The Last Great Marx Brothers Film

Rating: Null/10 (24 January 2002)

By far the brothers' best picture, it also marked an unfortunate turning point in their careers. Just 15 years after the horror of World War I, they made a movie that depicted war as one colossal joke, in which Freedonia declares war on Sylvania after an exchange of insults between Groucho and the Sylvanian ambassador. Depression-era audiences didn't find it funny, and the picture bombed. In the rest of their films after Duck Soup, the Marxes (minus Zeppo) continued attacking authority figures, but always on behalf of some deserving minor character -- never simply for their own amusement. Examples include the two poor-but-talented singers in A Night at the Opera, the owner of Standish Sanitarium in a Day at the Races, and the small-town playwright in Room Service. Scenes were also inserted to show the brothers' solidarity with the poor and downtrodden, such as the steerage passengers in A Night at the Opera, and the black racetrack workers in A Day at the Races. Their later pictures also included superfluous romantic duos and musical numbers, largely absent from their first five pictures. The Marx Brothers spent what could have been their most creative years trying to redeem themselves for Duck Soup.