Hello, welcome to The Gemsbok. Today’s topic is Duck Soup,
a film directed by Leo McCarey and originally released in 1933.
Comedians and entertainers in motion pictures took at least 50 years after movies entered the
mainstream before shaking loose of their direct vaudeville influences. One of the
consequences of this fact is that we have a lasting record of the talents of some—though,
as far as I can tell, not even close to all— of the greatest vaudeville acts.
"WHEN WERE YOU BORN?" "I DON'T REMEMBER. I WAS JUST A LITTLE BABY."
And yes, unfortunately, the word was originally pronounced ‘vau-de-ville,’ with three syllables.
It's thought that it was meant to sound vaguely French.
"PARDON ME WHILE I HAVE A STRANGE INTERLUDE."
At any rate, one such great was an act consisting of a family of comedians and musicians operating a
variety-show-style performance under the heading of ‘The Marx Brothers.’ Their antics found a
natural match in the narrative format of the movie industry, and they became hugely successful,
producing 13 feature films as a group in a career spanning decades.
"GET OUT OF HERE BEFORE I GET ARRESTED!" "NAH, I'D LIKE TO STAY AND SEE THAT."
Perhaps their greatest success (though not financially, in its time) is
a film called Duck Soup, which has stood on both versions of
the American Film Institute's list of the 100 greatest American films (in addition to being in the top 10 of their
list of the 100 greatest American comedy films). Duck Soup is a comedy classic from some of the
all-time masters of early (anarchic, pre-code) movie comedy, and no one with an interest in classic cinema,
movie comedy, or theatrical comedy should miss out on watching it.
"NOW STEP ON IT!"
"WELL, IT CERTAINLY FEELS GOOD TO BE BACK AGAIN."
I have seen every one of the Marx Brothers’ movies more than once, and I enjoy every one of them in
some way. That said, I do have my favorites, and while some usually retain positions near the top
(such as A Night at the Opera, Horse Feathers, and A Day at the Races), Duck Soup‘s position as one
of their absolute best is always unquestionable.
[SINGING:] "IF ANY MAN SHOULD COME BETWEEN A HUSBAND AND HIS BRIDE, WE FIND OUT WHICH ONE SHE PREFERS
BY LETTING HER DECIDE. IF SHE PREFERS THE OTHER MAN, THE HUSBAND STEPS OUTSIDE;
WE STAND HIM UP AGAINST THE WALL AND POP GOES THE WEASEL."
In each of their onscreen projects, principal players Julius, Arthur, and Leonard Marx
(under their famous pseudonyms Groucho, Harpo, and Chico, respectively)
play their own established stage personalities in new positions of varying power
and importance (joined onscreen for a time by Herbert Manfred Marx, better known as Zeppo). And yes,
unfortunately, the stage name of Leonard Marx is meant to be pronounced ‘chick-o,' despite how it's spelled; it’s a reference
to his perennial pursuit of women, or ‘chicks.’ Anyway, in Duck Soup, Groucho plays Rufus T.
Firefly, the new leader of the country Freedonia as it teeters on the brink of war with neighboring nation Sylvania.
He was appointed at the urging of a character played by Margaret Dumont,
who appears in many Marx features as a comically aristocratic target for insults.
"I HELD HIM IN MY ARMS, AND KISSED HIM." "OH, I SEE. THEN IT WAS MURDER!"
Meanwhile, Chico and Harpo play Chicolini and Pinky, spies who enmesh themselves
in Freedonia’s government at the behest of Sylvanian ambassador Trentino (played by
Louis Calhern). Each of the brothers seems to fulfill a different archetypal theatrical role:
Harpo as the mime or clown, Chico as the wily con artist,
"HE'LL NEVER GET NOTHING FROM THAT RAT WITHOUT MONEY. THAT RAT'S JUST LIKE ME."
Zeppo as the straight man, and Groucho as the fast-talking insult comic.
"I'LL THANK YOU TO LET ME DO THE REPORTING.
IS IT TRUE YOU'RE GETTING A DIVORCE AS SOON AS YOUR HUSBAND RECOVERS HIS EYESIGHT?"
Similarly, they each have a primary musical talent:
Harpo with the harp, Chico with the piano, Zeppo with his voice, and Groucho with . . .
[GROUCHO LOUDLY SINGING WITH NASAL VOICE OVER A CHORUS]
well, his sense of humor, at least. All of these talents contribute in some way to each of their
films, and Duck Soup is no exception, containing effortless swings from
outlandish musical comedy to non-sequitur-packed repartee.
"HE'S HAD A CHANGE OF HEART!"
"A LOT OF GOOD THAT'LL DO HIM— HE'S STILL GOT THE SAME FACE."
The plot of Duck Soup, as with the plots of most of the Brothers’
works, is driven forward by a combination of the Brothers’ incompetence,
the Brothers’ disregard for convention and authority,
"YOUR EXCELLENCY, THE EYES OF THE WORLD ARE UPON YOU.
NOTABLES FROM EVERY COUNTRY ARE GATHERED HERE IN YOUR HONOR."
and wild swings from good to bad luck (and vice versa). In particular,
Harpo and Chico’s incompetent spying, Zeppo’s earnest advice, and Groucho’s intentional sleights
of foreign diplomats plunge the country into armed conflict.
"SO, YOU REFUSE TO SHAKE HANDS WITH ME, EH?" [A SLAP, THEN A GASP]
"MRS. TEASDALE, THIS IS THE LAST STRAW. THERE'S NO TURNING BACK NOW. THIS MEANS WAR!"
While A Night at the Opera has the strongest final act
of any of the Marx Brothers’ movies, and Horse Feathers and Animal Crackers
contain a couple of the troupe’s most memorable comedic songs,
"IF HE HEARS ANYTHING OBSCENE, HE'LL NATURALLY REPEL IT."
[SINGING:] "I HATE A DIRTY JOKE, I DO, UNLESS IT'S TOLD BY SOMEONE WHO—KNOWS HOW TO TELL IT!"
[SINGING:] "THE CAPTAIN IS A VERY MORAL MAN."
the abundant slow-paced musical segments in those films,
among other details, make them weaker comedic offerings overall
than Duck Soup, which navigates from one bit or set-piece to the next without missing a beat.
"I'VE GOT AN APPOINTMENT TO INSULT AMBASSADOR TRENTINO
AND I DON'T WANT TO KEEP HIM WAITING. STEP ON IT!"
"THIS IS THE FIFTH TRIP I'VE MADE TODAY, AND I HAVEN'T BEEN ANYWHERE YET."
Some of the gags and sequences from the Marx Brothers’ movies have entered the annals
of cultural knowledge, and you may have seen tributes to them without even noticing. A couple
of cases-in-point are the mirror sequence from Duck Soup and the stateroom scene from A Night at the Opera.
"I CAME TO MOP UP." "JUST THE WOMAN I'M LOOKING FOR. COME RIGHT AHEAD."
"YOU'LL HAVE TO START ON THE CEILING; IT'S THE ONLY PLACE THAT ISN'T BEING OCCUPIED."
But smaller moments and influences survive as well (for example, fans of Monty Python will
find aspects of Duck Soup’s climactic trial scene and accompanying musical number eerily familiar).
In closing, I would contend that the Marx Brothers serve as something of a happy medium between,
on the one hand, the allegorical satires of society and politics in the feature films
of Charlie Chaplin and, on the other hand, the occasionally boorish unending slapstick of acts
like the Three Stooges and Laurel and Hardy. It is a poor fan indeed of comedic movies,
classic films, or even of the sketch shows and stand-up comedy acts which have evolved out of
Vaudevillian theatre—who has never seen a Marx Brothers movie. But if that describes you in
some way, do not despair: there’s no time like the present, and Duck Soup is a great place to start.
"OH NO YOU DON'T; I'M NOT TAKING ANYMORE CHANCES.
YOU CAN ONLY FOOL A FIREFLY TWICE. THIS TIME, YOU RIDE IN THE SIDECAR."
This video is dedicated to the memory of my grandfather, Stephen Podgorski. He was born in
the early 1920s (over 10 years before the release of Duck Soup), to a pair of Polish immigrants in
Pennsylvania. He was a World War II veteran. Shortly after graduating from high school,
Stephen was able to realize his childhood dream of becoming a pilot by joining the Army Air Corps
just as the United States was becoming involved in the Second World War—and he would work in the
Air Force for decades to come. In 1947, he was wed to his lifelong love Mary, and the couple stayed
together for 58 years, until she passed away in the first decade of the twenty-first century.
Stephen was a woodworker. He was a hobby painter. He was a film lover. He was a generous donor to
charitable causes. And, undoubtedly, he was a curmudgeon. Ultimately, my grandfather lived to
the remarkable age of 98 (over 10 years older than the longest-living Marx brother, Groucho,
whom Stephen sketched for the article version of this video). Grandpa passed away peacefully
in November 2020. At the time of his death, he had two children, four grandchildren, and an
infant great grandchild with whom he shared many happy experiences in his final years. I miss him.