O Diabo a Quatro

Well, here we are with another wild and hilarious Marx Brothers farce, this time with Groucho taking over a small country and winding up in war with a neighboring one.

There really isn't much of a story but with the Marx Brothers that doesn't matter. Many times their movies were vehicles for their vaudeville acts of funny lines, slapstick gags and musical talent.

Two differences in this film than most others from the boys: 1 - Zeppo has a number of lines. Usually, he's the almost-forgotten brother in this foursome, either with little to say or not even in the film. 2 - Harpo doesn't play the harp, but he gets in on his share of the gags, which are always dominated by Groucho and Chico (my personal favorite).

Fantastic dialog makes this version one of the best of them all. There are just tons of funny (and, yes, very dated) lines in this movie and having Duck Soup out on DVD making the sound clearer helps, too. Lots of laughs.

Duck Soup(1933) is the funniest and most entertaining comedy that I've seen in my life. It was the last film the Marx Brothers would do for Paramount before going over to MGM. Duck Soup is an anarchic comedy where the main characters never live by the rules and rebel as a result. The Marx Brothers put out some of the greatest comedies that rarely has been matched. It is a satire about the nature of war, politics, and affairs of the state. Duck Soup(1933) is a great example of a film that can easily induce a person into bursts of laughter.

I'm shocked, shocked at all the negative comments covering this comedy classic. The puns, the insults, are all now comedy classics. The Lemonade Stand & the Mirror Scenes also memorable. I hadn't seen the movie in around 15 years but bought the DVD so my 15 year old son could experience the Marxes. He loved it too.

What I noticed for the first time was the satire of society, manners, government, the military, the bureaucracy (including Roberts Rules of Order). I can't recall any other comedy I've seen that satirizes on such a grand scale.

For Marx Brothers fans this is a must see. It's the boys with no love story or musical interludes in the way.

One word for those who disagree- "Upstart". :-)

One of the funniest films ever made, Duck Soup is total insanity and a fast pace by the Marx Brothers. Is this merely a string of gags or is this pungent political satire? Does it matter? Priceless gags include the famous "mirror" act, the lemonade stand, and some of the funniest plays on words ever heard. Groucho play Rufus T. Firely, who comes to the aide of struggling Freedonia, seemingly run by a wealthy society dame, Mrs. Teasdale (Margaret Dumont). Chico and Harpo play spies in the employ of the rule of Sylvania (Louis Calhern). Nothing makes sense but then this IS about politics. Fast pace zips this film along (directed by the great Leo McCarey) so that the gags and jokes are dizzying. The three brothers are all wonderful as is Dumont. Also thrown into the mix is the exotic Raquel Torres, funnyman Edgar Kennedy, and the lackluster Zeppo Marx. Best gags include the mirror act with Grouch and Harpo (redone on one of Lucille Ball's TV series with Harpo 20 years later); the lemonade sequence with Chico, Harpo, and Kennedy, and of course the bizarre war finale with the brothers and Dumont, who was one of the best comedy foils in film history.

The usual Marx Brothers blend of skimpy plot, musical numbers and non-stop gags makes this the best of their films. Film history tells us Duck Soup was originally a flop, that it was the last of their films for Paramount, and the final film appearance for Zeppo (no loss there). The Marx Brothers were saved by Irving Thalberg at MGM, and the 3 brothers went on to a few big successes at that studio. One of the funniest films ever made.

It narrowly beats A Night at the Opera as the best all-round Marx Bros film, though I find the humour more bizarre in Monkey Business. At least the musical numbers in DS are actually worth sitting through.

The reasons it scores so highly are:

1) The mirror sequence. The finest comic sequence ever committed to film. Sure, it's old-hat vaudeville, but it's professional, beautifully timed and spirals into wonderful absurdity.

2) The one-liners, puns and other jokes. Pick of the crop are the peanut stall interchange, the telephone sequence, the riddles ('what has four pairs of pants, lives in Philadelphia, and it never rains but it pours?') and the final battle (especially the stock footage of monkeys and elephants running to save the army under siege - the kind of thing the Zucker Bros pinched for their comedies). Oh, yes, and the motorcycle routines.

3) The satire on politics and warmongering. The Brothers simply deflate the pomposity of the whole deal.

4) The fact that Zeppo is actually given something to do.

Anybody who thinks the Farrelly brothers are the last word in comedy should be strapped to a chair and shown Marx Bros films over and over again, until they concede.