Rent The Marx Brothers: Duck Soup (1933)
3.5 of 5 from 185 ratings
1h 5min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Apointed political satire, 'Duck Soup' is the Marx Brothers' funniest and most insane film. Groucho is Rufus T. Firefly, the hilarious dictator of mythical Freedonia. Harpo and Chico are commissioned as spies by Groucho's political rival, the calculating Trentino (Louis Calhern). The film contains many of the Brothers' famous sequences: the lemonade stand, a masterpiece of slow burn: the Paul Revere parody; the "We're Going to War" number, a beautiful spoof of '30s' musicals; the hilarious mirror scene; and a final battle episode that has been copied by everyone from Woody Allen to Mad Magazine.
- Actors:
- Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, The Marx Brothers, Zeppo Marx, Margaret Dumont, Raquel Torres, Louis Calhern, Edmund Breese, Leonid Kinskey, Charles Middleton, Edgar Kennedy, Edward Arnold, Wade Boteler, Sidney Bracey, E.H. Calvert, Davison Clark, Louise Closser Hale, Joseph Crehan, Carrie Daumery
- Directors:
- Leo McCarey
- Producers:
- Herman J. Mankiewicz
- Writers:
- Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby, Arthur Sheekman, Nat Perrin
- Studio:
- Universal Pictures
- Genres:
- Classics, Comedy, Music & Musicals
- Collections:
- A History of Cinemas in Films, Getting to Know..., Getting to Know: Norman Wisdom, Paramount's Laughing Thirties, A Brief History of Film..., Top 10 Barnyard Bird Films, Top 100 AFI Laughs, Top 100 AFI Movies, Top Films, Topping the Music Hall Bill
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 01/04/2019
- Run Time:
- 69 minutes
- Languages:
- English Dolby Digital 1.0
- Subtitles:
- English Hard of Hearing
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Full Screen 1.37:1
- Colour:
- B & W
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- Commentary by Marx Brothers historian Robert S. Bader and film critic Leonard Maltin
- Sibling Revelry, an introduction to the Marx Brothers by critic David Cairns MonkeyNutcrackerDuckFeathers, a new video essay by David Cairns
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Reviews (4) of The Marx Brothers: Duck Soup
Fanspankingly brilliant - The Marx Brothers: Duck Soup review by JD
This is the golden era of one line gags and puerile slapstick comedy. This has to be watched with unsophisticated receptivity. If it is there are rich rewards. Watch this with a grandchild.
2 out of 2 members found this review helpful.
The Pundamental Things Apply - The Marx Brothers: Duck Soup review by CH
Has there been such a gag-laden script as Duck Soup? Both verbally and visually there is so much, so lightly carried, with all its crazy punning logic, these seventy minutes never stale. Even scenes - and there are some - without the Brothers have an allure.
Laugh, and laugh again, at what Graham Greene called Groucho's "vulpine stride" , a gait which also finds a part in several musical numbers which do not hinder proceedings. So effective an anti-war, anri-dictator film is this that Mussolini banned it - and, on the contrary, Churchill did not let the small matter of Hess's crash landing interrupt his evening: "'Well, Hess or no Hess, I'm off to see the Marx Brothers."
1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.
Classic Comedy. - The Marx Brothers: Duck Soup review by Steve
When comic acts from vaudeville got to make Hollywood films they were usually stiffed with B directors and budgets. The Marx Brothers fared better than most and here rated multiple Oscar winner Leo McCarey. Harpo, Groucho and Chico (and Zeppo in his last film) worked their act for years, and finessed their strong visual image and contrasting comic styles.
There's Groucho's fast talking wordplay, Chico's garbled malapropisms, and Harpo's destructive, primal mime. Groucho takes over the corrupt oligarchy of Freedonia which is slipping into war with neighbours Sylvania for whom Harpo and Chico are operating as spies. With populist governments emerging in 1930s Europe, this was satire.
But it's mainly an opportunity for the trio to unleash their trademark anarchy. There's a great visual joke with Groucho playing both sides of a mirror. Margaret Dupont again scores as their uncomprehending stooge. Marx Brothers films are best when Groucho is reeling off sardonic, convoluted, rapid-fire gags and not so much for the musical interludes of the other two.
Which makes this their best film, dense with immaculate Grouchoisms. It's the pick of their early Paramount films and it bombed at the box office, badly. The remaining three brothers left for MGM thinking that they were finished. But Duck Soup has become an influential comedy (there's plenty of Monty Python here) and is now rated their masterpiece.
0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.