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Duck Soup [VHS] | ![Duck Soup [VHS]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51713HWP6QL._SL160_.jpg) | Director: Leo McCarey
Actors: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Zeppo Marx, Margaret Dumont
Studio: Universal Studios
Category: Video
List Price: $14.98
Buy Used: $1.25
as of 9/10/2010 14:53 CDT details
You Save: $13.73 (92%)
New (9) Used (37) Collectible (6) from $1.25
Seller: gdwil
Rating:  110 reviews
Sales Rank: 1087
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, NTSC
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: VHS Tape
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 68 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 4.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 6300181367
UPC: 096895501234
EAN: 9786300181366
ASIN: 6300181367
Theatrical Release Date: November 17, 1933
Release Date: March 1, 1992
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com essential video
For those who love the Marx Brothers (Animal Crackers, A Night at the Opera), that this movie is side-slappingly funny is a given. For those new to the Marx Brothers, this is the perfect introduction to Groucho, Chico, and Harpo (and even Zeppo), three of the funniest men to ever grace the screen. Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho) is the dictator of the small nation Freedonia. The country is a disaster, in financial disrepair, and the wealthy Mrs. Teasdale (Margaret Dumont) is its benefactor and the object of Firefly's shrewd affection. When the leader of the neighboring Sylvania decides he's in love with Mrs. Teasdale, Firefly declares war. The movie, from 1933, is tremendously satirical, a play on politics and war. (As Firefly says to a hapless young solider, "You're a brave man. Go and break through the lines. And remember, while you're out there risking your life and limb through shot and shell, we'll be in be in here thinking what a sucker you are.") Full of witty lines, great sight gags, and even some snazzy song numbers ("Freedonia's Going to War" is the hilarious declaration of battle), this is surely one of the best--if not the best--the Marx Brothers have to offer. --Jenny Brown
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 110
 My father loved the Marx Brothers above all other comedians or, indeed, all other movie stars May 28, 2010
The first movie he ever took me to was "A Day at the Races." All I remember about that experience was the fact of my father's laughter. But there was something else, too, that I understood only much later: The sound of his voice as he described the brothers. He used the tone that people employ when they are talking about how someone got away with something.
That is the same tone I have heard, and used, in discussing such subjects as "Some Like It Hot," "The Producers," "Blazing Saddles," "Airplane!," Monty Python, Andy Kaufman, Saturday Night Live, "South Park," Howard Stern, "There's Something About Mary" and "Being John Malkovich" - -and even movies that are only indirectly comedies, like "Pulp Fiction." There is a kind of admiration for material that dares something against the rules and yet is obvious, irresistibly, funny. How much more anarchic the Marx Brothers must have seemed in their time than we can understand today. They were among the first to evoke that tone; you can see who the Marx Brothers inspired, but not who they were inspired by, except indirectly by the rich traditions of music hall, vaudeville and Yiddish comedy that nurtured them.
Movies gave them a mass audience, and they were the instrument that translated what was once essentially a Jewish style of humor into the dominant note of American comedy. Although they were not taken as seriously, they were as surrealist as Dali, as shocking as Stravinsky, as verbally outrageous as Gertrude Stein, as alienated as Kafka. Because they worked the genres of slapstick and screwball, they did not get the same kind of attention, but their effect on the popular mind was probably more influential. "As an absurdist essay on politics and warfare," wrote the British critic Patrick McCray, " `Duck Soup' can stand alongside (or even above) the works of Beckett and Ionesco."
The Marx Brothers created a body of work in which individual films are like slices from the whole, but "Duck Soup" (1933) is probably the best. It represents a turning point in their movie work; it was their last film for Paramount, and the last in which all of the scenes directly involved the brothers. When it was a box office disappointment, they moved over to MGM, where production chief Irving Thalberg ordered their plots to find room for conventional romantic couples, as if audiences could only take so much Marx before they demanded the mediocre (Buster Keaton's sound comedies for MGM suffered from the same meddling and dilution).
"A Night at the Opera" (1935) their first MGM film, contains some of their best work, yes, but in watching it I fast-forward over the sappy interludes involving Kitty Carlisle and Allan Jones. In "Duck Soup" there are no sequences I can skip; the movie is funny from beginning to end.
To describe the plot would be an exercise in futility, since a Marx Brothers movie exists in moments, bits, sequences, business and dialogue, not in comprehensible stories. Very briefly, "Duck Soup" stars Groucho as Rufus T. Firefly, who becomes dictator of Fredonia under the sponsorship of the rich Mrs. Teasdale (Margaret Dumont, the brothers' tireless and irreplaceable foil). Neighboring Sylvania and its Ambassador Trintino (Louis Calhern) have designs on the country, and Trintino hires Harpo and Chico as spies. This flimsy premise provides a clothesline for one inspired sequence after another, including sustained examples of Groucho's puns and sneaky double entendres. But it also supports a couple of wordless physical sequences that probably have their roots in the vaudeville acts the brothers performed and saw years earlier.
One is the three-hat routine involving Chico and Harpo and the straight man Edgar Kennedy (who started with Mack Sennett and Chaplin). Chico, as a spy, inexplicably adopts the cover of a peanut vendor, and Harpo is a passerby. Kennedy has the lemonade cart next to Chico's peanut cart, and the brothers make his life miserable in a routine that involves their three hats changing position as quickly as the cards in a monte game.
The other sequence is one of the gems of the first century of film. Harpo disguises himself as Groucho, and for reasons much too complicated to explain, sneaks into Mrs. Teasdale's, tries to break into a safe and shatters a mirror. Groucho himself comes downstairs to investigate. Harpo is standing inside the frame of the broken mirror, and tries to avoid detection by pretending to be Groucho's reflection. This leads to a sustained pantomime involving flawless timing, as Groucho tries to catch the reflection in an error, and Harpo matches every move. Finally, in a perfect escalation of zaniness, Chico blunders into the frame, also dressed as Groucho.
It is impossible to discuss Groucho's dialogue without quoting it, and pointless to quote it since Groucho's delivery is essential to the effect. He played an utterly irreverent character whose speech was at the mercy of puns, insults and bawdy insinuations that tiptoed just this side of the censors (as when Rufus T. Firefly tantalizes Mrs. Teasdale with visions of marriage and then confesses, "All I can offer you is a Rufus over your head"). Many gifted comedy writers, including S.J. Perelman, labored over the Marx Brothers movie scripts, but all their dialogue had its origins in Groucho's own speaking style, perfected over the years.
In 1972 I was able to spend some time with Groucho, for a profile for Esquire. He was then 81, and still unmistakably occupying the persona he had made famous. (Who he was in private remains a mystery to me; in public he was always onstage.) His first words to me could have been said in more or less the same way by Rufus T. Firefly: "Esquire isn't my favorite magazine, you know. Interviews are really murder. They keep asking you questions. I could be brought up on a rape charge. I don't mind a hatchet job, if it's truthful. Could you pin a rape charge on me? Could you try? I'd appreciate it. You don't do any dental work, do you? I have to go to the dentist before I go to France."
In two sessions separated by a couple of weeks, I heard him talk for hours at a time, always in the same way, circling his material looking for loopholes. I began to think of him as a soloist, and speech as his instrument. Like a good musician, he no longer had to think of the notes; he worked in terms of timing and the through-line, and questions did not inspire answers but improvisations.
Groucho as a comedian would have been impossible in the silent era, just as Chaplin and Keaton adapted only uncertainly to sound. And yet in appearance the three essential brothers (Zeppo seemed superfluous) were like caricatures from the silent era. Harpo of course was always silent anyway. Chico had the Italian persona, with the curly hair and Pinocchio hat. And Groucho was such an artificial creation, with his bold slash of a greasepaint mustache, his eyebrows and his cigar. His look was so bizarre it wasn't makeup so much as a mask; there are times during the mirror sequence in "Duck Soup" when we have to ask ourselves which one is the real Groucho.
Dated as "Duck Soup" inevitably is in some respects, it has moments that seem startlingly modern, as when Groucho calls for help during the closing battle sequence, and the response is stock footage edited together out of newsreel shots of fire engines, elephants, motorcycles, you name it. There is an odd moment when Harpo shows Groucho a doghouse tattooed on his stomach, and in a special effect a real dog emerges and barks at him. The brothers broke the classical structure of movie comedy and glued it back again haphazardly, and nothing was ever the same.
Note: Why the title? The critic Tim Dirks explains: "It is claimed that Groucho provided the following recipe: `Take two turkeys, one goose, four cabbages, but no duck, and mix them together. After one taste, you'll duck soup the rest of your life.' "
 This is a great Movie April 26, 2010
Duck Soup Fan (Holladay, UT, US)
My 12 year old informed me he wanted to own "Duck Soup," so I hit the internet to try and find it. I checked my usual places--they didn't have it--but Amazon did :)
We have enjoyed watching it over and over (that would be the 12 year old.) If you love the Marx brothers, or need to learn to love them--this movie is a great place to start. Thanks Amazon & those who post their wares with you.
 "You must have been vaccinated with a phonograph needle." July 19, 2009
Annie Van Auken (Planet Earth)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Of the five motion pictures the Marxes made at PARAMOUNT, DUCK SOUP did poorest at the box office. Weak ticket sales, combined with disputes the family had with the studio, led to their movie contract's non-renewal.
Audiences befuddled back then by parts of this brief and noisily fast-paced movie knew exactly what they were confused about. The several decent Ruby/Kalmar tunes are spoiled by poor miking, over-modulation and a generally cacaphonous tone. Anyone with sensitive ears won't want to sit through them. And the improvised "All God's chilluns got guns" section LOOKS as much.
Most musically egregious is that there are NO harp or piano solos to be found here. These scenes are among the most classic moments in the Marx canon, but with DUCK SOUP we are denied such pleasures. Don't wait for 'em-- cuz trust me, they ain't comin'!
Although flawed, there's far more to like in this film than anything that came after AT THE CIRCUS (1939) (VHS) (DVD), for example. The motorcycle/sidecar running gag is a hoot as is peanut vendor Harpo's battle with lemonade-peddling Edgar Kennedy. Groucho's razor sharp two-edged wit and his interactions with both bewigged brothers are top shelf. The silent Harpo/Groucho mirror routine demonstrates the brothers' facile pantomimic skills, also director Leo McCarey's considerable background in silent era slapstick. And of course, Maggie Dumont is at the top of her game as Groucho's comic foil.
The Marxes best work? A NIGHT AT THE OPERA (1935) (VHS) (DVD). Their finest pre-MGM flick? MONKEY BUSINESS (1931) (VHS) (DVD). So where does "Duck Soup" fit in? Right on your home library shelf alongside the other Marx Bros. pictures.
"Duck Soup" is available on DVD.
Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 imdb viewer poll rating.
(8.1) Duck Soup (1933) - The Four Marx Bros./ Margaret Dumont/Raquel Torres/Louis Calhern/Edmund Breese/Charles Middleton/Edgar Kennedy (uncredited: Edward Arnold/Dennis O'Keefe)
2.5 stars out of 4 May 5, 2009
One-Line Film Reviews (Easton, MD)
The Bottom Line:
I know it's sacriligious to even hint at this, but I don't think Duck Soup is a very good film: its "anarchy" means it has no real plot, Harpo's antics are no more clever than much of what Jim Carrey does, and even the immortal Groucho delivers his witticisms in a flat and perfunctory manner--it says a lot about the film that its best gag (the mirror scene) was stolen from Charlie Chaplin.
The Unstoppable Jerks March 24, 2009
Mark Eremite (Seoul, South Korea)
I was browsing some lists of Best Comedies of All Time, and this one popped up on more than a several. Since I was a kid, I've always been a big fan of The Three Stooges, but not so much the Marx brothers. I know the Stooges, on the whole, are a dumber, more violent group of comedians, but I also liked them more as people. Of course, they weren't often kind to each other, but they never struck out to offend or hurt, only doing so by their stupid belligerence. I know I'm making a fine point here. I'm just trying to explain why, no matter how much I laugh, I find the Marx brothers to be complete jerks.
The unstoppable jerk is often a staple in entertainment -- just take a look at the work of Jim Carrey or Bugs Bunny or David Letterman -- but this movie is pretty much based on their unstoppable jerk-ness. Groucho portrays Rufus T. Firefly (aka Groucho Marx) as the man chosen to lead the country of Fredonia. Lord knows why. He's late to the induction ceremony, and once there goes about insulting and confusing people. When every line of the script is a joke, you're bound to get some that miss. But there are also quite a few that are absolutely brilliant. Enough to make me pause the movie until I'm laughed out.
As Rufus mis-leads the country, an ambassador of a rival country -- Sylvania -- hires two spies to watch Rufus's every move. The spies, Chico (going by the name of Chicolini) and Harpo. Chico tries a couple of times to actually do the job, but he is often thwarted by Harpo, who is either some kind of malevolent pixie or mildly retarded and unhappy about it. In spite of royally bumbling up their first assignment (they may or may not have followed the wrong guy), the ambassador sends these two back out to get information on him. In the meantime, for no reason whatsoever, they torment a local street vendor.
The plot is secondary anyway. I know. It's like complaining about a lack of a story arc in JACKASS. And if JACKASS is the modern equivalent of the unstoppable jerk genre as pioneered by these guys, well, then I'll take these guys any day.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 110
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