8 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
When he's named dictator of Freedonia, a con artist declares war on the neighboring kingdom.
Starring: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Zeppo Marx, Margaret DumontMusical | 100% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
English SDH, French
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 5.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
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.
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'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 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.
1931
1930
1932
1929
1971
Warner Archive Collection
1935
2015
2009
The Woody Allen Collection
1973
2008
Les vacances de Monsieur Hulot
1953
1985
W.R. - Misterije organizma
1971
1917
My Uncle
1958
The Big Day / Holiday
1949
Traffic
1971
Limited Edition to 3000
1976
1983
1967