Customer Reviews

Duck Soup

5 star:		(43)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

My two favorite comedies of all time are "Duck Soup" and "Airplane." Don't agree with "Airplane?" I have a good mind to join a club and beat you over the head with it!

Anyway, few people will dispute that "Duck Soup" is one of the funniest movies ever made. So many classic lines and zany moments; this is the Marx Brothers at the peak of their powers. It was made in the 30's, but holds up extremely well. That makes it a timeless movie. Never boring or corny. I swear the whole hat gag has to be one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

So... when can we expect a reissue on DVD, Paramount/Universal?

I had heard a lot about this movie so ordered it because of favorable stories about it. I enjoyed it but wish I had researched the significance and history of it before I watched it and I think it would have made more sense to me.

I don't have time to give a review that it at least 20 words long. What's wrong with just giving a star rating?

I don't need to gush over how great this movie is, plenty of customers have already done that. Warner Brothers did the Marx Brother's justice with their five DVD set of seven films with loads of special features. Granted that set is of their later films but isn't it time their early movies got the same treatment? Great collections of their early films are available in R2 and R4 formats, why not R1? Any answer? Universal Studios?

My good friend K.M (Karl Marx recommended this movie to me a while ago (back in 1933 about nine years after my premature death)

Now I have it on DVD and I can still say that I find this movie just as great as I did back 70 years ago.

Groucho and his ilk (The other brothers) continue (even in death) to represent the gold standard of comedy.

Despite my untimely death I still find that this movie makes me laugh like no other.

Oh by the way Groucho, Karl told me that your Mom wanted you to pick up a gallon of milk.

What do Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and the Marx Brothers have in common? They never said a vulgar joke, and, oh yeah, all of them are legends and created some of the funniest movies of all time.

Well, "Duck Soup" is the funniest movie that the Marx brothers ever did. The movie is packed with hilarious dialogue, wacky scenes, unforgettable comedic sequences, and smart satire.

What comedic styles appear in "Duck Soup"? You name it: it has slapstick, satire, physical gags, smart one-liners, smart elaborated jokes, musical humor, etc, etc, etc. If you haven't seen a Marx Brothers film, please, do yourself a favor and go watch "Duck Soup". By the time the final credits appear on screen, you will get rid of your "American Pie" DVD's (if you have one), you will trash your Adam Sandler collection (if you have it). Well, I'm only joking, bottom line: the Marx Bros. are the real deal.

This movie makes me HOWL with laughter! The only bad thing about this movie is that Chico and Harpo don` t have an encounter with two certain instruments. Other than that, this movie is flawless.

Rufus T. Firefly - Not that I care, but where is your husband?
Mrs. Teasdale - Why, he's dead.
Rufus T. Firefly - I bet he's just using that as an excuse.
Mrs. Teasdale - I was with him to the very end.
Rufus T. Firefly - No wonder he passed away.
Mrs. Teasdale - I held him in my arms and kissed him.
Rufus T. Firefly - Oh, I see, then it was murder. Will you marry me? Did he leave you any money? Answer the second question first.

This is an exchange between Groucho and Margaret Dumont. "Duck Soup" is probably one of the "fastest" comedies of all-time. More so than any other Marx Brother movie, and that's saying a lot. Notice how every bit of dialogue Groucho has is a wise-crack.

What I love about watching the Marx Brothers is how just about nothing makes sense. The plots seem to get in the way of their movies. Its as if it's slowing them down. Just give them room and let them do what they want. And that's just about what seems to be going on in this movie. Every scene revolves around one of the four brothers (This is Zeppo's last film). This was also the last time that would happen since "Duck Soup" bombed at the box-office.

"Duck Soup" starts off with Freedonia, a small country on the verge of banruptcy due to it's spending half of Mrs. Teasdale's (Dumont) fortune of 40 million dollars. She agrees the only way she will offer more money to the country is if they agree to Rufus T. Firefly as its new leader. Put in a corner they agree and G-d will they be sorry in the end.

If there is one problem with "Duck Soup" most fans of the Marx Brothers will agree on is the fact Chico and Harpo are not allowed to play the piano and harp. Those two things have become fixures in their films.

"Duck Soup" is a comedy those not familiar with the Marx Brothers will enjoy. It may turn you into a fan. You'll be so impressed with the wise-cracks and crazy antics of the brothers. And than there's the famous "mirror" scene. Which most people seem to think originated here. But, no, it was used in a Charlie Chaplin short from 1916 entitled "The Floorwalker".

Bottom-line: One of the "fastest" comedies of all-time. The Marx brothers are at their zany best. One of their best films!

This particular Marx Brothers movie deserves special mention as it doesn't feature much of Zeppo but loads of Margaret Dumont. And the mirror routine of course. Enough said.

Duck Soup. Whenever I'm feeling depressed, this is the video I pop in the VCR whenever I'm feeling depressed because I know that as long as I live in a world where I can watch the Marx Brothers, there is no darkness that can't be ridiculed. The Marx Brothers were perhaps the funniest performers to ever appear in American film and Duck Soup, directed by Leo McCarey who had a far greater talent for comedy than their previous director Sam Wood ("You cannot make a directer out of Wood," as one of them -- I always chose to believe it was famously silent Harpo -- once quipped), is their funniest film. Of course, Duck Soup was the only one of their early films to be reviled by critics and ignored by audiences. Perhaps it was the subject matter, which still remains relavent today and can still lead to a few uncomfortable laughs as a result. Duck Soup is the Marx Brothers film that finds Groucho playing Rufus T. Firefly, the happily uncouth man who has -- through the usual hilarious courting of impassive Margaret Dumont -- become the ruler of Freedonia. Freedonia's enemies recruit to spies to undermine Firefly -- Chico and Harpo Marx. While Harpo torments lemonade salesman Egdar Buchanan, steals anything he can get his hands on, and eventually ends up sleeping with a horse, Chico is appointed to the cabinet by Groucho. Meanwhile, fourth Marx Brother Zeppo makes a few fleeting appearances as Groucho's private secretary. As usual, nobody seems to know what to do with Zeppo but they seem happy to have him around. Anyway, this film contains many classic bits that will be familiar to fans of the Marx Brothers and comedy in general. Though all have been endlessly redone by imitators, they all remain hilarious in the hands of the originals. Along with Groucho and Chico's vaudevillian wordplay, this film also contains Harpo at his most wild. Grinning like a demonic child, he steals everything he can find, revels in destroying random objects, and produces almost anything from the depths of his baggy trenchcoat. It is this film that firmly establishes the central Marx Brothers relationship -- Chico hangs out with Harpo while Groucho tolerates Harpo so he can hang out with Chico. In what made this film rather controversial for its time (and probably still would if it weren't now accepted as both a comedy classic and -- quite wrongly in my opinion -- a relic from a previous age), the film ultimately builds up to Groucho declaring war on his enemies. (Capped off by a riotous song in which the four Marx Brothers lead the country in happily singing "We're going to war!") The film ends on the battlefield and, in a rather jarring scene, actual footage of charging World War I soldiers is mixed with the Marx Brothers holed up in one besieged cabin. For a world still haunted by the slaughter of the Great War and on the verge of World War II, this was pretty strong stuff as were comments like Groucho saying the war will end because he's only rented the battlefield for a week. It also shows that the humor of the Marx Brothers was, for all of its seeming elitism and disregard for all other sensibilities, a truly populist expression. Through their ridicule, the Marx Brothers attacked the forces of the pompous and the humorless and never was that attack more potent and subversive than in Duck Soup. A classic film and, most importantly, proof that wild comedy need not be stupid comedy.