the funniest movie I've ever seen

Rating: Null/10 (9 November 1999)

They don't make 'em like this any more, and it's a damn shame because they should. The best Marx Brothers film by a street, because it's got the least fat (IE the 'love interest' isn't included, and the film's all the better for it), and the actual meat's the best.
A Day at the Races has some classic scenes, like Groucho using the phone, a fake Southern accent and a noisy electric fan to tie his stumbling but evil adversary up in knots, and the traffic jam, to name just two. But there's the African-American spiritual singalong in the barn is five minutes (which feels like twenty five) of unrelieved embarrassment, supremely patronising if not out and out racist.
Take me out to the Ball Game, from A Night at the Opera, has me in stitches every time I see it, and the scenes in the Speakeasy from Horsefeathers - Harpo ordering a Scotch, or the password shenanigans are also pretty special, and this is nowhere near all the good things in these films. But for sheer anarchic magnificence, it's Duck Soup every time. I'll get out of your way after I've mentioned my favourite scene, which no one else seems to have commented on, namely the one that takes place in Mrs Teasdale's mansion, late at night, Harpo trying to get the plans without being noticed...has me in tears every time. Wonderful stuff, and my kids (14 and 10) love 'em too.