Duck Soup (1933) Review – I Will For The Rest Of My Life!
Beryl Parkey
After watching Duck Soup for the first time, I didn’t get it. The Marx Brothers’ antics didn’t make sense and it was overall disjointed. After talking to people and looking up its reception, they say it’s a satire of dictatorships and incompetent leaders. Now that I’ve watched it again, I see that satire in the…
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The Filme Diary
After watching Duck Soup for the first time, I didn’t get it. The Marx Brothers’ antics didn’t make sense and it was overall disjointed. After talking to people and looking up its reception, they say it’s a satire of dictatorships and incompetent leaders. Now that I’ve watched it again, I see that satire in the film, though it’s subtle. It’s subtle as there are many scenes not focused on the satire.

The mirror scene and the last eight and a half minutes are deservedly famous for showcasing the various talents of the brothers. The first is slow, simple, and quiet while the other is loud and bombastic, being jam packed with humor. Other highlights are the alarm clock gag and the very opening. Opening on a shot of ducks in a pot is slightly unsettling, which is representative of the film’s general feeling. Furthermore is the opening credits where a duck quack signals each of the brothers’ names appearing. It’s like they’re the chauffeurs for a cinematic experience that’s concerning in its uniqueness and sense of humor. Even with the knowledge of the earlier films, this stands among them due to the lesser amount of musical segments and superfluous elements so as to stay focused on comedy. Now, the comedy punctuates having an effect on a whole society, with it reacting to the brothers’ rationale, creating something amusingly horrifying. Scored by of all things, quacking.

Groucho Marx continues to provide intensity and power to his characters, consistently being a riot. “Never mind that stuff. Take a card.” “Card? What’ll I do with a card?” “You can keep it. I’ve got 51 left.” His wit is overpowering in its anti-social and well-crafted glory. You can tell he’s completely invested in his role of Rufus T. Firefly, a parody of dictators. Chico and Harpo do quite a bit of scene-stealing, possibly because they’re less so part of the system, while Groucho’s role is inside it. “He gets mad because he can’t read.” “Oh, I see.” Chico Marx as Chicolini and Harpo Marx as Pinky function as a tuned-to-perfection duo act. Chicolini and Pinky with Trentino around the beginning is a favorite sequence, as is their later one with Edgar Kennedy. Speaking of a 1910s film star, the park setting looks like ones from 1910s and early 20s Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd films. Sadly, there’s no harp or piano solo. It’s understandable why. The pacing and humor is so razor sharp that that might hurt the flow. Similarly strong was Monkey Business, and its musical segments felt pretty forced in.

The tropes of the Marx’s are deconstructed and parodied. When Firefly meets Mrs. Teasdale, in no time he rushes through what by now would be an expected bit of him trying to propose to her for her money. Here, he just asks if she has money and when she says yes, he says he loves her. In one scene, Chicolini and Pinky simply drive a man insane for no real reason. In the impersonation sequence, Pinky is hurting his own goal by doing what he does, but that makes sense from the view of Harpo being such a clown that only wants to destroy. The last scenes feature the main performers in these films, the four brothers and Margaret Dumont. All do a distillation of their main shtick (including Zeppo who expertly does nothing).

What are Chicolini and Pinky supposed to represent if this is a “satire”? If it’s about incompetent people being given these important jobs by corrupt politicians, then they spend more time under Firefly’s enemy than Firefly himself. If they’re supposed to represent the two people least likely to get a high position of power, then why these specific character-types? That’s not to say I, a fan, would have them any other way, as they deliver brilliantly in terms of comedy in these roles, but these extremely out-of-nowhere types can make the story not work on the level of just being a story. A new viewer would be wondering what their deal is.

As an aside, Chicolini and Pinky being hired by Firefly doesn’t serve much purpose. It feels like something to explain their appearance in the ending. Their function in the story, being with Trentino, contradicts what’s established in that scene, being with Firefly. Raquel Torres’ character is set up as having some importance, only to do very little. Margaret Dumont as Mrs. Teasdale and Zeppo Marx also could’ve done more. You can imagine they did in earlier drafts. Zeppo has the least prominence in this film of any so far. Instead of introducing Firefly with a photo in a newspaper, it’d be funnier to have a little more buildup to who he is, then we first see him in live action. As is the case with most of the Marx films, the film ends pretty suddenly.

Some issues are more consequential: Continuity errors like the mirror glass disappearing and everybody being in a noticeably different state in the ending sequence suggest an extreme lack of care in presenting a cohesive work. As is the scene where after the film progressively escalates in tension and an intense altercation occurs, we get a little pointless Pinky shenanigans that could’ve gone essentially anywhere, then we go to the finale. That bit sacrifices the pacing for nothing. Later, there’s a bit of stock footage within the last minutes that makes you think someone let Ed Wood in the editing room for a moment. What was the point of that? It’s unfortunate these admittedly minor issues weren’t cleaned up.

SPOILERS

The humor is too scatterbrained and eclectic to make this an effective satire. The Marx Brothers’ style seems to defy being able to stay focused on tackling a certain subject long enough to last a whole film. The bits about the war, with Mrs. Teasdale trying to calm tensions, mostly happen offscreen. A proper war film would focus on the actual conflict more. Every moment should play into Firefly and Trentino. Instead, they go from zero to hundred in a single scene where it seems they are only arguing out of necessity for the sake of the story. Next there’s matters that deal with Chicolini and Pinky, then Mrs. Teasdale essentially tells the audience what happened offscreen. Thus, we’re not focusing on a mad person in power, more mad people in various comedic situations. There are moments that seem obviously intended to be satirical, like Mrs. Teasdale getting Firefly elected by using her wealth. The ending sequence showing Firefly in recognizable military uniforms demonstrates that this sort of behavior can arise in real life, not just absurdist fiction. The people Firefly rules over act like exaggerated versions of how real people can act in these situations.

OVERVIEW

Many films are criticized for having scenes that don’t go anywhere. The most acclaimed films are praised for having no pointless scenes. Duck Soup is filled with pointless scenes. It’s easy to forgive this due to what we are seeing being so hilarious and simply not take it as a satire in the first place, but that doesn’t mean the story is very cogent.

My 2018 review was merely, “I guess I didn’t “get it”.” In tandem with it was a negative rating, as such madcap humor wasn’t to my liking. I have now seen the error of my ways. This film is one of the great laugh riots of cinema and if you can forgive its shortcomings, it’s just a delight. The only real issue is it leaves you wanting more. There appears to have been high quality material on the cutting room floor. Hopefully one day we can get an extended edit. From least to best, I’d rank the Marx at Paramount films, The Cocoanuts, Horse Feathers, Animal Crackers, the I’ll Say She Is short, Monkey Business, and in first place Duck Soup. If I was ranking these by my favorites, simply move up The Cocoanuts to be in-between Say and Business.

ON THE CORNER AND OFF THE WALL

Here’s a modified excerpt of my 2019 review:

To give praise, the ending is great. All four main characters, the Marx brothers, are involved and the pacing is a lot faster. I may have liked the film more if the pace was that fast throughout the whole movie. This picture is very funny and I enjoy it a lot, but there’s just so much detracting from the brilliance…