Duck Soup
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| Duck Soup | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster. |
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| Directed by | Leo McCarey |
| Produced by | Herman J. Mankiewicz (uncredited) |
| Written by | Bert Kalmar Harry Ruby Arthur Sheekman, and Nat Perrin |
| Starring | Groucho Marx Harpo Marx Chico Marx Zeppo Marx Margaret Dumont Edgar Kennedy Edwin Maxwell |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures (1933-1957) MCA/EMKA, Ltd. (1958-62) Universal Pictures (1962-present) |
| Release date(s) | November 17, 1933 |
| Running time | 68 min |
| Language | English |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
- For other uses, see Duck Soup (disambiguation).
Duck Soup is a 1933 Marx Brothers' anarchic comedy film written by Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby, Arthur Sheekman, and Nat Perrin and directed by Leo McCarey. It starred what were then billed as the "Four Marx Brothers" (Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Zeppo) and also featured Margaret Dumont, Raquel Torres, and Louis Calhern. It was the last Marx Brothers film to feature Zeppo.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Groucho plays Rufus T. Firefly, the newly-appointed president of the small country of Freedonia. The government of neighboring Sylvania is, for unknown reasons, attempting to take over the country. Sylvanian ambassador Trentino first tries to do this first by fomenting a revolution, then by wooing Mrs. Teasdale (the most influential woman in Freedonia), and finally by trying to humiliate Firefly by sending in spies (Chicolini and Pinky) who will find embarrassing data about His Excellency.
When the film opens, the first attempt has already failed and the others are getting started. Chicolini and Pinky have collected absolutely useless information about Firefly. Chicolini then successfully infiltrates the government: he is appointed Secretary of War after Firefly sees him on the street selling peanuts. Fellow spy Pinky is by his side. After a series of personal insults by Firefly aimed at Trentino, the two countries are on the brink of war. Adding to the international friction is the fact that Firefly is also wooing Mrs. Teasdale, hoping to get his hands on her late husband's fortune.
Trentino learns that Freedonia's war plans are in Mrs. Teasdale's possession and Chicolini and Pinky are instructed to steal then. The spies are caught by Firefly himself and put on trial, during which war is officially declared. Chicolini is miraculously and instantaenously returned to his position of trust in the government (as is Pinky) and stands by Firefly in battle. After this it is not clear who is on which side, and further mayhem ensues.
Duck soup is a slang phrase meaning "a piece of cake", or something easy to do. The expression was in keeping with the "animal" theme of the brothers' previous three titles, Animal Crackers, Monkey Business and Horse Feathers. McCarey came up with the title for the film. When Groucho was asked for an explanation, he said:
"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."[citation needed]
[edit] Reception
Popular belief holds that Duck Soup was a box office failure, but this is not true. Even though it did not do as well as Horse Feathers, it was the sixth-highest grossing film of 1933, according to Glenn Mitchell in The Marx Brothers Encyclopedia and Simon Louvish in his biography of the Marx Brothers, Monkey Business. The musical introduction to Groucho's character is similar to the ones in Animal Crackers and Horse Feathers, and audiences at the time may have seen it as a rehash, though modern audiences do not necessarily make this association. Although Groucho's opening number did not become connected with him closely as did the Animal Crackers numbers, its biting satire resonates:
- The last man nearly ruined this place,
- He didn't know what to do with it;
- If you think this country's bad off now,
- Just wait till I get through with it!
A possible reason for the film's bad reception might be because of the time frame in which it was released: in the midst of the Great Depression of 1929-1939. Audiences were taken aback by such preposterous political disregard, buffoonery and cynicism at a time of political crisis. (This film quote, spoken by Groucho, was reportedly especially detested: "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!")
The people of the city of Fredonia, New York protested the film because they feared that the similar-sounding Freedonia hurt their city's reputation. The Marx Brothers responded with, "Change the name of your town. It's hurting our picture."
Years later, Arthur Marx, Groucho's son, described Irving Thalberg's assessment of the film's failure during a National Public Radio interview:
[Thalberg] said the trouble with Duck Soup is you've got funny gags in it, but there's no story and there's nothing to root for. You can't root for the Marx Brothers because they're a bunch of zany kooks. [Thalberg] says, "You gotta put a love story in your movie so there'll be something to root for, and you have to help the lovers get together."[citation needed]
The supposedly necessary love story, included in later Marx films, is often seen as an intrusion, and the early films are seen as being "pure" comedy. Duck Soup is now seen as a classic political farce. The film was #85 on American Film Institute's 100 Years, 100 Movies and #5 on its 100 Years, 100 Laughs, and has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. It is consistently on the Internet Movie Database's list of top 250 films. In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted Duck Soup the 29th greatest comedy film of all time. It is also one of the earliest films to appear on Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Roger Ebert's list of Great Movies.
American literary critic Harold Bloom considers the end of Duck Soup one of the greatest works of American art produced in the 20th century.
[edit] Famous Scenes
The irrepressible comedians in this quintessential anarchy, satirical film simply but irreverently assault the pomposity of small-time governmental leaders (Firefly as President), the absurdity of government itself (the Cabinet meeting scene), governmental diplomacy (the Trentino-Firefly scenes), a non-working legal system (the trial scenes), and war fought for trivial reasons (the mobilization and war scenes).
The non-stop frenetic film is filled with a number of delightfully funny moments, gags, fast-moving acts, double entendres, comedy routines, puns, pure silliness, zany ad-libs, quips and insult-spewed lines of dialogue. Much of the comedy makes the obvious statement that war is indeed nonsensical and meaninglessly destructive. The film also ridicules the justifications for warfare: The two nations go to war solely because Firefly and Trentino had insulted each other.
In the "mirror scene," Harpo, dressed as Groucho, pretends to be Groucho's reflection in a missing mirror, matching and mocking his every move. Eventually, Chico, also disguised as Groucho, collides with both of them. This scene has been duplicated in many different films and genres (for example, the Bugs Bunny cartoon, Hare Tonic). Harpo himself did a reprise of this scene, dressed in his usual costume, with Lucille Ball also donning the fright wig and trench coat, in an episode of I Love Lucy. In that version, Harpo breaks it up by dropping his hat; Lucy also drops her hat, but Harpo's is on a rubber band and springs back to him, and Lucy and Harpo embrace as the studio audience applauds.
In another famous scene the Marx Brothers poke fun at the Hays Code by showing a woman's bedroom and then showing a woman's shoes on the floor, a man's shoes and horseshoes. Harpo is sleeping in the bed with the horse; the woman is in the twin bed next to them.
Chico (or actually the film's writers) recycle a joke used in Horse Feathers:
- Prosecutor: Chicolini, isn't it true you sold Freedonia's secret war code and plans?
- Chicolini: Sure! I sold a code and two pairs o' plans!"
The climactic production number ridicules war by comparing nationalism to a minstrel show. The irreverent satire still bites. One line is a variant on the old Spiritual "All God's Chillun Got Wings"[1]:
- We got guns, they got guns, all God's chillun got guns!
- I'm gonna walk all over the battlefield, 'cause all God's chillun got guns!
The street vendor confrontations are also well-remembered scenes: Chico and Harpo harass a lemonade seller (comedy film veteran Edgar Kennedy) just to get a "kick" out of it, egged on by his flustered attitude.
The typical Marxian anarchy found a receptive audience when the film was revived in the 1960s. The very end of the film finds Trentino caught in a makeshift stocks and the Brothers are pelting him with fruit. Margaret Dumont begins singing the Freedonia national anthem in her operatic voice. When she hits the high note, the Brothers turn away from Trentino and begin hurling fruit in her direction instead (none of it actually hits her, though she subtly dodges a couple of close ones).
[edit] Musical numbers
[edit] Original songs by Kalmar and Ruby
The introductory scene, showing ducks swimming in a kettle and quacking merrily, is scored with an instrumental medley of these songs, and is also the only scene in the film that has anything remotely to do with ducks.
- Freedonia hymn - used frequently, both as vocal and instrumental
- Sylvania theme (sounds vaguely like "Rule Britannia") - used several times
- When The Clock On The Wall Strikes 10, part of the same scene as...
- These are the Laws of My Administration
- Freedonia's Going To War
[edit] Non-original music
- Military Polonaise (Chopin) - under newpaper headline of Firefly's appointment
- Sailor's Hornpipe; Dixie - short segments embedded in Laws of My Administration
- Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf - music box, accompanied by Harpo on harp, briefly; a few minutes later, in another scene, Groucho says "I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your door in" after he is locked in a closet
- The Stars and Stripes Forever (Sousa) - on radio, turned on (loudly) by Harpo, who mistakes it for a safe
- American Patrol (Frank W. Meacham) - three of the Brothers playing soldiers' helmets like a xylophone as they march by, while Harpo clips off the decorative tassels (part of a running gag in the picture)
- All God's Chillun Got Guns (parody of All God's Chillun Got Wings); Oh Freedonia (parody of Oh Susanna); Turkey in the Straw (instrumental) - embedded in Freedonia's Going to War
- Light Cavalry Overture (Suppé) - Harpo galloping on horseback a la Paul Revere
- Ain't She Sweet (Milton Ager/Jack Yellen) - Harpo watching girl in window
- Goodnight, Sweetheart (Ray Noble) - Harpo and same girl (Edgar Kennedy's character's wife)
- Generic cavalry charge - Harpo with horn, in bathtub with Edgar Kennedy
- One Hour With You (Oscar Straus) ??? - Harpo with another girl (apparently at a brothel) and his horse - segué into a bit of The Old Gray Mare
[edit] Trivia
- Duck Soup was the last film to feature the Four Marx Brothers. Zeppo Marx departed the act after the film was completed.
- Breaking with their usual pattern, neither Harpo's harp nor Chico's piano is used in the film, although Harpo briefly pretends to play harp on the strings of a piano, strumming chords in accompaniment to a music box that is playing the unlikely chime tune, "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" (from a rival studio's Three Little Pigs, released the same year as Duck Soup).
- The film was banned in the Italy of Benito Mussolini, who took it as a personal insult. The brothers were reportedly ecstatic when this happened. (Indeed, the bad guy Trentino shares his name with a region of Italy.)
- In one of the set-pieces in which Chico and Harpo harass Edgar Kennedy, the three of them all end up exchanging hats: Harpo wearing Kennedy's derby, Chico wearing Harpo's top hat, and Kennedy wearing Chico's "pinhead" hat. Harpo often doffed his hat on-screen, but Chico very rarely removed his pointed hat. For a few seconds on-screen, Chico's head is uncovered, revealing the wavy hair that was similar to Groucho's (before baldness began to set in).
- In the battle scenes, Firefly is dressed in several uniforms. He wears a different costume in almost every sequence until the end of the film, including American Civil War outfits (first Union and then Confederacy), a British palace guard uniform, a Boy Scout Scoutmaster's uniform, and even a coon-skin Davy Crockett cap. Meanwhile, the exterior view of the building they are occupying changes appearance from a bunker to an old fort, etc. Some analysts say that all the war costumes suggest that the scene symbolizes all American wars. As the Boy Scouts have never formally engaged in war, it is more likely that the writers were merely trying to get laughs.
- Scenes from Duck Soup play a significant role in a scene near the end of the Woody Allen film Hannah and Her Sisters.
- When the film was first released, the city of Fredonia, New York, complained about the possible negative implications the film could reflect on the city. The Marx Brothers replied, in typical Marx fashion, "Change the name of your town: You're hurting our picture." (According to urban legend, Groucho would use a similar idea in defending the title of A Night in Casablanca).
- Some sources say that the script was originally titled Firecrackers.
- Bananas, written and directed by Woody Allen, was loosely modelled after Duck Soup.
- The filmed was spoofed in Animaniacs as the full-episode sketch "King Yakko". One specific gag from the original, the constant singing of the Fredonian national anthem, was spoofed in particular with a Perry Como charicature. Groucho's entrance in the film was also borrowed in another Animaniacs cartoon, "The Three Muska-Warners".
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Duck Soup at the Internet Movie Database
- Duck Soup at the TCM Movie Database
- Review and scene-by-scene description from a film buff whose ad-supported website is recommended by Roger Ebert
- Credit summary with "Four Marx Brothers" poster from a University of Illinois at Chicago website
- Present at the Creation, an NPR story about the failure of Duck Soup and the success of the film that followed
- Duck Soup script from a fan's website
- Freedonia tourist site created by a fan, loosely based on the world of the film
| The Marx Brothers |
|---|
| Chico Marx | Harpo Marx | Groucho Marx | Gummo Marx | Zeppo Marx |
| Films with Chico, Harpo, Groucho, and Zeppo |
|
Humor Risk (1921) • The Cocoanuts (1929) • Animal Crackers (1930) • |
| Films with Chico, Harpo, and Groucho |
|
A Night at the Opera (1935) • A Day at the Races (1937) • Room Service (1938) • At the Circus (1939) • |
