Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.5

Duck Soup Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 16, 2016

Note: This film is available as part of The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection.

The Marx Brothers remain one of the most iconic comedy teams in the entire history of show business, including of course their film work. Years of vaudeville experience and then Broadway stardom meant the siblings came to cinema with personas largely set and with a huge “catalog” of bits they could utilize for their film work. That said, the movie going public had never really seen anything like the manic proclivities of this familial troupe, and countless commentators from 1929 (when The Cocoanuts debuted on celluloid) on have attempted to analyze various elements of the team’s completely unique comedy. While perhaps not especially “meaningful” in any overarching way, I had an unusual response to watching these new transfers of the first five Marx Brothers feature films (all reportedly sourced from new 4K restorations done by Universal), one probably sparked by my recent reviewing duties.

Arrow Video’s UK branch recently released Woody Allen: Six Films 1971-1978, and in doing some background reading in preparation for my reviews of the movies in that set, more than once I read in various articles comments along the lines of “Allen helped to define Jewish humor” or “Jewish humor simply wouldn’t be the same without Allen.” Allen’s patented brand of neurosis, sexual obsession and verbal acuity may indeed be at least a trifecta of Jewish humor if not the trifecta, but one only need look a bit further back in time to the Marx Brothers for another potent example of the “mainstreaming” of elements that could well be considered Jewish humor. I'm not suggesting this is the only way to look at the Marx Brothers' efforts, or even that it's an "important" way, just that it struck me as "being there" for me after having just watched a bunch of Allen films. In a way, though, the Marx Brothers’ perceived “Jewishness” is a little more subliminal than Allen’s is in his own films, though for those with the eyes to see, the siblings represent their generation of Jews rather iconically. Not only is their verbal humor full of puns and other formalistic hijinks, the very subject matter of many of their jokes tends to focus on social, political and even economic elements. The very fact that the act is comprised of family is important, with a “me and you against the world” ambience that speaks to outcasts (obviously including Jews) to this day. But there’s a “subtext” to many of the early Marx Brothers films, where the brothers are the outsiders, virtual interlopers attempting to make sense of a calamitous “new” world, whether that be a hotel, high society, a passenger ship, college sports or even a supposed nation in the throes of financial ruin.

What’s fascinating about the early Marx Brothers efforts is how they very subtly display signs of the assimilative fervor that many first or second generation Jews of that time period experienced, where it became paramount (no pun intended, considering the studio which released the early Marx Brothers efforts) to “blend in”. That may seem positively non-intuitive, given the Marx Brothers’ predilection toward anarchic behavior and just outright silliness, but when seen through the prism of an early to mid 20th century “Jewish identity,” the first five Marx Brothers feature films offer not just laughs galore, but a rather interesting example of so-called “ethnics” rather brilliantly invading the American consciousness in an almost subversive way. In this respect, the Marx Brothers become one of the most potent examples of what might be termed cultural immigration, where their Jewishness may have been slightly cloaked but no less ingratiating in the long run. That “cloaking” may be nowhere more obvious than in the persona of Chico, a Marx who spoke with a faux Italian accent and who seemed to be something of a grifter at times. Cloaked in another way but perhaps arguably more ostensibly Jewish, at least on one interpretive level, was Harpo, the weirdly childlike mute who seemed to often be the hapless scapegoat in many of the films, the outsider whose very powerlessness (as evidenced by his inability or unwillingness to speak) created “problems,” albeit often in a comedic way. The most obvious paradigm of Jewishness is of course Groucho, with his hyperarticulate verbal humor and a probably more than slightly lecherous mien which may in fact be a precursor for some of Woody Allen’s more sexually charged material. Zeppo, the kind of “forgotten” Marx Brother, and the one whose film persona is probably the blandest, may therefore somewhat ironically be seen as the best symbol of those aforementioned assimilative tendences—Zeppo had “learned” how to be an American first, blending in as the troupe’s straight man and therefore almost seeming like an outsider himself, at least within the insular world of the siblings’ relationships.

Not to pun too horribly, but in some ways Duck Soup was a swan song for the Marx Brothers. This was the last Paramount outing for the siblings, and it was also the last film to feature Zeppo, who had been aching to get out of the performance game for years and who would soon go on to an extremely lucrative gig as a “behind the scenes” agent. Margaret Dumont is back in action in this film, as wealthy doyenne Mrs. Teasdale, who is the potential monetary savior of bankrupt nation Freedonia. In a bit of a “reverse angle” from previous Marx Brothers efforts, Dumont’s character actually seems to be chasing after Groucho’s character, one Rufus T. Firefly, and Mrs. Teasdale makes it clear that any financial support for Freedonia is conditioned upon Freedonia appointing Firefly as the new President of the nation.

If the earlier Marx Brothers seemed frankly lightweight in their putative subject matter, if not in the impact of their visceral comedy, Duck Soup, dealing as it does with national sovereignty and, ultimately, issues of war and peace, might seem to be too “serious” for its own good. That, obviously, is not the case, for in my personal estimation and that of other Marx Brothers fanatics I know, Duck Soup is probably the most deliriously funny film in the siblings’ Paramount canon. What’s kind of ironic about all of this is the film was not exactly a blockbuster when it was originally released, something that probably helped lead to the dissolution of the relationship between Paramount and the Marxes.

The film is a riot of one liners (some of Groucho’s moments with Dumont are among the best in film comedy, let alone “just” the Marx Brothers), but it also is almost bizarrely coherent in its narrative thrust, this despite the fact that the film deliberately indulges in outlandish sight gags and non sequiturs galore. The film may seem “politically incorrect” (no pun intended) as it devolves into battle and supposed matters of life and death become (comedic) fodder, but the fact is all five of the Paramount Marx films feature the quartet as anarchists, readily engaging the powers that be in both physical and verbal skirmishes. There’s absolutely no doubt about who’s going to come out on top in this or any Marx Brothers brouhaha.

Duck Soup Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Duck Soup is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Universal Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.35:1. This is another very consistent looking transfer, one with a naturally resolving grain field, though there is occasional chunkiness in expected moments like the opening montage or in any of the many opticals that the film utilizes. There are some very slight density issues (you can see one sequence with them beginning at around 24:00 with Groucho and Chico). Interestingly, the increased resolution made me sit up and notice for the first time that there may have been some rear projection used at around 29:47, though the master shot clearly shows everyone in the "real" environment. While some of the war footage looks a little soft, some of that is no doubt due to the overall haze and smoke of the attendant gunfire and/or explosions. Detail levels are generally very good throughout this presentation, and while clarity is variable (as it is on all the films in this set), fans should be well pleased with the look of this transfer.

Duck Soup Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Duck Soup's DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track is largely in line with the two previous Hollywood shot films in the Marx Brothers set, with a slightly boxy but nonetheless still relatively full sounding audio. There's actually some surprising forcefulness to some of the goofy effects in the war sequence, and dialogue and music are otherwise rendered with decent clarity, though occasionally some of the brass cues sound a bit brittle.

Duck Soup Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Feature Commentary with Film Critic/Historian Leonard Maltin and Marx Bros. Historian/Author Robert S. Bader. This is another very informative but nicely relaxed commentary, with both participants bandying about various facts and figures and giving a nice overview of both the shoot and various anecdotes about the cast and crew.

Duck Soup Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Duck Soup is my personal favorite of the Marx Brothers Paramount efforts (others' mileage will of course vary), and it was wonderful to revisit it in this new Blu-ray edition. Anyone who has a fondness for Groucho's insane verbal gymnastics and the often surreal visual aesthetic that attends many of the Marx Brothers film will have a field day with this film. Technical merits are generally strong, the commentary is conversational yet learned, and Duck Soup comes Highly recommended.