Duck Soup

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were comedic geniuses, individually and together, and their partnership was deservedly iconic and one of the best there was. They left behind a large body of work, a vast majority of it being entertaining to classic comedy, at their best they were hilarious and their best efforts were great examples of how to do comedy without being juvenile or distasteful.

'Duck Soup' is the third short film of theirs after 'The Lucky Dog' and '45 Minutes from Hollywood', but to me it's the first one that uses their talents properly and where they fully work together as a partnership. It may not be among their best work, their later work was funnier, more focused and have more of a sly edge instead of being slapstick-heavy, and am another person who'd put 'Another Fine Mess' above it, but it's definitely well worth the look and the first outing of theirs that was above decent level.

Will agree that there could have been less of a slapstick approach and more of a wit and sly edge and the early stages to me felt on the rushed side.

Story is slight and at times a bit too busy, but 'Duck Soup' does far more right than it does wrong. A lot is right and there is actually not much wrong.

On the other hand, Laurel and Hardy are both solid and make a great double act. The iconic partnership was still fully forming but they do work well together and their comic timing is expertly, Laurel in particular is great. They are well served by the material, which is not hilarious as such but beautifully timed and often very funny.

Not once is 'Duck Soup' dull, it all goes at a snappy pace and is always engaging and charming. While not amazing visually, it still looks quite good and hardly the work of an amateur.

Concluding, good. 7/10 Bethany Cox

This is the first short in which Laurel and Hardy worked together as a team. They were not called 'Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy' but have fictitious names. And Hardy has a two day growth of stubble. Nevertheless, this one is loaded with some very funny sight gags (this being the silent era) and ranks among their funniest films.

Forest Rangers are recruiting volunteers and have been given permission to press into service vagrants found in the LA area. Our heroes fall into that category in this short and do all they can to avoid the Rangers. They come upon an unoccupied mansion and hide inside - until a couple who rented it show up at the front door. Things begin to unravel for the boys in predictable fashion, making it one of their best. It played at Capitolfest, Rome NY, 8/14/21.

******** 8/10 - Website no longer prints my star rating.

This is not the funniest Laurel & Hardy comedy short but still it's a great movie due to the way the movie is constructed.

This was not the first movie with starring both Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in it (they both appeared before in the movies " 45 Minutes from Hollywood" and " A Lucky dog".) but it was the first movie of the two appearing as a comical duo. Therefor this movie already is a bit of a must-see. It's an historical significant movie, that marked one of the very first step of silent-movie history.

No, it certainly ain't an hilarious movie but it rather is a very well constructed movie, with an excellent story and extremely good timing and pace. The editing was truly superb and kept the pace high, as well as the movie itself consistent. It all helps to make "Duck Soup" a very pleasant and amusing movie to watch.

Stan Laurel is already great in his role but Oliver Hardy still obviously had to grown into his role. The beginning is there but he's not quite perfect yet. The subtle little things that made his character so great are still missing in this movie. Luckily the boys already have some great chemistry together in this movie.

Not an hilarious movie but a very well constructed and amusing one, with Laurel & Hardy for the very first time together as a comical duo.

10/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

They had appeared together in the same films before. They both had a long career in silent comedies when they met. They were not initially considered as the perfect comic teaming that we see them as today. So when they were paired together for a story suggested by Stan's father, it seemed like just another film for Stan and Babe. Most of this film has the feel of early slapstick of the Mack Sennett tradition - big gestures, running and leaping and jumping. But there are also the beginnings of a more quiet, understated comedy. When The Boys have to entertain the couple who are inquiring about the house, we can see Laurel and Hardy become, by necessity, sneaky. Devious. The pace slows down, and we are allowed to laugh about the situation, not because of obvious over-the-top gagging. The film was long considered lost until 1974, when a print surfaced in Europe. Many books that credited the Laurel and Hardy genesis to later films are not in error - very little was known of this film until its rediscovery. Duck Soup is not the perfect Laurel and Hardy film - there is too much slapstick and not enough sly wit in it for my tastes. The casual viewer would be much better served by the remake, the three-reel talkie Another Fine Mess, which has much more sly wit and fantastic dialogue. However, Duck Soup is definitely an important entry in the Laurel and Hardy film pantheon, and is well worth a view if you're a fan.

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy appeared in lengthy scenes together for the first time in March 1927's "Duck Soup" (not to be confused with the Marx Brothers' 1933 film of the same name). Even though they appear on a park bench and go about escaping from the forestry rangers conscripting the unemployed to fight nearby fires, Stan and Laurel dress like tramps, with Hardy unshaven and wearing a monocle and a top hat. This was the first movie, however, that McCarey saw the potential of the two as a comedy team. Despite finding themselves in the same locations and situations, the two act more as individuals then they do playing off one another in "Duck Soup"-lingo for "Easy as pie" and "As good as done."

After "Duck Soup," Laurel and Hardy appeared in their next seven movies together, but each playing different characters from the other, even though they did interact.