Don't Miss This One!

Rating: 10/10 (28 July 2017)

Producer: Herman Mankiewicz. Copyright 17 November 1933 by Paramount Productions, Inc. New York opening at the Rivoli: 22 November 1933. U.K. release: 26 May 1934. Australian release: 4 April 1934. 70 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: The story, if one can call it that, concerns Dumont (who did seven of these with the Brothers) as a dowager millionairess who will donate $20 million to the destitute duchy of Freedonia if it will agree to make Groucho (Rufus T. Firefly) the dictator.
NOTES: Zeppo's last film. He retired to become an agent. Groucho, Chico and Harpo's last film for Paramount. Irving Thalberg induced them to sign with M-G-M where they started off with one of their biggest contemporary hits, "A Night at the Opera" (1935). Although "Duck Soup" was not all that popular when first released, it proved a tremendous hit in the U.S.A./Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia, when it was re-issued in the early 1950s. By the mid- fifties, it had become a top cult movie in all four countries.
COMMENT: Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby didn't receive any encomiums for penning this three-laughs-a-minute script and these delicious mock- opera songs in their M-G-M "biography", "Three Little Words". Surprise, surprise! Their most famous film too — and easily the marvelously anarchic Marx Brothers' best. McCarey and his astute film editor have pruned the film so that only the funniest routines and most hilarious wisecracks remain in this zippily paced spoof of all things Ruritanian. Produced on a lavish budget, with stunning visual images to match the sharp soundtrack, "Duck Soup" is one of the few cult classics that fully deserves its highest reputation as an endless cornucopia of fun.
OTHER VIEWS: "I'm going home and clean the crackers out of my bed. I'm expecting company," explains Groucho in Leo McCarey's naughty, nutty spoof of politics and international diplomacy. A merciless satire, enlivened by the sexiest dialogue and situations. Raquel Torres wears the lowest-cut gowns ever displayed on the vintage Hollywood screen. — JHR writing as George Addison.
AVAILABLE on an excellent Universal DVD.