Review of Duck Soup (1933) by Kevin M. W — 05 Jun 2017

The country of Freedonia is in the middle of a financial crisis and on the brink of revolution. In order to gain a bail-out from the wealthy Mrs Teasdale, the government appoints Rufus T Firefly (Groucho Marx) as its president. However, Mr Firefly shuns the pomp and pretentiousness of government...and the prudence and rationality of it too. Meanwhile, the neighbouring country of Sylvania is plotting to overthrow Freedonia and sends Pinky (Harpo Marx) and Chicolini (Chico Marx) to spy on Firefly. War seems inevitable.

Starring the Marx Brothers and viewed as a comedy classic, I was expecting great things from Duck Soup. However, while it has its moments, it was largely a disappointment for me.

Having seen several of their previous movies, I knew what to expect. However, even then, this movie seemed quite silly. The others revolved around Groucho's quickfire wit and Chico and Harpo's slapstick comedy and Duck Soup is no exception. However, here it seems less clever than the best of the others, especially A Night At The Opera and A Day At The Races.

Here, Groucho's witticisms wander into the territory of dad jokes and Harpo and Chico's clowning is often quite silly.

The plot is okay, though not brilliant. Hardly the powerful anti-war and political satire movie it is made out to be.

This all said, there are some great laugh-out-loud moments and these are enough to sustain the movie.