These two characters do more than simply stare at each other and mimic some hand gestures, though that is how is starts. That’s because of the it’s staggering depth. While this moment in Duck Soup is not the first use of the gag in film, it being done twelve years earlier in Max Linder‘s Seven years Bad Luck, it remains the most noteworthy and remembered.
The mirror gag is one of precision timing and to be successful must escalate from the simple to the complex, from the routine to the unexpected. Looking at it today, the genius of the bold and often very funny attack on the propaganda and reasons behind war are fun to watch, especially in the final act when the Brothers pull out all the stops in a finale that cuts deep and is riotously funny. By the time Duck Soup hit theaters though, the country was slipping into the Great Depression and theater goers were having a shift in sensibilities, not so willing to have their government so comedically maligned. The musical numbers and the Marx Brothers patented zany anarchic delivery, filled with wordplay, puns, and physical pratfalls may be unfamiliar and out of understanding for most modern audiences with their brand of comedy feeling tame by comparison with today’s standards, but at the time was certainly daring, if not controversial. From there, the scathing political farce goes headlong into a silly comedic romp that while dated to be sure, still seems topical as the two countries go to war over senseless things. A scheme is concocted to dethrone Firefly even as he goes about his days gleefully ignoring the necessities of his position. Teasedale ( Margaret Dumont), infuriating (after insulting) Trentino ( Louis Calhern) the ambassador of Sylvania who also wants Teasedale’s hand in marriage. After he is inaugurated, he even sings that the country only thinks it’s bad off now.
Groucho Marx plays Firefly, who makes every effort he can to turn Freedonia upside down with his wild antics and rapid-fire wit. Interestingly, it has since become considered a masterpiece in the genre and the greatest of the Marx Brothers pictures. Firefly is made the country’s new leader, which he accepts before making a mockery of the position when he starts a war with neighboring Sylvania.ĭirected by Leo McCarey, Duck Soup (which was slang at the time for something easy to do), while often called a critical and box office failure upon release, actually was a successful film but not thought of as topical or as funny as their previous work. With the country of Freedonia in a dire financial state, a wealthy socialite promises a grand donation to keep the government running as long as a certain Rufus T.
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