Duck Soup is a 1933 American pre-Code musical comedy film written by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby (with additional dialogue by Arthur Sheekman and Nat Perrin) and directed by Leo McCarey. Released by Paramount Pictures on November 17, 1933, it stars the four Marx Brothers (Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Zeppo) and also features Margaret Dumont, Louis Calhern, Raquel Torres and Edgar Kennedy.
Duck Soup was the final of the five Marx Brothers films released by Paramount Pictures. The film also marks Zeppo's last screen outing with his brothers. In the film, Groucho portrays Rufus T. Firefly, the newly installed president of the fictional country of Freedonia. Zeppo is his secretary, while Chico and Harpo are spies for the neighboring country of Sylvania. Relations between Firefly and the Sylvanian ambassador (Calhern) deteriorate during the film, eventually leading the two countries to war.
Compared to the Marx Brothers' previous films, Duck Soup was a financial disappointment, though not an outright box-office failure as is sometimes reported. The film opened to mixed reviews, although this by itself did not end the group's association with Paramount. Bitter contract disputes, including a threat by the Marxes to leave and found their own production company, soured their negotiations with the studio just as Duck Soup went into production. After the film fulfilled their contractual obligations to Paramount, the Marxes and the studio agreed to part ways.As a consequence of the relative lack of financial success of Duck Soup, when the Brothers moved to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and A Night at the Opera was in preparation, production boss Irving Thalberg insisted on trying out material for the picture in front of live audiences on the vaudeville circuit.
While contemporaneous critics of Duck Soup felt it did not quite rise to the level of its predecessors, critical and popular opinion has evolved and the film has since achieved the status of a classic. Duck Soup is now widely considered to be a masterpiece of comedy and the Marx Brothers' finest film.
In 1990, the United States Library of Congress deemed Duck Soup "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Plot Wealthy widow Gloria Teasdale is asked to give twenty million dollars to the small, financially struggling nation of Freedonia; she agrees on the condition that Rufus T. Firefly is appointed the country's leader. Meanwhile, Ambassador Trentino of neighboring Sylvania is scheming to provoke a revolution in Freedonia in order to annex it. He sends two spies, Chicolini and Pinky, to Freedonia to find out information about Firefly. To his disappointment, Chicolini and Pinky end up spying on the wrong man, but he agrees to give them another chance.
To collect information on Firefly, Chicolini and Pinky pose as peanut vendors and station their food cart outside of Firefly's office. Firefly hires Chicolini as Freedonia's Secretary of War. A short time later, Firefly's secretary, Bob Roland, warns Firefly of this scheme. Roland advises Firefly to insult Trentino, hoping that he will slap Firefly in response; this would give Firefly an excuse to ban Trentino from the country. Firefly agrees to the plan, but after a series of personal insults exchanged with Trentino, the plan goes awry when Firefly slaps Trentino instead. The incident brings the two countries to the brink of war. Meanwhile, Firefly and Trentino both attempt to woo Mrs. Teasdale in the hopes of getting their respective hands on her late husband's wealth.
Trentino learns from Sylvanian spy Vera Marcal that Freedonia's plans of war are in Mrs. Teasdale's possession, and tells Vera to assist Chicolini and Pinky in stealing the plans. Chicolini is eventually caught by Firefly and put on trial, during which Firefly again slaps Trentino. This causes Trentino to declare war on Freedonia; overcome with excitement, everyone at the trial then begins singing and dancing. Chicolini and Pinky join Firefly and Roland in the anarchic battle that follows.
Some time later, Freedonia is losing the war and army morale is breaking down amidst a series of violent mishaps. Firefly, Chicolini, Pinky, Roland, and Teasdale take refuge in Teasdale's hideout, which is soon overrun by Sylvanian troops accompanied by Trentino. When the Freedonians recognize him, they pin him in a makeshift pillory and throw fruit at him. Trentino surrenders, but Firefly tells him that he will stay in the pillory "till the fruit runs out". When Mrs. Teasdale victoriously begins singing the Freedonian national anthem, the four men start throwing fruit at her instead.
Cast
Cast notes Comparing the original scripts with the finished film, most of the characters' initial scripted names were later changed. Only the names of Chicolini and Mrs. Teasdale were kept. Groucho's character—originally named "Rufus T. Firestone"—eventually became Rufus T. Firefly, while the name of Harpo's character—named Pinky in the final product—was given in the Paramount pressbook as "Brownie". "Ambassador Frankenstein of Amnesia" was quickly changed to Ambassador Trentino of Sylvania. Zeppo's character remained Firefly's son until very late in production, finally becoming Bob Roland, his secretary; also, Mrs. Teasdale's niece "June Parker" transformed into Vera Marcal, first introduced as Trentino's "niece" before ultimately becoming his companion.
Production notes Development The Marx Brothers' previous film, Horse Feathers, had been Paramount's highest-grossing film of 1932. Encouraged by this success, the studio suggested on August 2, 1932, that they rush out a follow-up. Already at this early stage, the story (provisionally entitled Oo La La) was set in a mythical kingdom. On August 11, 1932, the Los Angeles Times reported that production would commence in five weeks with the famed Ernst Lubitsch directing.
This was a turbulent time in the Marx Brothers' career. The Great Depression was raging and Paramount Pictures was attempting to stave off bankruptcy. A reorganization of the studio brought fears that money due the Marxes would never be paid; as a result, the Brothers threatened to leave Paramount and form their own company, Marx Bros., Inc. Their first planned independent production was a film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway musical Of Thee I Sing, with Norman McLeod leaving Paramount to direct. During late 1932 and early 1933, Groucho and Chico were also working on Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel, a radio show written by Nat Perrin and Arthur Sheekman; there was even, at one time, talk of casting the two as their radio characters for the new film, an idea that was eventually used by Perrin in the 1941 Marx Brothers film The Big Store.
By October 4, 1932, Arthur Sheekman, Harry Ruby, and Bert Kalmar began writing the screenplay for the next Paramount film, which was now called Firecrackers. Herman Mankiewicz was to supervise production, beginning in January 1933. By December 1932, Firecrackers had become Cracked Ice.The different scripts for Duck Soup – Marxology.com Grover Jones was also reported to have contributed to the first draft by Ruby and Kalmar. In The Marx Brothers Encyclopedia, Glenn Mitchell says that "the first script's content is difficult to determine".
On January 18, 1933, Harry Ruby, Bert Kalmar and Grover Jones submitted to Paramount their "Second Temporary Script" for Cracked Ice, and Paramount announced that shooting would commence on February 15. This script shows that the basic plot of Duck Soup was in place. In February, Paramount announced that the title had been changed to Grasshoppers ("because animal stories are so popular"), and that filming was set back to February 20.
However, on May 11, 1933, the Marx Brothers' father Sam "Frenchie" Marx died in Los Angeles, and shortly afterward the contract dispute with Paramount was settled. The New York Post reported on May 17 that the Brothers would make a new comedy for Paramount, called Duck Soup. Leo McCarey was set for direction of the film. Three days later The New York Sun reported that Duck Soup would start filming in June. Duck Soups script was completed by July 11. The script was a continuation of Ruby and Kalmar's Firecrackers/Cracked Ice drafts, but contained more elements. Many of the film's clever gags and routines were lifted from Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel, giving Perrin and Sheekman an "additional dialogue" credit.
Title Director McCarey reportedly came up with the title for the film, having previously used it for an earlier directorial effort with Laurel and Hardy. This continued the "animal" titles of the Brothers' previous three films, Animal Crackers, Monkey Business and Horse Feathers."The Making of Duck Soup" – Marxology.com
"Duck soup" was American English slang referring to something easy to do. Conversely, "to duck something" meant to avoid it. When Groucho was asked for an explanation of the title, he quipped, "Take two turkeys, one goose, four cabbages, but no duck, and mix them together. After one taste, you'll duck soup for the rest of your life."
McCarey also thought up "the very Laurel & Hardy-like sequence in which Harpo and Chico stage a break-in at Mrs Teasdale's house." Another McCarey contribution was the "mirror scene", a revival of an old Marx Brothers vaudeville act.
Mirror scene In the "mirror scene", Pinky, dressed as Firefly, pretends to be Firefly's reflection in a missing mirror, matching his every move—including absurd ones that begin out of sight—to near perfection. At one point, the two men swap positions, introducing the question of which is the reflection. Eventually, Chicolini, also disguised as Firefly, enters the frame and collides with both of them.
Although its appearance in Duck Soup is the best known instance, the concept of the mirror scene did not originate in this film. Harold Lloyd used essentially the same routine in his short The Marathon (1919). Max Linder included it in Seven Years Bad Luck (1921), where a man's servants have accidentally broken a mirror and attempt to hide the fact by imitating his actions in the mirror's frame.James Steffen "Seven Years Bad Luck" (TCM article) Charlie Chaplin used a similar joke in The Floorwalker (1916), though it did not involve a mirror.
This scene has been imitated many times; for instance, in the Bugs Bunny cartoon Hare Tonic, the Mickey Mouse cartoon Lonesome Ghosts, The Square Peg (1959), The Pink Panther (1963), the Tom and Jerry cartoon Cat and Dupli-cat (1967), Big Business (1988), the Donkey Kong Country show episode "Ape-Nesia" (1997), the X-Files episode "Dreamland" (1998), Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties (2006), and the Family Guy episode "Road to Germany" (2008). Harpo himself did a reprise of this scene, dressed in his usual costume, with Lucille Ball also donning the fright wig and trench coat, in the I Love Lucy episode "Lucy and Harpo Marx".I Love Lucy: "Lucy and Harpo Marx" at the Internet Movie Database.
Other scenes and jokes The Arden Villa lily pond was a filming location.
Firefly (Groucho) is in Margaret Dumont's room, and unbeknownst to them, Chicolini (Chico) is hiding under the bed. When Groucho leaves the room, she turns her back to prepare for bed and Chico gets up from under the bed, and when she turns around, she is startled to still see him: "Your Excellency, I thought you left." "Oh no, I no leave." "But I saw you with my own eyes." "Well, who ya gonna believe, me or your own eyes?"
The climactic production number ridicules war by comparing nationalism to a minstrel show. One segment is a variant on the old Negro spiritual "All God's Chillun Got Wings": They got guns, We got guns, All God's chillun got guns! I'm gonna walk all over the battlefield, 'Cause all God's chillun got guns!