Fifty Before '50: DUCK SOUP

 by JB

This is a gala day for us. Stay tuned to the end of the column for exciting, time sensitive news.

Groucho once said, in the invaluable and long out-of-print* The Marx Bros. Scrapbook, that Duck Soup was the only time the Marx brothers ever got to work with a truly talented director. Leo McCarey was a master director who had started in the silents, directing Laurel and Hardy (frequent L & H co-star Edgar Kennedy makes an appearance here as an angry lemonade vendor) and would go on to direct the Oscar-winning Going My Way with Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald.

THE PLOT IN BRIEF: The governors of Freedonia ask rich Mrs. Teasdale (Margaret Dumont) for a loan to bail out their almost bankrupt country. Teasdale agrees, but only if Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx) is appointed leader. They agree and stage a lavish inauguration ceremony. There we learn that Trentino (Louis Calhern) from rival country Sylvania wishes to wed Mrs. Teasdale and place Freedonia under the Sylvania flag. He employs dancer Vera Marcal (Raquel Torres) to seduce Firefly and disgrace him. Trentino has also hired two spies, Chicolini and Pinky (Chico and Harpo Marx) to gum up the works in Freedonia.

Firefly has a secretary named Bob Roland (Zeppo Marx). Did I mention that? Bob Roland is not important to the plot.

Trentino's penchant for insult plunges the two countries into war. The warfare scenes are played for laughs, with Groucho changing into a different military uniform every time the camera cuts away from him. The brothers trap Trentino and throw oranges at him until he surrenders. Mrs. Teasdale celebrates by singing the national anthem until the brothers throw oranges at her.

I am trying to remember the name of the critic who first suggested the Marx Brothers’ personalities reflected the immigrant experience in America, and that is reflected in the different ways they use language. Groucho turns the English language into a weapon to get what he wants, Chico employs endless malapropisms and puns to get the language to work for him, Harpo refuses to speak at all, and Zeppo assimilates like crazy and speaks perfect English. I am still impressed by this theory and interpretation.

Most critics consider Duck Soup the Marx Brothers’ greatest film and I agree. It is very funny. It is unencumbered by the romantic subplots that often threaten to sink their later MGM films. The Marx brothers are not here to help the young lovers; they are only trying to help themselves. The film is stripped down to the essentials: Chico never even plays the piano and Harpo never touches a harp. Generation after generation have seen their own political situations reflected in the film’s razor-sharp parody of government and bureaucracy.

Friend of the site The Pope of Film once wrote a column on Duck Soup. He even suggested that it was one of the 50 Best American Films ever made. You can read that column here.

Duck Soup is also the only time the Marx brothers’ brand of anarchy was loosed in a political setting. Though I try to steer clear of politics in these columns, I was recently struck by something Danny Peary wrote about the film in his wonderful and amazing book Cult Movies. (Remember, in Duck Soup, Groucho plays the leader of a country.) “Groucho is a winner simply because he won’t acknowledge any defeat he sustains. Groucho’s major source of pleasure is unnerving those who do take things seriously and are afraid of losing their power or dignity [...] It is not that the jokes he tells are funny... what is funny is that he insists on letting fly with lowbrow humor in august settings. He loves being rude in public, and one of his playful diversions is to [pretend] to take offense at something innocent said to him... and then quickly insulting the person who said it.”

Gee, that sounds like a certain leader of a certain real country. To paraphrase comedian John Mulaney, Groucho is like a horse that got loose in a hospital.

NOTE TO THOSE READING THIS ON MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14: The Regal Cinemas chain has been running a reparatory series all month called “Month of Masterpieces.” Today, September 14, at select Regal Cinemas nationwide, Duck Soup is the masterpiece du jour, with screenings running all day long. (My local Regal Theater has five showings scheduled.) Why not treat yourself to a long lunch hour and see Duck Soup... today... on the big screen? I’ll be there with a big horn to “honk along with Harpo” and annoy my fellow patrons. Regal is also showing Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys on the 15th, Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train on the 16th, Tim Burton’s Pee Wee’s Big Adventure on the 17th, and David Fincher’s Zodiac on the 18th.


*Even though it's out of print, you can still buy it used. If you've never read it, you should do that... and read it.