Duck Soup (1933)

Starring: The Marx Brothers (Groucho, Chico, Harpo, and Zeppo)
Grade: Classic

I’m not kidding when I say Duck Soup is a comedic masterpiece.

Summary

The country of Freedonia is in dire straits. Losing money at a rapid pace, the country’s officials plead with the wealthy Mrs. Teasdale (Dumont) to donate another $20 million to the country. With this money, they can announce an immediate reduction in taxes because this is mainly what the people are asking for. Teasdale isn’t sure because she’s already donated more than half of her deceased husband’s fortunes to them. After telling them she agrees with the people that the government is being mismanaged, she says she will lend them the money on the condition that the country’s leader step down to place Freedonia in new hands. She wants someone fearless and progressive, specifically pointing out Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho) as her choice. With no other option, Firefly is appointed the leader of Freedonia.

That night, they set up a reception to celebrate Firefly and welcome him. At the party, Ambassador Trentino (Louis Calhern) is there on behalf of Sylvania. After greeting Mrs. Teasdale, she introduces him to some socialite named Vera Marcal (Raquel Torres). Secretly, Trentino actually knows Vera, and they go in private to discuss details on their plan. Trentino says he’s given up his initial plans of a revolution, arguing he can gain control of Freedonia much easier if he marries Mrs. Teasdale. Vera says it’s known that Teasdale likes Firefly, so Trentino wants Vera to mess with Firefly. Before they get any further, Teasdale interrupts and introduces them to Firefly’s secretary Lt. Bob Roland (Zeppo). Trentino asks of Firefly’s whereabouts, but Roland notes that Firefly is never late and will be there at exactly 10PM. They sing the national anthem at 10 exactly, but Firefly misses his cue because he was napping. Technically, he’s already in the building, napping upstairs. He swings down the firehouse pole next to his bed and directly into the room, following the second time they do the grand entrance they had set up for him. Teasdale greets him. After pointing out how her husband has passed and left his fortune to her, Firefly tells her he loves her. She introduces Firefly to Trentino. Immediately, Firefly asks for $20 million from Sylvania. Trentino says he would have to talk to the Ministry of Finance, so Firefly takes this as an opportunity to piss him off. Once he leaves, Firefly is introduced to Vera. Following some light flirting from, he goes a little too far with his comments and she leaves too. After Firefly has Roland write a letter to his dentist, Teasdale asks how Firefly intends to run Freedonia. In a hilariously catchy tune, Firefly sings the outrageous laws of his administration. Teasdale interrupts the song to tell him he has an appointment at the House of Representatives.

His excellency’s car is called, and Pinky (Harpo) is driving it. It’s a motorcycle with a sidecar. Once Firefly gets into the sidecar, Pinky drives off, but the sidecar stays in its place. Back at Trentino’s office, he chastises an agent of his for messing up his plans for a revolution because during the turmoil, he could’ve stepped in and placed Freedonia under Sylvania’s control. The guy argues Firefly managed to block it from happening because of his popularity in Freedonia. Trentino knows this, which is why he hired two spies to shadow him, so they can find out some information about Firefly to disgrace him.

Who are those two spies, you ask? Chicolini (Chico) and Pinky.

They show up, so Trentino has his other agent wait outside. Chicolini and Pinky update Trentino on their shadowing of Firefly. However, following a discussion regarding certain details regarding him and his whereabouts, they realize they were following the wrong guy. Nevertheless, Trentino gives them one more chance and hands them special credentials to get anywhere in Freedonia to continue their work. Meanwhile, Firefly has his first big conference with the country’s other top officials at the Chamber of Deputies. After he’s done playing Jacks, he calls the meeting to order and gives shit to anyone and everyone who wants to speak up. He even gets into an argument with the Secretary of War to the point where he resigns. Outside of Firefly’s building, Chicolini and Pinky go undercover as peanut salesmen. Chicolini asks Pinky if he’s found anything yet, but Pinky screws around too much and they almost get into a fight, bothering the lemonade salesman (Edgar Kennedy) right next to them. They mess with him for a bit, and Pinky ends things by setting the guy’s hat on fire after an elongated back-and-forth with him. Later, Chicolini is by himself at the peanut stand, trying to attract customers by being loud. He’s loud enough that Firefly pops out on the deck to ask if he has a permit. After some mild discourse, Firefly invites him up to scare the Cabinet.

Firefly offers Chicolini a government job, but he wants him to answer a riddle first. Chicolini flips it on him, but Firefly doesn’t know the answer. In-between, the phone is ringing off the hook, and Chicolini answers it each time, hangs up, and tells Firefly it was for him. After Chicolini insults Firefly with another riddle making fun of him, Firefly offers him the job of Secretary of War and he takes it. Pinky runs into the room and answers the next phone call. Once he hangs up, he gestures to say it was for Firefly. After Firefly kicks Chicolini out for a joke, he tries to get to know Pinky, with Pinky showing him tattoos of who he is (a cartoon drawing of Harpo) and his home (a doghouse). Once Pinky leaves, Roland walks in with a letter from Trentino. Apparently, he’s undermining him. Roland comes up with a plan. If Firefly can piss him off and get Trentino to strike him, they can force him to leave Freedonia. Roland says Trentino gets mad pretty easily, so it shouldn’t be too hard to provoke him. One time, he said something to Vera and Trentino slapped him for it. He tells Firefly what it was, and Firefly slaps him, though it’s a story Firefly told him and he got it from Teasdale. Roland tells Firefly that Trentino is at Teasdale’s tea party, but Firefly wasn’t invited. So, he has Roland forge an invitation and heads out. He calls for his car again, and Pinky is driving the motorcycle with the sidecar again. Unfortunately, Pinky drives off without the sidecar once Firefly gets in, getting duped twice.

At the tea party, Vera tells Trentino he finally has a shot at talking to Teasdale without Firefly mucking things up because she helped Teasdale with the invitations and got rid of Firefly’s. Just then, Firefly shows up and immediately interrupts Trentino’s advances towards Teasdale with his own advances. After continuously insulting Trentino, Trentino tries leaving. He starts hurling insults back, prompting Firefly to slap him with his glove once Trentino calls him an “upstart”. This is enough for Trentino to promise Teasdale that this means war between their two countries. He leaves and Firefly calls for his car. Pinky shows up with the sidecar again, so Firefly instead chooses to ride on the motorcycle. Somehow, Pinky drives the sidecar away and the motorcycle doesn’t work. Later, Pinky annoys the lemonade salesman guy again to the point where the guy destroys the peanut stand. As a response, Pinky steps directly in the lemonade in front of all his customers. Meanwhile, Teasdale meets with Trentino and Vera to hopefully avoid war. Trentino says he’s willing to forget about the whole thing on behalf of the President of Sylvania, as long as Firefly is cool. Teasdale invites Firefly over, but he’s still very ready for war, even giving her the war plans he put together. After some flirting, Firefly cools down, but Trentino and Vera come back into the room and tensions rise a bit. Trentino explains things a bit, so Firefly laughs off their encounter, saying he forgot what they were fighting about. However, once Trentino reminds Firefly how he called him an upstart, Firefly slaps Trentino with a glove once more.

The war is officially on!

My Thoughts:

Imagine appointing Groucho Marx to be the leader of your country. This premise is genius enough to put Duck Soup in a class of its own.

Though many point to Captain Jeffrey Spaulding as the quintessential Groucho role, I choose Rufus T. Firefly. It’s one of my favorite comedic performances of all time. Just as funny as ever, Groucho is given the country of Freedonia at his feet, just when they need leadership the most to put them back on track. He’s also handed the keys to the kingdom purely because of his friendship with the wealthy Mrs. Teasdale. They need his help badly. How does he help repay them? Well, in the most Marx Brothers way possible: running the country into the ground in the most hysterical ways he can think of. Making up ridiculous rules and pissing off anyone who works in his administration seemingly out of his own amusement, the hot-tempered Firefly is about as incompetent as a leader as anyone put into office. What’s so funny about it is that much like all of the characters Groucho plays, Rufus T. Firefly is very aware of what he’s doing. He’s not incompetent because he’s moronic, he’s incompetent because he ruins his own country just because he likes to cause chaos. In scenes like the “Chamber of Deputies“, you can’t stop laughing because you know Firefly could not give less of a fuck at who he’s angering with the way he goes about things. It gets to the point where Firefly lets his Secretary of War get so mad, he quits. Out of spite, Firefly hires Chicolini, who he only knows as a peanut salesman, not the spy he actually is.

It’s a type of humor only certain films and the Marx Brothers can get away with. Rufus T. Firefly is a character written with no rhyme or reason as to why he acts in the manner he does. He doesn’t have a motivation and has no goals to speak of in regard to how he runs Freedonia. This is just how Firefly is, and it’s hysterical. In so many films, this is a point that would bother me, but Groucho makes it work in such an inconceivable way. Do you know how hard that is to pull off? Do you know how many things have to go right for this sort of character arc to be acceptable in the eyes of the audience? This is the work of a legend. It’s as simple as that.

What’s even better is when he goes so far with it, he works himself up to the point where he starts believing in his own bullshit. Right after the laugh-out-loud courtroom scene where Chicolini goes on trial for treason, and Firefly starts defending him even though he’s the one that put him there, Firefly is given a third chance to avoid war, with Mrs. Teasdale telling him Trentino has shown up to the courtroom to give Firefly a chance to smooth things over. For once, Firefly sees how important this is, as it’s his duty to prevent the country they all live in from going to war. He knows this pressure relies entirely on his shoulders. However, right before he shows up, Firefly considers the possibility of Trentino not accepting his handshake of solidarity, just thinking about it out loud. In doing so, he manages to work himself up to the point where he believes it. Then, when Trentino shows up to hopefully put an end to everything, an infuriated Firefly slaps him for the third time to make sure the two countries go to war. This shows you how much of a comedic legend Groucho Marx truly is. He’s quite literally the only person that could let a main character get away with an act so outrageous, so stupid, and so selfish. In the span of a half or so, Firefly managed to start a war with another country off his own volition. Then, when given two more chances to fix the problem with a simple apology, he screws it up both times. The first was because he was reminded of Trentino’s insult, when Firefly himself went to the party to insult him, and the second time was Firefly being completely unreasonable and thinking of a fictional scenario that got him mad enough to make sure things went about as planned.

That is iconic.

This level of outlandishness sets up a third act and a subsequent final seven minutes that I can argue is some of the funniest work ever put to film, and I cannot stress this enough. Of course, I’m talking about the actual war sequence. The machine gun fire of pacing, gags, jokes, and perfectly placed punchlines within this all-time level sequence should be studied by any writer looking to work in comedy. Firefly in the trenches talking about strategies and each time they cut to him, he’s wearing an even more ridiculous outfit is a gag so damn funny, it doesn’t matter what year you watch the film or what age group views it. It’s comedy in its purest form. On top of that, you get bits of Firefly shooting his own men, Chicolini switching sides mid-battle, Pinky trying to recruit while on the battlefield, and when they brothers are barricaded in a separate building, Firefly puts out a distress call asking for anyone to send women their way. This is just a sliver of the mayhem this movie inspires, giving us an answer to the question, “What if you gave presidential authority to living cartoon characters?”.

In addition to this being Groucho’s best role, making Chico and Harpo spies who are trying to infiltrate Groucho’s government is the most effective they have ever been in a narrative. Considering their skills and how well they play part-time opponents for Groucho in some films, this was arguably the best way to utilize their skillset and styles. Usually, they play sidekicks to the plot to help out the love story or the non-Marx character in future films but having them be secret (lovable) enemies to an entire nation was absolute genius. The scene where they try to break in and steal the war plans was hilarious, mostly because of Pinky’s inability to stay quiet. They were so much fun. Plus, I would argue that their introductory scene is not only one of the funniest and most carefully constructed comedic scenes of all time, but it’s up there with one of the best character introduction scenes ever made.

The music is also phenomenal. With songs like “This Country’s Going To War”, where we see all four Marx Brothers bring a whole courtroom to song and dance in an epic sequence, and Groucho hilariously explaining his plans for office in “Just Wait ‘Til I Get Through With It”, these are two songs so catchy and so well put together by everyone involved, they may very well stay with you to the end of time. It doesn’t even feel forced either. The songs are a lot of fun, but the lyrics fit within the narrative. It’s not the movie just adding musical sequences just because, which seems to be a thing you can argue they do in later films. Bonus points are given to Duck Soup for avoiding the elongated instrument-playing sequences of other Marx Brothers films. Sometimes, they’re welcomed. Other times, they aren’t, and it stretches the picture for no reason. Here, we avoid the problem entirely, giving room for the brothers to roam free creatively to do whatever they want in this loosely-structured farce, highlighting buffoonery in government, foreign policy, and war.

Also, don’t stray away from this film if you think it’s a political one. Despite the topics it lampoons, this is far from a political takedown. It’s a movie taking more sophisticated topics and situations and having as much fun with them as possible. That is the genius of Duck Soup.

Duck Soup is very much comedic anarchy, a term used to describe the Marx Brothers in their prime. Though the brothers’ filmography is littered with some of the greatest comedies ever, Duck Soup is arguably their best, inspiring generations of comedic performers and films. Even today, it’s absolutely timeless. It takes a special group of people to still make millions laugh in the 1930s just as well as they do in the 2020s, but that’s how legendary those brothers were. My only criticism of Duck Soup is that it should’ve been longer.