares war on Freedonia, which seems to have been the aim of Firefly anyway. Despite Mrs.Teasdale's best efforts there's no reconciling the two dictators and war plans are drawn up. Unfortunately the plans for Freedonia are left in Mrs.Teasdale's safe, giving Chicolini and Pinky the chance to steal them. This leads to some of the best physical comedy in the whole film, where there is no sound (showing the roots of silent films) only absurd action. Inevitably war breaks out and the two countries meet on the battlefield, or at least that's what the stock footage shows. In further absurd and surreal sequences Freedonia manages to emerge triumphant, with little help from Firefly.

This is a difficult film to review purely because of its distance - both in terms of time and comedy style. There are stacks of jokes in Duck Soup, enough for several films, and smutty innuendoes yet when the entire cast breaks into song it just seems silly. The physical comedy is great at first but there seems too much repetition, such as Pinky always cutting things up with his scissors. Perhaps with a stronger script it wouldn't matter that this is a movie of comic diamonds and paste replicas, but the storyline is almost an afterthought. The upshot of this is that it's clear that the Marx brothers were extremely funny and that this film was once great, only time has taken its toll.

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