This is our latest Saturday pizza and bad movie offering. I saw it originally in college—that is, not recently. I thought it was hilarious and a biting satire, though frankly, I didn’t remember much of it.
Plot:
The cash-strapped (fictional) country of Freedonia appeals to the wealthy widow Mrs. Gloria Teasdale (Margaret Dumont) for $20 million to keep it from bankruptcy. She agrees—even though she hasn’t been repaid for the amount she’s already lent them—if the officials will appoint Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx) as leader.
Freedonia has a new leader! They would be hard-pressed to find a more unfit leader, but the people of Freedonia love him. In one song, Rufus tells the people that his new administration will not tolerate graft of any sort unless he gets his share or “pop goes the weasel.” He forces out the competent ministers and replaces them with cronies, who happen to be spies (albeit bad ones) for the rival country of (fictional) Sylvania.
Rufus woos Mrs. Teasdale because she’s rich. He also insults her. In a typical exchange, he says:
Firefly: Not that I care, but where is your husband?
Mrs. Teasdale: Why, he’s dead.
Firefly: I’ll bet he’s just using that as an excuse.
Mrs. Teasdale: I was with him to the very end.
Firefly: Huh! No wonder he passed away.
Mrs. Teasdale: I held him in my arms and kissed him.
Firefly: Oh, I see. Then it was murder.
Also wooing her is the Ambassador from Sylvania, Trentino (Louis Calhern). He attempts to undermine Rufus by placing pretty spy Vera Marcal (Raquel Torres) in his view. His secretary, Bob Roland (Zeppo Marx), suggests getting rid of the troublesome ambassador by letting him offer the new leader an insult.
It can’t work out that way, of course. Rufus insults the ambassador instead. Trentino departs in a huff—and Freedonia goes to war.
Thoughts:
According to the wisdom of IMDB and dictionary dot com, “duck soup” was an early 20th-century expression for an easily accomplished task akin to “a piece of cake.” IMDB also mentions that Benito Mussolini apparently took the movie personally and banned it in Italy. Little too close to home, huh?
Duck Soup is a pre-Hayes Code film. There is some mild bathroom humor. The spiciest thing I recall is a woman in her underwear getting ready to take a bath. The creepiest thing is Pinky (Harpo Marx) stopping by to chat with her—until her husband comes home.
The Marx brothers came from stage and vaudeville. Singing and dancing interludes are part of the movie, but these are silly and absurd. Think playing helmets with mallet started with Monty Python and the Holy Grail? Nope.
At one point, Rufus says: “Well, maybe I am a little headstrong. But, I come by it honestly. My father was a little headstrong. My mother was a little armstrong. The headstrongs married the armstrongs, and that’s why darkies were born.”
On the face of it, that’s racist and unnecessary, but he’s referring to a song of the day written by Ray Henderson and Lew Brown, sung by Kate Smith and, separately, Paul Robeson. It is a lament and perhaps satire. Why Marx mentions it, I don’t know. Maybe it’s no more complicated than it was a line the viewers would recognize, something like “a partridge in a pear tree.”
Maybe it’s growing old, but I didn’t find the movie as hilarious as I did when I was younger. I saw misogyny in the way Rufus treated Mrs. Teasdale and the pitiful absurdity of rushing off to an avoidable war.
Toward the end, during the war, Rufus and some of his military brass are holed up in a barn. Rufus mistakenly fires on his own men. He appears in a different uniform every time he’s seen: American Civil War (Union and Confederate), First World War Doughboy, and Boy Scout, to name a few. It adds to the absurdity.
I rather like this little flick. It is anti-war; fast-talking Rufus is a scoundrel, the government of Freedonia is corrupt, and the people are easily led simpletons. That’s not a very charitable assessment of anyone, but it’s funny. And there are some truly just silly moments.
I could not find this streaming for free. It’s available on Apple TV and Amazon to rent or own, according to JustWatch.
Edited to add: With thanks to Tommi, the freebie is here:
Title: Duck Soup (1933)
Directed by
Leo McCarey
Writing Credits
Bert Kalmar…(story) and
Harry Ruby…(story)
Arthur Sheekman…(additional dialogue) and
Nat Perrin…(additional dialogue)
Cast (in credits order)
Groucho Marx…Rufus T. Firefly
Harpo Marx…Pinky
Chico Marx…Chicolini
Zeppo Marx…Bob Roland
Margaret Dumont…Gloria Teasdale
Raquel Torres…Vera Marcal
Louis Calhern…Ambassador Trentino
Released: 1933
Length: 1 hour, 9 minutes
Reviews of Old and New Stories. Mostly Old 
I prefer Animal Crackers from 1930
Animal Crackers was great. I rather like A Night at the Opera, though I haven’t seen any of them for years. I may feel differently about them now.
To me Animal Crackers has the best music
I liked Night at the Opera and The Big Store, too. When I was young I loved watching the Marx Brothers movies for both their verbal and physical comedy.
I don’t think I ever saw The Big Store. But yes, the verbal play was cute and some of the physical play was fun. It’s kind of strange watching the pre-code stuff now. I think of old movie as so strait-laced, then I hear Groucho making jokes about reading magazine in the bathroom or getting his head stuck in a chamber pot. Mild by today’s standards, of course.
Here’s the freebie:
https://archive.org/details/duck-soup
Thanks, Tommi!