The Plot
In the imaginary country of Freedonia, the bumbling Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx) has been named the president at the behest of its richest citizen Mrs. Teasdale (Margaret Dumont). Firefly, smelling the money, attempts to woo Mrs. Teasdale, but is undermined by Trentino (Louis Calhern), the ambassador of Sylvania who is attempting to woo Teasdale himself and take over Freedonia. While Trentino does this, he sends Sylvania spies Chicolini (Chico Marx) and Pinky (Harpo Marx) to infiltrate Firefly's office and to discover any secrets this can. Eventually, the fighting between Groucho and Trentino leads to war between the two nations. Also, there's some musical numbers because...well, just because.
My Thoughts
To start off my jaunt down the 2007 AFI Top !00, I decided to go with 1933's Duck Soup, the feature film starring the legendary and influential Marx Brothers (loudmouth Groucho, accented Chico, the silent Harpo, and...erm...Zeppo). The film is not really a film by today's standards, as it only runs 65 minutes, but for those 65 minutes, it is a non-stop ride of comedy that doesn't give you a second to recover. The Marxes are relentless in their delivery, and outside of maybe two scenes, at least one of them is on screen at all time causing some sort of havoc.
While I did laugh a lot (there are some really funny Groucho lines and Harpo has been my favorite since I was a kid and saw him on an I Love Lucy re-run), that's also a hindrance. Groucho, especially to someone in 2010, can get flat out irritating. Everything he says is some sort of joke or insult, and many times he will go on for about a minute getting in as many jokes as he can. While I can imagine people in the 30's going completely nuts for this, I grew up in a different comedy era and found this to be a bit overbearing. Some of it definitely was funny, but there were hit or miss moments and it sounded like Groucho was just trying to throw as many jokes into the film as possible to see what would stick.
Chico and Harpo make an excellent duo. Chico has a heavy Italian accent and is into wordplay (a courtroom scene involves him saying he has an uncle from "Dollars, Taxes"...if you laughed, watch this); while he is also a motormouth, he is less relentless than Groucho, although not as funny.
Harpo is obviously the star of the show. I love physical comedy, and he is one of the pioneers (after Buster Keaton and the other silent film comedians of course). Harpo's gimmick is to cut things, and through out the movie he is cutting off cigars, ties, pockets, what have you. It's a funny running gag, but is also kind of corny when you think about it.
There are a lot of funny gags through out the movie, as Duck Soup is pretty much a series of vaudeville skits strewn together by a plot that has no real importance to what is going on. A subplot features Chicolini and Pinky posing as peanut salesman on the streets of Freedonia. They run afoul of a lemonade vendor (Edgar Kennedy) and proceed to abuse him for four minutes, driving him insane. Since this bit is purely visual, I won't even try to explain it, so here's a youtube clip for you to check out.
While I did laugh a lot (there are some really funny Groucho lines and Harpo has been my favorite since I was a kid and saw him on an I Love Lucy re-run), that's also a hindrance. Groucho, especially to someone in 2010, can get flat out irritating. Everything he says is some sort of joke or insult, and many times he will go on for about a minute getting in as many jokes as he can. While I can imagine people in the 30's going completely nuts for this, I grew up in a different comedy era and found this to be a bit overbearing. Some of it definitely was funny, but there were hit or miss moments and it sounded like Groucho was just trying to throw as many jokes into the film as possible to see what would stick.
Chico and Harpo make an excellent duo. Chico has a heavy Italian accent and is into wordplay (a courtroom scene involves him saying he has an uncle from "Dollars, Taxes"...if you laughed, watch this); while he is also a motormouth, he is less relentless than Groucho, although not as funny.
Harpo is obviously the star of the show. I love physical comedy, and he is one of the pioneers (after Buster Keaton and the other silent film comedians of course). Harpo's gimmick is to cut things, and through out the movie he is cutting off cigars, ties, pockets, what have you. It's a funny running gag, but is also kind of corny when you think about it.
There are a lot of funny gags through out the movie, as Duck Soup is pretty much a series of vaudeville skits strewn together by a plot that has no real importance to what is going on. A subplot features Chicolini and Pinky posing as peanut salesman on the streets of Freedonia. They run afoul of a lemonade vendor (Edgar Kennedy) and proceed to abuse him for four minutes, driving him insane. Since this bit is purely visual, I won't even try to explain it, so here's a youtube clip for you to check out.
I love the comedy in Duck Soup, but I couldn't help but wonder what the point of the musical numbers were. They seemed to be tacked in and a way to stretch out the time and while they were fun and everything, Duck Soup could have done without them just fine. I also forgot that Zeppo, the fourth Marx Brother, was even in the movie. He plays the right hand man of Firefly, but he does not share the same zaniness at his brothers do. It appears he is the straight man of the group, but his presence was not really necessary to the movie.
Overall, I really enjoyed Duck Soup but it's a bit disjointed and Groucho can really agitate you in certain scenes. Still, I can respect the Marx Brothers and their accomplishments and would definitely recommend any comedy fan check this out.
Overall, I really enjoyed Duck Soup but it's a bit disjointed and Groucho can really agitate you in certain scenes. Still, I can respect the Marx Brothers and their accomplishments and would definitely recommend any comedy fan check this out.