Friday, March 30, 2012

Day 345 - Duck Soup

Duck Soup (1933) directed by Leo McCarey






I've never seen any bit by the Marx Brothers so Duck Soup was my first ever look at them. To say this film is crazy would be an understatement. In fact, they have a whole genre of films for this kind of nonsense called anarchic comedy where anything and everything can happen to get a laugh. This film probably holds the record for most jokes told per minute as Groucho spits them out nonstop in a stream-of-conscience non sequitur manner. The key to his comedy is in his puns and his use of double entendres. (As a rap fan, I'm a sucker for a good double entendre.) Some of the stuff is pretty funny but after a while it sort of grew stale on me. Just the sheer volume of jokes was exhausting to sit through and many of the jokes just tried way too hard (some of the jokes just flat out sucked). Also the style of comedy just feels very dated to me. That isn't to say that I hated it or anything, just that I'm not the biggest fan.

Anyways, Duck Soup is a sort of political farce comedy where Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho) is named the dictator of the small, bankrupt country of Freedonia. Why, exactly? I'm not entirely sure, but it probably has to do with his joke telling abilities. Anyways, Freedonia's enemy and neighbor Sylvania has its eyes on the troubled nation and sends out spies Chicolini (Chico Marx) and Pinky (Harpo Marx) to infiltrate Firefly's inner circle. Since I'm feeling especially lazy today, I will just use the generic plot description "and craziness ensues." But honestly, that is kind of the best way to describe this film since a plot summary wouldn't really make a lot of sense anyways. The whole thing is just an excuse for the Marx Brothers to do their bits.

I made sure to pay close attention to the much ballyhooed mirror scene where Pinky (Harpo), dressed as Firefly is sneaking around in Firefly's house when he breaks a hallway mirror. The real Firefly (Groucho) comes downstairs to investigate and finds Pinky staring back at him from the other side of where the mirror should be. Suspicious, Firefly does a bunch of silly gestures in which Pinky imitates perfectly. It gets even more absurd when Firefly thinks up of ways to trick his "reflection" which Pinky still nails. Eventually they even circle each other and trade places several times and we forget which is the real Firefly. It is classic physical comedy equal to if not better than some of Chaplin's best bits.

Other than a couple of select scenes and select jokes though, Duck Soup tasted sort of bland to me. Maybe I wasn't in the mood (I was super tired) but I found much of it more tired than funny. The mirror bit is great, but I can't really recommend a movie for one scene alone. But running at just over an hour long and with some good wisecracks in there it's hard to hate on it too much.

Grade: B-

No comments:

Post a Comment