 A pointed political satire, Duck Soup is the Marx Brother's funniest and most insane film. Groucho is Rufus T. Firefly, the hilarious dictator of mythical Freedonia. Harpo and Chico are commissioned as spies by Groucho's political rival, the calculating Trentino. The film contains many of the Brothers' famous sequences: the lemonade stand, a masterpiece of slow burn; the Paul Revere parody; the We're Going To War number, a beautiful spoof of '30s musicals; the hilarious mirror scene; and a final battle episode that has been copied by everyone from Woody Allen to Mad Magazine. Cast Notes: Groucho Marx (Rufus T. Firefly), Harpo Marx (Pinky), Chico Marx (Chicolini), Zeppo Marx (Bob Rolland), Margaret Dumont (Mrs. Teasdale), Raquel Torres (Vera Marcal), Louis Calhern ([Ambassador] Trentino), Edmund Breese (Zander), Leonid Kinskey (Agitator), Charles Middleton [I] (Prosecutor), Edgar Kennedy (Street Vendor). User Comment: Stephen-12 from London, England, 11 January 1999 • It narrowly beats A Night at the Opera as the best all-round Marx Bros film, though I find the humour more bizarre in Monkey Business. At least the musical numbers in DS are actually worth sitting through. The reasons it scores so highly are: 1) The mirror sequence. The finest comic sequence ever committed to film. Sure, it's old-hat vaudeville, but it's professional, beautifully timed and spirals into wonderful absurdity. 2) The one-liners, puns and other jokes. Pick of the crop are the peanut stall interchange, the telephone sequence, the riddles ('what has four pairs of pants, lives in Philadelphia, and it never rains but it pours?') and the final battle (especially the stock footage of monkeys and elephants running to save the army under siege - the kind of thing the Zucker Bros pinched for their comedies). Oh, yes, and the motorcycle routines. 3) The satire on politics and warmongering. The Brothers simply deflate the pomposity of the whole deal. 4) The fact that Zeppo is actually given something to do. Anybody who thinks the Farrelly brothers are the last word in comedy should be strapped to a chair and shown Marx Bros films over and over again, until they concede. Summary: Top-class. IMDb Rating (05/12/14): 8.1/10 from 41,280 users IMDb Rating (01/14/10): 8.1/10 from 24,463 users Top 250: #211 IMDb Rating (10/15/07): 8.0/10 from 16,549 users Top 250: #171 IMDb Rating (06/01/01): 8.4/10 from 3,830 users Top 250: #82
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