Lots of clever wordplay but not my favourite Marx brothers film

Rating: 7/10 (3 February 2013)

These days "Duck Soup" is generally considered the best of the Marx brothers comedies. However, at the time of its original release, its poor reception was one of the contributing factors to the brothers' split from Paramount. It was also the last of their films to feature Zeppo, who never really stood out much due to his role as a straight man to his brothers' zany antics.
In this movie Groucho plays Rufus T. Firefly, the newly appointed leader of the fictional country of Freedonia. Zeppo plays his secretary while Chico and Harpo team up as spies for the Sylvanian ambassador, who is attempting to incite a revolution.
The brothers were all in good form for this picture and were joined by frequent comic foil Margaret Dumont. Louis Calhern was also effective as the villain of the piece. Verbal comedy is where the film shines and all of these individuals worked quite well together. On the other hand, I found that some of the physical comedy bits just went on too long.
Future Oscar winner Leo McCarey directed the film and I have no complaints about his work here. For the most part, he avoided the staginess of the earlier films. The musical numbers are pretty well done, too, though I would have liked to have seen the brothers themselves show off their instrumental skills as they often did in their movies.
Ultimately, I consider this my second favourite Marx brothers comedy after "A Night at the Opera". There seem to be differing viewpoints on which one is superior. Personally, I find that this film's anarchic quality is endearing but it doesn't produce as cohesive an experience as their MGM productions that were soon to come.