Day 19: Duck Soup (1933)

The Marx Brothers are comedy legends, and while I'm quite familiar with the Three Stooges and Charlie Caplin, 'Duck Soup' will be my first foray into the brother's films.

Starring: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx
Directed by: Leo McCarey

The Positives:

- Like jokes? You're going to be bombarded with witty word play, cunning insults, and slapstick humor. All in rapid succession. And they are hysterical.
- Breaking the fourth wall. Love it.
- Harpo and Chico may be one of the most brilliant/hilarious/random/haphazard duos to ever grace early 20th century celluloid.
- The Marx Brothers are masters of comedic timing.
- I appreciate the relentless pace almost as much as I appreciate the 68 minute runtime.
- For some reason I always picture the pre-1960's as this wholesome era where family values are practiced and people are always respected. I suppose I can contribute that to the way both sets of my grandparents acted. Reading the works of Hemingway and Steinbeck obviously opened my eyes to the times but I'm still shocked to see just how crude this film is.
- The mirror scene will go down as one of my favorite comedic scenes of all time.
- There is a plot, I suppose. But it more or less serves as wrap-arounds for large blocks of what is practically the Marx Brother's stand-up routine. I actually kind of like this, as a proper storyline would probably bog down this film's humor (as Funny People could probably tell you. However, that's not to say an actual plot wouldn't help, otherwise most comedy films would end up like 'Meet the Spartans' or 'Disaster Movie'. This is one of the rare films that works on this level because the actual comedy material presented in this film is hilarious and snappy.)

The Negatives:

- Dammit. I hate it when movies randomly burst into song.
- I feel like the political satire was attempting to go somewhere but it didn't.
- Harpo is one creepy looking sonovabitch. Imagine if the Mad Hatter, Willy Wonka, and Michael Cera had a 4' 11" son.
- I still don't know why it's called 'Duck Soup'.

Grade: A

Comedy just isn't this funny anymore.