21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"After One Taste Of Duck Soup, You'll Duck Soup Forever!", March 4, 2005
This review is from: Duck Soup (DVD)
"Duck Soup" is as absurd, nonsensical and hilarious as a film can be and still make sense! A satire of dictatorships, war and politics, Groucho, Harpo and Zeppo are at their artfully outlandish best here. Running 68 minutes, the movie is a short one, but chock-full of laughs and lampoons. Released in 1933, during the crisis period of the Depression, the movie was to provide comic relief for the weary American public. It was a flop. Audiences were taken aback by such political disrespect. This is high praise, indeed in the 21st century.
Rufus T. Firefly, played by Groucho, becomes dictator of the mythical kingdom of Freedonia, a tiny country badly in need of additional finances to alleviate their bankrupt status. In other words, the place is a disaster - or why else would they select the man who would "never belong to a club that would have someone like him as a member?" The citizens agree to make Firefly their leader hoping, in return, to gain the financial patronage of the wealthy Mrs. Teasdale, (Margaret Dumont), whose deceased husband was their former president. Firefly is touted for "possessing the statesmanship of Gladstone, the humility of Lincoln, and the wisdom of Pericles." Ha! His primary idea for improving the country involves bilking Mrs Teasdale of her fortune for his own use, forget about Freedonia! He rejoices in making arbitrary decrees, and his appointments are blatantly nepotistic. The other Marx brothers play the dictator's spies and henchmen.
Firefly declares war on its neighboring country, Sylvania, when its Ambassador Trentino, (Louis Calhern), competes with him for Mrs. Teasdale's affections. Trentino's ultimate goal is to annex Freedonia to Sylvania. Poor Mrs. Teasdale.
The film's denouement involves a battle scene which represents the madness of war and the capriciousness of the men who decide to wage them. Groucho's famous line, "And remember while you're out there risking life and limb through shot and shell, we'll be in here thinking what a sucker you are," drew lots of flack. Benito Mussolini banned "Duck Soup" because he believed it to be a direct attack.Ya gotta love it! That's comic power! This anarchic satire, which was a critical and commercial failure at the time - it almost sank Paramount Studios - was fortunately revived in the 1960s.
The Marx Brothers' usual non-stop freneticism, as well as some of their best gags, slapstick, and one-liners, including the lemonade seller confrontation and the mirror pantomime, make this movie such a classic. There are also some terrific musical numbers, like the Freedonia Hymn, "Just Wait 'Til I Get Through With It " and the staged production number, The Country's Goin' to War."
Finally, what does "Duck Soup: mean? It was a familiar American phrase that means anything simple or easy, or alternately, a gullible sucker or pushover. Under the opening credits, four quacking ducks (the four Marx Brothers) are seen swimming and cooking in a kettle over a fire. Groucho suposedly provided the following recipe to explain the title: "Take two turkeys, one goose, four cabbages, but no duck, and mix them together. After one taste, you'll duck soup for the rest of your life."
JANA
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24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hail, Hail the Marx Brothers! The Marxist view on war, October 15, 2000
My favorite Marx Brothers movie is "A Night at the Opera," but this political satire, which was banned in Italy by Mussolini, is a very close second. It is definitely the best (and last) Marx Brothers movie with Zeppo, for what that is worth. As Groucho later pointed out, Zeppo's roles as the group's straight man were thankless. It was not that Zeppo lacked talent, but rather that he had three older brothers.
"In Duck Soup," the mythical nation of Freedonia is in trouble and Mrs. Teasdale (Margaret Dumont) insists that the reigns of power be turned over to Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho). Ambassador Trentino (Louis Calhern) of the neighboring country of Sylvania employs a couple of spies, Chicolini (Chico) and Pinky (Harpo), to shadow Firefly. Oh, and Firefly has a secretary, Bob Rolland (Zeppo). Many of the most famous sequences by the Brothers Marx are found in this film: (1) The mirror sequence between Groucho and Harpo (if it had been Groucho and Chico instead Groucho would have asked "Are you my reflection" and Chico would have answered "Sure"); (2) Harpo's encounter with street vendor Edgar Kennedy, master of the slow-burn (" "); (3) The "We're Going to War" take off on 1930s musicals ("They've got guns, we've got guns, all God's chil'en got guns"); (4) Groucho offering Chico the position of Secretary of War ("Sold!"); (5) Harpo offering Grouch a ride in the sidecar of his motorcyle ("This is the third trip I've taken today and I still haven't gone anywhere"); (6) Zeppo introducing the new leader of Freedonia, Rufus T. Fireflay ("Whatever it is, I'm against it."); and much, much more, including the lovely Rachel Torres as the lovely Vera Marcal!
"Duck Soup" was helped by several factors. With director Leo McCarey the Marx Brothers finally had a first rate director who understood how to stage and shoot the action. The Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby screenplay does one of the better jobs of integrating the various comic routines into the overall story. After an absence of two films Margaret Dumont was back where she belonged, trying to stay above the insanity with no success whatsoever. Louis Calhern is arguably the ideal villain for the Marx Brothers because in scene after scene he plays it absolutely straight, without losing his dignity or becoming laughable (similar to the marvelous job by Kitty Carlisle in "A Night at the Opera").
Final tidbit: When the town of Fredonia, New York complained about its name being used in the film (the extra "e" did not matter for some reason," Groucho shot back: "Change the name of your town, it's hurting our picture." And, as always, please remember that the correct pronunciation of Leonard's stage name is "Chick-o" not "Cheek-o." The man liked the ladies and was not a young Hispanic male.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Five star movie but a less than five star presentation for classic-same transfer as 2004 boxed set, June 10, 2011
The wacky "Duck Soup" is often viewed as the ultimate Marx Brothers movie and it's certainly their most outrageous in terms of the humor of the film and a great political satire as well. Directed by Leo McCarey "Duck Soup" has substanially more visual flair than any other Marx Brothers feature until "A Day at the Opera". The last film that the Marx Brothers made for Paramount (although this is a Universal release Paramount originally released this along with all the other early Marx Brothers movies but sold the rights to the films to Universal in the 1950's for distribution) "Duck Soup" remains the Marx Brothers crowning jewel of all their films; certainly later MGM films like "A Night at the Opera" and "A Day at the Races" had bigger budgets and were more ambitious but those films diluted the anarchic humor that was at the heart of EVERY Marx Brothers movie.
A horrible flop released to nasty reviews "Duck Soup" was ahead of its time as a comedy and satire. It made (deservedly) AFI's Top 100 Comedies of All Time. This is, like the previous version, the original theatrical version. It hasn't been edited (although rumors have been floating around for years that one of the production numbers was edited it was never true and isn't true of this version either).
Universal used the most readily available best film source at the time when they first released this in 2004. This is the exact same transfer from that 2004 boxed set. There are plenty of specks, scartches and a fair amount of dirt/debris visible in the transfer here which, if Universal had done their due diligence and done a digital restoration of the film, could have been eliminated. It's a pity that they didn't give this film (and the others released individually) the same love that they did their Universal series of horror movies a couple of years back.
There aren't any special features here which is a missed opportunity. It would be nice if Universal would license a title like this to Criterion or collaborate with the UCLA Archives to restore this film and add a commentary track or other special features. A five star movie with a less than five star presentation "Duck Soup" manages to hold up remarkably well 70 plus years on.
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