The Movie Screen Scene
It is said that Duck Soup was a flop, in contrast to the previous Marx Brothers movie Horse Feathers, which was the most successful movie of 1932 in terms of box office sales. There are even a number of reasons given for this failure, with some critics speculating that perhaps the film was simply too…
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The Movie Screen Scene
It is said that Duck Soup was a flop, in contrast to the previous Marx Brothers movie Horse Feathers, which was the most successful movie of 1932 in terms of box office sales. There are even a number of reasons given for this failure, with some critics speculating that perhaps the film was simply too cynical for audiences who were feeling the blues of living through the Great Depression.

This theory rests on the assumption that audiences want only to be entertained during times of woe, and that they do not wish to be reminded of how bad conditions are. This idea was certainly shared by Preston Sturges and, it became the premise of his movie, Sullivan’s Travels. However many 1930s comedies managed to combine escapist fantasy with a sharp look at the contrasts between the world of the wealthy and the world of the less well-to-do. You Can’t Take It with You and My Man Godfrey come to mind.

In any case, it is debatable that Duck Soup offers any cynical message about the world of the 1930s. It is full of surrealist humour and musical numbers, and there is certainly nothing depressing about its content. Indeed it was not a flop at all. While box office sales were disappointing compared to those of Horse Feather, it was still the 6th highest grossing movie of 1933.

Perhaps the problem was only that the Marx Brothers had made a movie every year since 1929 and audiences were ready for a break. It would be two years before the Marx Brothers returned to the cinema with A Night at the Opera, a movie that reined in some of the brothers’ antics, and perhaps that break was a good thing for their popularity. Having said that, my personal opinion is that each one of the Marx Brothers’ five Paramount movies was better than the last one.

To describe the plot of Duck Soup is to concentrate on its least important part, but I’ll give a brief summary. The action takes place in the fictional country of Freedonia. The state is bankrupt and begs for financial aid from the wealthy Mrs Teasdale (played by Margaret Dumont, a regular actress in Marx Brothers movies, and often called the Fifth Marx Brother).

Mrs Teasdale agrees to give Freedonia money on one condition – that there is a change of leader. Her choice is the ‘fearless fighter’, Rufus T Firefly (Groucho Marx). However there are plans by the rival state Sylvania to foment trouble in the state with a view to invading. These plans are spearheaded by the Sylvanian ambassador, Trentino (Louis Calhern).

The story from here is a series of muddled threads that are begun, forgotten and picked up again when it suits the plot. Trentino tries to use a female agent Vera Marcal (Raquel Torres) to distract Firefly while he courts Mrs Teasdale. He also employs two spies to keep an eye on Firefly, Chicolini (Chico Marx) and Pinky (Harpo Marx). Firefly also uses Chicolini for his own purposes, appointing him Minister of War. After Firefly insults Trentino in a battle for the attentions of Mrs Teasdale, the two countries go to war.

Beyond that, the film contains all the familiar features of the Marx Brothers. There are a series of musical numbers, though unusually there are no interludes for Chico and Harpo to perform their usual piano and harp solos. The film is designed to appeal to the eyes and ears of the audience, with the spectacle of dancing and the aural feast of catchy humorous songs.

This was Zeppo’s last film, as he got tired of being regarded as the unfunny Marx Brother. Fittingly he is given a musical number with all three of his siblings, possibly the only time they all sing together. (There is some debate about whether Zeppo joined in with the Sweet Adeline chorus in Monkey Business, but since all four brothers were in a barrel at the time it is hard to tell.)

Groucho provides the cynical jokes – risqué and sarcastic quips, delivered in a whirlwind of words and actions that leave the other characters confused. His entry in the movie is comically delayed after an enormous musical display is prepared for him, but he does not enter at the agreed time, sneaking in to the room a little later via a fire station pole. From there he rolls up his trousers and asks the long-suffering Mrs Teasdale to pick a playing card (though of course this leads to no card trick).

The only characters who are a match for Groucho and his antics are his other brothers. Chico delivers execrable puns and banters with Groucho. Harpo is the mute one who relies on sight gags (the flamethrower which he uses to light his cigarette, the motorbike which constantly leaves its sidecar behind, or the tattoo of a dog that barks) and slapstick (he is always cutting strips off people’s jackets and chasing girls – what he would do if he ever caught one is anybody’s guess).

The story dawdles along nicely enough for a few comical sketches, in which identity is subverted. Harpo, Chico and a lemonade vendor spend some time exchanging hats, and there is a famous mirror scene where Chico pretends to be Groucho’s reflection, while Groucho engages in bizarre walks and dances, Chico picks up Groucho’s hat, and the two even switch places.

In a world dominated by egotistical dictators, it is easy to see Duck Soup as a satire on the totalitarian leaders of the time. We watch Firefly introducing absurd laws banning dirty jokes, chewing gum and pleasure of any kind. Indeed Mussolini was unhappy enough to actually ban the film in Italy, much to the Brothers’ delight.

The movie greatly influenced Woody Allen, whose film Bananas also involves a South American dictator who creates preposterous laws. Allen seems to have had a particular fondness for the film. In Hannah and Her Sisters, Duck Soup is the film that persuades Allen’s character that life might be worth living after all.

Set against the view that Duck Soup is satire is Groucho Marx’s answer when asked the political significance of the movie: “What significance? We were just four Jews trying to get a laugh.” On one level, Duck Soup is little more than escapist nonsense, as the title suggests. The very title is a meaningless phrase just like Horse Feathers. It is as a slang term for avoiding something, or doing something the easy way. The opening credits showing several ducks merrily swimming in a vat of boiling water gives us a further clue that we should not be taking things too seriously.

There is then no special point that the Marx Brothers are making about politics, but the film’s absurdist humour ends up suggesting that there is no point to politics at all. The Brothers constantly seek to upturn the world of convention, order and pomposity that serves to stifle personal freedom and imagination.

The state is little more than a dictatorship run by Firefly, belying its name Freedonia. I am reminded of how often totalitarian states use ironic words in their title: ‘People’s Republic”, etc. All government is corrupt, as illustrated in the words of Firefly’s song:

If you think this country’s bad off now, just wait ’til I get through with it

The country’s taxes must be fixed and I know what to do with it

If you think you’re paying too much now, just wait ’til I get through with it

I will not stand for anything that’s crooked or unfair

I’m strictly on the up and up so everyone beware

If anyone’s caught taking graft and I don’t get my share

Nationalism and patriotism are equally worthless in this world. They lead only to war, and war is absurd too. When the war between Freedonia and Sylvania breaks out it is marked by preposterous scenes. Stock footage is played to suggest that even animals are charging to the Freedonia’s rescue. Firefly wears a different costume in every sequence, including Union and Confederate uniforms from the American Civil War, a British palace guard uniform, a Boy Scoutmaster’s uniform, and a Davy Crockett coonskin cap. Even the appearance of the building alters each time we see it. Finally the conflict is settled by a food fight.

We still live in a world where soldiers are held in reverence, but not in the world of the Marx Brothers, where wars are silly and interchangeable, where the helmets of the soldiers are used to play a tune, and where Firefly sends Pinky out to fight with the words:

You’re a brave man. Go and break through the lines! 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.

This irreverent approach to the institutions that many people hold dearly – the state, the government and the army – is both less and more subversive than they would be if the movie had deliberately set out to satirise those institutions. It is less subversive in that it is not intended to make people angry about injustices, or to feel that any sacred cows are under attack. Most people will simply watch the movie, and not take away any serious thought about what they have seen.

On the other hand, Duck Soup is more subversive in that its cheeky and insouciant approach to every aspect of the establishment reduces everything to absurdity. There is no attempt here to change minds or to change the world. It asks us only to laugh at what we see, and to regard everything as a subject fit for comedy.

Duck Soup offers no political message and takes no sides. It leaves us only with the impression that the whole world of national and international politics is a fool’s game in which no side is worth supporting. This may be an abdication of responsibility, but it is also very appealing to that part of me which suspects that, in failing to take all political representatives too seriously, the Marx Brothers are probably right.