The silliest but far from best Marx Brothers movie

Rating: 5/10 (24 May 2015)

The Marx Brothers were among the best comedy entertainers of their time and beyond. They were gifted musicians as well as comedians. Their comedy included dialog with one-liners and zingers, zany antics, slapstick and acrobatics. Some of their movies are among the funniest and best comedies of all time. Many sources regard "Duck Soup" as their best film. I don't, and here's why.
This film was still early in their movie careers and strikes me as raw and unpolished. It has many lines and routines that seem right out of vaudeville. Indeed, the long scenes with the peanut vending come from a vaudeville act that the brothers recreate in a couple of movies. There's nothing wrong with the variety performances of vaudeville, except that today they are old hat and just not as funny. And many of the one- liners are so old that they too lack humor today. The long scenes of costumed players singing the Freedonia anthem lose their humor after the first one or two.
"Duck Soup" seems to me to be a succession of skits held together by the thinnest of plots. Plots aren't necessary for great comedy, but then the comedy must be able to stand on its own. I just don't think "Duck Soup" has the comedy that does that. One last thing that bothers me about this film is the insult in some of Groucho's lines. It goes overboard here. As an aside, this is one of the few of the brothers' big films in which they don't perform musically. Their musical talents were surely of professional level and when they played in their other films, they added a little something to the story – and even to the mayhem at times.
I rate "A Night at the Opera" as the best Marx Brothers film, and one of the greatest comedies of all time. Close behind it is "A Day at the Races." Those films differ considerably from "Duck Soup" in that they have interesting serious plots that make for much more laughter with the zany scenes. And, they have much better developed dialog with witty lines and wonderful zingers. In the place of silliness (slaps in the face, verbal insults, etc.) that pepper "Duck Soup," those films spend a little time with plot involving other actors. That makes the comedy all the more hilarious in the scenes that follow.
"Duck Soup" may be the silliest movie the Marx Brothers made. But it's not the funniest by a long shot. Nor is it their best, in my view.