Duck Soup [G]

Rufus T. Firefly faces numerable political as the newly appointed dictator of Freedonia; the biggest of which being that the ambassador of Sylvania wants to conquer Freedonia and put the country under the Sylvanian flag. In an attempt to besmirch Firefly, the Sylvanian ambassador, Trintino, hires two spies, Pinky and Chicolini, to dig up some dirt on the Freedonian dictator but, when he is met with no success, the two countries find themselves at war! 

THIS MOVIE IS EFFING GENIUS! It’s a wonderfully flagrant and vibrant political satire that’s packed with classic slapstick comedy as well as dizzying and frenzied bouts of long-winded monologues, dialogue, and sharp-witted one-liners. A symphony of satire and sensational smarts, my only question about it is WHY IS IT CALLED DUCK SOUP? 

Rufus T. Firefly faces numerable political as the newly appointed dictator of Freedonia; the biggest of which being that the ambassador of Sylvania wants to conquer Freedonia and put the country under the Sylvanian flag. In an attempt to besmirch Firefly, the Sylvanian ambassador, Trintino, hires two spies, Pinky and Chicolini, to dig up some dirt on the Freedonian dictator but, when he is met with no success, the two countries find themselves at war! 

Just a quick bit of background information for those more modern audience members who have not yet discovered the Marx Brothers, the four brothers, Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Zeppo made a name for themselves through their slapstick and sharp comedy stylings that delighted Vaudeville audiences, and later, Broadway audiences. With the development of the Talking Picture only a recent cinematic milestone, it was the next inevitable step for the brothers to put their comedy on the big screen and, thanks to that, we now are blessed with classics such as this that never expire. 

Duck Soup, marked as the funniest of the Marx Brothers’ cinematic achievements, did absolutely anything and everything that would get a laugh. The film takes the piss out of popular musicals, political figures, language, theatre, and it’s all done through sharp-witted and sometimes long-winded dialogue and insulting but hilarious one-liner jokes. The comedy sequences are ones that have been imitated time and time again, with the most memorable being the immortal “mirror sequence”. 

Only an hour long, the film is a riotous romp of slapstick comedy and classic one-liner gags with the occasional really bad joke thrown in, which only gets a laugh because it’s so bad. It’s an absolute winner, not doing very well in its original hey-day, but gaining longstanding acclaim and adulation through the ages; that’s what I mean when I say a film has no expiration date; Duck Soup was made in the 30s and it still caused me to laugh uncontrollably and marvel at the deadly accuracy of the brothers’ performances in all their famous comedy segments. 

Starring Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Zeppo Marx, Margaret Dumont, Raquel Torres, Louis Calhern, Edmund Breese, Leonid Kinskey, Charles Middleton, and Edgar Kennedy, Duck Soup is a fantastic and immortal comedy that’s packed with slapstick, bad jokes, lethal one-liners, long-winded monologues, musical numbers, and essentially no ducks. It’s wonderfully flagrant and just absolute genius, and I really loved it!