Review of Duck Soup (1933) by Josh M — 31 Mar 2010

Pure, concentrated hilarity, from beginning to end. With the least fat of any Marx brothers film (are there any others with such watchable and entertaining musical numbers?), Duck Soup is essentially 68 minutes of insanity and silliness, and it's no wonder that my Film Club kids kept mentioning that it reminded them of Looney Tunes.

But there's something about watching grown men throw away dignity and maturity and just going nuts, from barefoot splashing in lemonade to mimicry without a mirror, from Harpo's gleeful leg-throwing to Chico's hat-stealing to Groucho's constant patter, that makes the Marx Brothers so completely hilarious to me.

If you want to subscribe to the "three good scenes, no bad ones" theory of good movies, it would be hard to come up with a film with more choices for good scenes. The mirror routine? The hat-swapping? The first meeting with the spies? The final raid on the house? And don't worry - if something's not funny to you, give it five seconds, and something else in en route.

Easily one of the all-time funniest films and a movie that just makes me happier for having watched it.