The funniest Marx Brothers film is thankfully free of tacked-on studio romance, free of sentimentality and it is joyously anarchic. Groucho is head of the struggling country of Freedonia. Battling power-hungry courtiers and devious politicians, the four brothers have to defend their tiny country from the threat of war. “Duck Soup” includes some of the funniest dialogue and innovative visual comedy in the history of film including the classic “fake-mirror” scene, the lemonade-stand torture scene and the Civil War spoof. This film has inspired directors as diverse as Woody Allen and Stanley Kubrick. “Duck Soup” is hilarious, witty, and vulgar. War has never been so ridiculous, patriotism has never been so wondefully subverted.
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Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
305894
Language
English
Audience classification
G
Sound/audio
Sound
Colour
Black and White
Holdings
VHS; Access Print (Section 1)