Duck Soup

Duck Soup is a prime example of a pure comedy, in every sense of the word. It has one goal, and one goal only - to make people laugh. It has no aspirations of looking to be anything more than what it is, and has the most fun it could possibly have presenting the audience with the immense amounts of ridiculous situations it sets up.

There is a very loose plot to the film. It opens with the appointment of Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx) as leader of the bankrupt country of Freedonia. Soon after, we learn how the neighboring country of Sylvania looks to take over Freedonia. The rest of the film consists of Firefly and the Sylvanian ambassador Trentino (played devilishly by Louis Calhern) trying to get rid of each other by any means necessary, including trickery, deceit, and violence, all leading to a madcap, insane finale.

The plot takes a backseat to a lot of gags that incorporate the sense of humor that embodies each of the Marx Brothers’ distinct personalities, a handful of which are non-sequiturs. Normally, when comedies tend to let their jokes lead the film, they end up only working to a certain degree - or not at all, as they might give in to conventional plot themes that make the film feel contrived and ruin the balance of the film. I mean, who hasn’t seen their share of movies where they find themselves laughing at some hilarious one-liner a character makes one moment, and then another moment later groaning when the film decides to move the plot along?

However, Duck Soup is much smarter than that. It knows exactly how to weave the plot in between the jokes, just enough to let the audience know exactly what they need to know before moving on to a new gag. Also, it’s the actions of each Marx Brother in certain gags that allows for the plot to move forward, mainly those of Groucho’s Firefly. His great wit and comedic timing suggest he is a somewhat intelligent man, although he is also stubborn, and contains a faulty enough mindset that causes him to exaggerate a situation, causing for many antagonistic interactions with Trentino.

Outside of Groucho’s one-liners, the majority of the jokes stem from a great deal of slapstick humor that the Marxes are known for. Chico and Harpo are responsible for a majority of the physical gags, although Groucho takes part in a great deal of these sequences, as well. For most comedians to pull off a visual gag or any sort of physical humor, they have to worry about how they go about the slapstick. Anyone can just walk into a wall or slip on a banana peel, but only a select few can make the joke funny, as it’s the way they hit into that wall or slip on that banana peel that determines if the joke worked or not. For some, it’s difficult. However, the Marxes pull off each and every visual gag with ease, immensely exaggerating their body language and constantly expanding jokes that could have been a few seconds long into a few minutes long, although never to the point where the joke is played out.

Duck Soup stands today as a comedy classic. It allows for us to look back at a time where most comedies simply had to make the audience laugh in order to fully work. It’s a stark contrast to the majority of today’s greatly revered comedies, which could generally also be classified more as dramedies, dark comedies, or any other genre mix. It should be essential viewing for anyone who has even a remote liking for the genre, as - almost eighty years after it was first released - it still holds up as truly a sight to behold.

5/5