DUCK SOUP

'''Duck Soup''' is a 1933 Marx Brothers' anarchic comedy film written by Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby, Arthur Sheekman, and Nat Perrin and directed by Leo McCarey. It starred what were then billed as the "Four Marx Brothers" (Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Zeppo) and also featured Margaret Dumont, Raquel Torres, and Louis Calhern. It was the last Marx Brothers film to feature Zeppo.
McCarey came up with the title for the film. This was in keeping with the "animal" theme of the brothers' previous three films, ''Animal Crackers'', ''Monkey Business'' and ''Horse Feathers''. "Duck soup" is a slang phrase meaning something easy to do. When Groucho was asked for an explanation, he quipped, "Take two turkeys, one goose, four cabbages, but no duck, and mix them together. After one taste, you'll duck soup for the rest of your life."

Contents

Plot

Reception

Famous scenes

Musical numbers

Original songs by Kalmar and Ruby

Non-original music

Trivia

See also

External links

Plot

The wealthy Mrs. Teasdale (Margaret Dumont) insists that Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx) be appointed Prime Minister of the small, bankrupt country of Freedonia before she will provide much-needed financial assistance. Meanwhile, neighboring Sylvania is attempting to take over the country. Sylvanian ambassador Trentino (Louis Calhern) first tries to do this by fomenting a revolution, then by wooing Mrs. Teasdale (Margaret Dumont), and finally by trying to humiliate Firefly by sending in spies Chicolini (Chico Marx) and Pinky (Harpo Marx).
Chicolini and Pinky collect worthless information about Firefly. Chicolini then successfully infiltrates the government: he is appointed Secretary of War after Firefly sees him on the street selling peanuts. Fellow spy Pinky is by his side. After a series of personal insults by Firefly aimed at Trentino, the two countries reach the brink of war. Adding to the international friction is the fact that Firefly is also wooing Mrs. Teasdale, hoping to get his hands on her late husband's fortune.
Trentino learns that Freedonia's war plans are in Mrs. Teasdale's possession and orders Chicolini and Pinky to steal them. Chicolini is caught by Firefly and put on trial, during which war is officially declared. Miraculously, Chicolini is instantaneously returned to his position of trust in the government (as is Pinky) and stands by Firefly in battle. It is not clear who is on which side, and further mayhem ensues.

Reception

Popular belief holds that ''Duck Soup'' was a box office failure, but this is not true. Even though it did not do as well as ''Horse Feathers'', it was the sixth-highest grossing film of 1933, according to Glenn Mitchell in ''The Marx Brothers Encyclopedia'' and Simon Louvish in his biography of the Marx Brothers, ''Monkey Business''. The musical introduction to Groucho's character is similar to the ones in ''Animal Crackers'' and ''Horse Feathers'', and audiences at the time may have seen it as a rehash, though modern audiences do not necessarily make this association. Although Groucho's opening number did not become connected with him closely as did the ''Animal Crackers'' numbers, its biting satire resonates:
:The last man nearly ruined this place,
:He didn't know what to do with it;
:If you think this country's bad off now,
:Just wait till I get through with it!
A possible reason for the film's bad reception might be because of the time frame in which it was released: in the midst of the Great Depression of 1929-1939. Audiences were taken aback by such preposterous political disregard, buffoonery and cynicism at a time of political crisis. (This film quote, spoken by Groucho, was reportedly especially detested: "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!")
The residents of the city of Fredonia, New York protested the film because they feared that the similar-sounding Freedonia would hurt their city's reputation. The Marx Brothers responded with, "Change the name of your town. It's hurting our picture." (Groucho would later use a similar idea in his letters to Warner Brothers defending the title of ''A Night in Casablanca'').
The film was banned in Italy by Benito Mussolini, who took it as a personal insult. The brothers were reportedly ecstatic when this happened. (Indeed, Trentino shares his name with a region of Italy.)
Years later, Arthur Marx, Groucho's son, described Irving Thalberg's assessment of the film's failure during a National Public Radio interview:

[Thalberg] said the trouble with ''Duck Soup'' is you've got funny gags in it, but there's no story and there's nothing to root for. You can't root for the Marx Brothers because they're a bunch of zany kooks. [Thalberg] says, "You gotta put a love story in your movie so there'll be something to root for, and you have to help the lovers get together."

The love story included in later Marx films is often seen as an intrusion, and the early films are seen as being "pure" comedy.
''Duck Soup'' is now seen as a classic political farce. The film was #85 on American Film Institute's 100 Years, 100 Movies and #5 on its 100 Years, 100 Laughs, and has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. It is consistently on the Internet Movie Database's list of top 250 films. In 2000, readers of ''Total Film'' magazine voted ''Duck Soup'' the 29th greatest comedy film of all time. It is also one of the earliest films to appear on Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Roger Ebert's list of ''Great Movies''. American literary critic Harold Bloom considers the end of ''Duck Soup'' one of the greatest works of American art produced in the 20th century.

Famous scenes

In the "mirror scene," Harpo, dressed as Groucho, pretends to be Groucho's reflection in a missing mirror, matching and mocking his every move. Eventually, Chico, also disguised as Groucho, collides with both of them. This scene has been duplicated in many different films and genres (for example, the Bugs Bunny cartoon, ''Hare Tonic''). Harpo himself did a reprise of this scene, dressed in his usual costume, with Lucille Ball also donning the fright wig and trench coat, in an episode of ''I Love Lucy''. In that version, Harpo breaks it up by dropping his hat; Lucy also drops her hat, but Harpo's is on a rubber band and springs back to him, and Lucy and Harpo embrace as the studio audience applauds.
In another scene, the Marx Brothers poke fun at the Hays Code by showing a woman's bedroom and then showing a woman's shoes on the floor, a man's shoes and horseshoes. Harpo is sleeping in the bed with the horse; the woman is in the twin bed next to them.
Chico (or actually the film's writers) recycle a joke used in ''Horse Feathers'':
:Prosecutor: Chicolini, isn't it true you sold Freedonia's secret war code and plans?
:Chicolini: Sure! I sold a code and two pairs o' plans!"
The climactic production number ridicules war by comparing nationalism to a minstrel show. One line is a variant on the old Spiritual "All God's Chillun Got Wings"[1]:
:We got guns, they got guns, all God's chillun got guns!
:I'm gonna walk all over the battlefield, 'cause all God's chillun got guns!
The street vendor confrontations are also well-remembered: Chico and Harpo harass a lemonade seller (comedy film veteran Edgar Kennedy) just to get a "kick" out of it, egged on by his flustered attitude. Harpo pushes Kennedy a bit too far by putting his straw hat on the roasting flame in the peanut wagon; Kennedy responds by pushing the peanut wagon itself over. Harpo gets revenge for this by climbing up on the counter at Kennedy's lemonade stand, and sloshing his legs in the lemonade tank. The three of them all end up exchanging hats: Harpo wearing Kennedy's derby, Chico wearing Harpo's top hat, and Kennedy wearing Chico's "pinhead" hat. Harpo often doffed his hat on-screen, but Chico very rarely removed his Tyrolean hat. For a few seconds on-screen, Chico's head is uncovered, revealing a wavy wig. (Chico had already started going bald when the brothers appeared in their first Broadway production, ''I'll Say She Is!'', in 1924.)
During the war, Groucho assures his generals that he has "a man out combing the countryside for volunteers." Sure enough, Harpo is wandering out on the front lines wearing a sandwich board sign reading, "Join the Army and see the Navy." At another point, Chico tricks Harpo into volunteering to carry a message out in the open and tells him, "While you're out there risking life and limb through shot and shell, we'll be in here thinking what a sucker you are!"
The very end of the film finds Trentino caught in a makeshift stocks, with the brothers pelting him with fruit. Margaret Dumont begins singing the Freedonia national anthem in her operatic voice. When she hits the high note, the Brothers turn away from Trentino and begin hurling fruit in ''her'' direction instead (none of it actually hits her, though she subtly dodges a couple of close ones).

Musical numbers

Original songs by Kalmar and Ruby

The introductory scene, showing ducks swimming in a kettle and quacking merrily, is scored with an instrumental medley of these songs, and is also the only scene in the film that has anything remotely to do with ducks.

★ ''Freedonia National Anthem'' - used frequently, both as vocal and instrumental

★ ''Sylvania theme'' (sounds vaguely like "Rule Britannia") - used several times

★ ''When The Clock On The Wall Strikes 10'', part of the same scene as...

★ ''These Are the Laws of My Administration''/''If You Think This Country's Bad Off Now (Just Wait 'Til I Get Through With It)''

★ ''Freedonia's Going To War''

Non-original music

★ ''Military Polonaise'' (Chopin) - played over newspaper headline of Firefly's appointment

★ Sailor's Hornpipe; Dixie - short segments embedded in Laws of My Administration

★ Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf - music box, accompanied by Harpo on harp, briefly; a few minutes later, in another scene, Groucho says "I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your door in" after he is locked in a closet

★ Stars and Stripes Forever (Sousa) - on radio, turned on (loudly) by Harpo, who mistakes it for a safe

★ American Patrol (Frank W. Meacham) - three of the Brothers playing soldiers' helmets like a xylophone as they march by, while Harpo clips off the decorative tassels (part of a running gag in the picture)

★ All God's Chillun Got Guns (parody of All God's Chillun Got Wings); Oh Freedonia (parody of Oh Susanna); Turkey in the Straw (instrumental) - embedded in Freedonia's Going to War

★ Light Cavalry Overture (Suppé) - Harpo galloping on horseback a la Paul Revere

★ Ain't She Sweet (Milton Ager/Jack Yellen) - Harpo watching girl in window

★ Goodnight, Sweetheart (Ray Noble) - Harpo and same girl (Edgar Kennedy's character's wife)

★ Generic cavalry charge - Harpo with horn, in bathtub with Edgar Kennedy

★ One Hour With You (Oscar Straus) ??? - Harpo with another girl (apparently at a brothel) and his horse - segué into a bit of The Old Gray Mare

Trivia

★ Breaking with their usual pattern, neither Harpo's harp nor Chico's piano is used in the film, although Harpo briefly pretends to play harp on the strings of a piano, strumming chords in accompaniment to a music box that is playing the unlikely chime tune, "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" (from rival studio Disney ''Three Little Pigs'', released the same year as ''Duck Soup'').

★ In the battle scenes, Firefly is dressed in several uniforms. He wears a different costume in almost every sequence until the end of the film, including American Civil War outfits (first Union and then Confederacy), a British palace guard uniform, a Boy Scout Scoutmaster's uniform, and even a coon-skin Davy Crockett cap. Meanwhile, the exterior view of the building they are occupying changes appearance from a bunker to an old fort, etc. Some analysts say that all the war costumes suggest that the scene symbolizes all American wars. As the Boy Scouts have never formally engaged in war, it is more likely that the writers were merely trying to get laughs.

★ Scenes from ''Duck Soup'' play a significant role in a scene near the end of the Woody Allen film ''Hannah and Her Sisters''.

★ Some sources say that the script was originally titled ''Firecrackers''.

★ ''Bananas'', written and directed by Woody Allen, was loosely modelled after ''Duck Soup''.

★ The film was spoofed in Animaniacs as the full-episode sketch "King Yakko". One specific gag from the original, the constant singing of the Fredonian national anthem, was spoofed in particular with a Perry Como caricature. Groucho's entrance in the film was also borrowed in another Animaniacs cartoon, "The Three Muska-Warners".

See also

★ List of United States comedy films

External links

★

★

★ Review and scene-by-scene description from filmsite.org.

★ Credit summary with "Four Marx Brothers" poster from a University of Illinois at Chicago website

★ Present at the Creation, an NPR story about the failure of ''Duck Soup'' and the success of the film that followed

★ ''Duck Soup'' script from a fan's website

★ Freedonia tourist site created by a fan, loosely based on the world of the film