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popcorn crumbs and soda stains, a movie blog: Movie of the Day #17 - Duck Soup (1933) #navbar-iframe { display:block } skip to main | skip to sidebar popcorn crumbs and soda stains, a movie blog Take a deep breath. Smell that? Stale popcorn crumbs. Take a step forward. The floor is all sticky, isn't it? Somebody spilled their coke on the floor. There's chewing gum stuck under your seat and the fabric is all stiff and coarse. Somebody has come in late, forcing you to stand up and let them pass. Did somebody just kick the back of your seat? You bet your ass they did. Welcome to the movies, bitch. Monday, 8 February 2010 Movie of the Day #17 - Duck Soup (1933) Quite possibly THE funniest movie ever made*, this is a comedic work that delivers on repeat performances, there is a magic to the humour that makes it not only timeless but just as fresh and funny no matter how many times you watch it. This is subversive political satire, while the actions of the film are clearly deranged there is a brutal truth to it, the nature of politics and warmongering is patently ridiculous that the best way to highlight this was to make it even more ridiculous, yet after 8 years of George W Bush is it so insane to imagine someone like Rufus T. Firefly ruling a country? Now, the satire is there, it's the backbone of the whole movie, but that isn't why it's so loved. It's the jokes. The wonderful, razor sharp jokes. Every Marx brother (and the repeated Marx collaborator, the singular Margaret Dumont) has finely tuned their personnas throughout their careers, and here is where we see them at their apex, they would never be better utilized for the rest of their filmography, every character has a special talent and they execute every bit of schtick with a lazer precision. Groucho's one liners are fired out at a machine gun rate, and every one of them hits the target, this is a man whose (much like Oscar Wilde) one liners are still the height of wit today. Duck Soup is Groucho at his best, so it stands to reason his zingers are the best he made, but the movie had much more going on, covering every range of the comedy spectrum: zingers, slapstick, physical comedy, satire, surrealism, even a bit of cheeky (albeit tame) inneuendo. One such example of the sheer skill at physical comedy was the rightfully legendary mirror gag; Groucho stands in front of what used to be a mirror (recently shattered by Harpo, who is disguised as Groucho for reasons so farcical it's a joke in itself and the basis for about 20 more jokes before this), Haro effortlessly mimics all of Groucho's movements, but when you start to see the cracks in his imitation the scene reaches dizzying levels of funny. It's possibly my favourite piece of physical comedy in the history of film, rivalling the works of Lloyd, Chaplin, Keaton, Laurel & Hardy and Jackie Chan. While Night at the Opera is inarguably the Marx Bros most accomplished work as a piece of film (a beautifully made film, no mistake), as a work of comedy it falls short. It is not pure Marx like Duck Soup , which is a little shaggy on production values but is nothing but Marx Bros mania, every Marx brother working at full capacity and no distracting storylines featuring other characters. After Duck Soup bombed at the box office (much like The General , proof that audiences have never really known a good thing when they see it) the Marx Bros moved studios and were practically relegated to supporting roles in their own movies, playing second fiddle to uninvolving romantic storylines (instead of the chaotic narrative of Duck Soup ) and schmaltzy musical numbers (as opposed to Duck Soup 's hilarious satirical numbers). Duck Soup would be the last time we saw the Marx Bros as a whole, but as far as a swan song goes, there would be no better way to go out than with their best work. If I ever hear lines like, "Will you marry me? Did he leave you any money? Answer the second question first." and I'm not laughing, then put a bullet in my head because I'm probably turning into a zombie or something. Companion Movies of the Day. Horse Feathers (1932) - Personally, my second favourite Marx Bros movie. It has the looser energy of Duck Soup and their other Paramount-era movies, which I prefer over the more polished, focused (read: conventional) Night of the Opera and the rest of the MGM-era movies. In The Loop (2009) - A spiritual successor to Duck Soup , dealing with the creation of a war with the same rapidfire (albeit cursed-up) wit of the Marx Bros. Skews for realism over Duck Soup 's anarchic surrealism, but still manages to make it's point whilst being pant-wettingly funny. * The only movie that could possibly top Duck Soup is Airplane! Posted by Andy Darko at 22:45 Reactions: Tag(s): Features , movieoftheday , reviews 1 comments: watch spy next door said... This is really a well laid out website. I like how you have presented the information in full detail. Keep up the great work and please stop by at my site watch spy next door sometime. Keep it up.. 8 February 2010 23:24 Post a Comment Newer Post Older Post Home Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom) Search This Blog Loading... #uds-searchControl .gs-result .gs-title, #uds-searchControl .gs-result .gs-title *, #uds-searchControl .gsc-results .gsc-trailing-more-results, #uds-searchControl .gsc-results .gsc-trailing-more-results * { color:#333333; } #uds-searchControl .gs-result .gs-title a:visited, #uds-searchControl .gs-result .gs-title a:visited * { color:#512152; } #uds-searchControl .gs-relativePublishedDate, #uds-searchControl .gs-publishedDate { color: #446677; } #uds-searchControl .gs-result a.gs-visibleUrl, #uds-searchControl .gs-result .gs-visibleUrl { color: #446677; } #uds-searchControl .gsc-results { border-color: #446677; background-color: #cedfbd; } #uds-searchControl .gsc-tabhActive { border-color: #446677; border-top-color: #446677; background-color: #cedfbd; color: #000000; } #uds-searchControl .gsc-tabhInactive { border-color: #446677; background-color: transparent; color: #333333; } #uds-searchClearResults { border-color: #446677; } #uds-searchClearResults:hover { border-color: #446677; } #uds-searchControl .gsc-cursor-page { color: #333333; } #uds-searchControl .gsc-cursor-current-page { color: #000000; } Top Quote " Movies are so rarely great art, that if we cannot appreciate great trash , we have very little reason to be interested in them ." -Pauline Kael About Me Andy Darko I live, eat, breathe and shit movies. Naturally I have a very awkward and often physically uncomfortable life, especially during and after meals. Until I can ship myself off to film school to take my Campbell-esque film nerd journey to it's logical conclusion, I will be populating this blog with a lot of movie reviews and assorted wafflings on the subject of all things film... Enjoy, just don't ask me what I use to wipe myself. View my complete profile Bloggy Details You will notice the "About Me" section is woefully light on any "Me", and I hope to keep it that way, but I should probably say a little more about the blog. I want to review every film I see from now on, or remember, not just new films. I'm in no position to break news stories, that particular swimming pool is already crammed so tight there's not even enough room to move your elbows, all I have to offer is my perspective on what already exists and talk about my love of film. Maybe if I moved to LA and started blowing studio execs in bathroom stalls, I'd have some more juicy new info to share with the world, or at the very least news on what Hollywood semen tastes like... but then I'd be stealing Perez Hilton's thunder. You just can't win. Followers Twitter Recent comments Loading... Blog Archive ▼ 2010 (40) ► March (2) ► Mar 04 (1) More Movies Coming Soon, Promise ► Mar 01 (1) Movie of the Day #30 - Gambit (1966) ▼ February (23) ► Feb 25 (1) Movie of the Day #29 - Halloween II (2009) ► Feb 24 (1) Movie of the Day #28 (Director Week) - Tetro (2009... ► Feb 21 (2) Movie of the Day #27 (Director Week) - Bring Me Th... Review - Legion (2010) ► Feb 20 (1) Movie of the Day #26 (Director Week) - Drunken Ang... ► Feb 19 (1) Oops! ► Feb 18 (2) Movie of the Day #25 (Director Week) - Blow Out (1... Quicky Reviews - Edge of Darkness (2010) & Daybrea... ► Feb 17 (1) Movie of the Day #24 (Director Week) - Paths of Gl... ► Feb 16 (1) Movie of the Day #23 (Director Week) - Duel (1971)... ► Feb 15 (1) Movie of the Day #22 (Director Week) - To Live and... ► Feb 12 (2) Nevermind... Metropolis: Restored - Streaming Online Soon! ► Feb 11 (1) Movie of the Day #21 - The Ice Pirates (1984) ► Feb 10 (1) Movie of the Day #19 - Lady Vengeance (2005) ▼ Feb 08 (3) Movie of the Day #18 - Gigantic (2008) Movie of the Day #17 - Duck Soup (1933) Movie of the Day #16 - Martyrs (2008) ► Feb 05 (1) Movie of the Day #15 - Roadgames (1981) ► Feb 04 (2) Movie of the Day #14 - 13 Tzameti (2005) Movie of the Day #13 - 2012 (2009) ► Feb 02 (1) Movie of the Day #12 - Blue Collar (1978) ► Feb 01 (1) Movie of the Day #11 - Ace In The Hole (1951) ► January (15) ► Jan 31 (1) Movie of the Day #10 - Best in Show (2000) ► Jan 30 (1) Movie of the Day #9 - Once Upon a Time in the West... ► Jan 29 (1) Movie of the Day #8 - The Signal (2007) ► Jan 28 (1) Movie of the Day #7 - Vengeance (2009) ► Jan 27 (1) Movie of the Day #6 - Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: H... ► Jan 26 (1) Movie of the Day #5 - A Prophet (2009) ► Jan 25 (1) Movie of the Day #4 - The Idiots (1998) ► Jan 24 (1) Movie of the Day #3 - Buster Keaton's The General ... ► Jan 23 (1) Movie of the Day #2 - Hard Times (1975) ► Jan 22 (1) Movie of the Day #1 - Fritz Lang's M (1931) ► Jan 21 (1) Coming Soon... Movie of the Day! ► Jan 08 (1) Best of The Best, 2009. ► Jan 06 (1) There Will Be Blood (2007) ► Jan 05 (1) Dancing with "The Red Shoes" (1948) ► Jan 04 (1) The Return of the Blog ► 2009 (6) ► August (2) ► Aug 12 (1) Blog Pimpin': onlygoodmovies.com ► Aug 05 (1) Gonna Fly Now - The Rocky Franchise Retrospective ► July (1) ► Jul 03 (1) I have been a bad blogger. ► January (3) ► Jan 12 (1) The 25 Best Movies of 2008 ► Jan 09 (1) A LOOK TO THE FUTURE... Well, 2009, at least... ► Jan 01 (1) The 25 Worst Movies of 2008 ► 2008 (154) ► December (10) ► Dec 31 (3) The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), Gran T... Flashbacks of a Fool (2008), American Teen (2008),... 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