A Great Time

Rating: 9/10 (4 January 2006)

I can't say I'm necessarily a huge Marx Brothers fan, but I also can't claim to be an expert on them, since I've only seen this and "A Night at the Opera." Based on these two films, I've concluded that I like the IDEA of a Marx Brothers movie more than I like the movies themselves. Groucho is such a cultural icon that, like Charlie Chaplin, he inspires warm nostalgic feelings in movie buffs even if you've never seen one of his movies.
However, that said, I have to assume that "Duck Soup" is the Marx Brothers at their zaniest best, and it is very funny. This is the film that includes the famous "mirror" scene, in which two men in a doorway becomes a hilarious comedic bit, as one man thinks he's looking into a mirror because the other is matching his actions and gestures. It's inspired scenes like that that seem to have given the Marx Brothers their longevity. You remember individual skits that can be easily shown in a 60 second clip rather than the movies as a whole.
Grade: A