It kept me alive during one of the worst years of my life

Rating: Null/10 (5 March 2006)

DUCK SOUP was a Marxian film that came together at Paramount before the brothers went to MGM and got sanitized by Irving Thalberg and the Hays Office. I believe it is one of the very best the boys had to offer, although Groucho always maintained the more mainstream work done at MGM was better. But what stands out in DUCK SOUP- as in the other Paramount films the Brothers did- is the rootsy, East 93rd street Jewish kid effrontery that governed everything the guys did in vaudeville and on Broadway. Here, in this marvelous anti-war farce, you'll see Harpo at the top of his form in the sight gag, with ongoing battles with Edgar ("Slow Burn") Kennedy. Margaret Dumont, Raquel Torres and Louis Calhern are on board playing the straight man in the midst of the Marxian chaos. And there's no beating the mini-musical that introduces the final war sequence towards the end of the film. On a more personal level, this work kept me alive during one of the worst years of my life, and it still buoys me up in some pretty stark moments. Maybe it can do the same for you.