Duck Soup - Followed by Naptime

Duck Soup

Director: Leo McCarey

Hail, hail to Freedonia! Land of the brave and free! –crowd

Mister you no understand. Look, he’s a spy and I’m a spy, he work-a for me. I want him to find out-a something, but he no find out what I wanna find out. Now how am I gonna find out what I wanna find out if he no find out what I gotta find out? –Chicolini

           –Pinky

Gentleman, Chicolini here may talk like an idiot, and look like an idiot. But don’t let that fool you; he really is an idiot. –Rufus T. Firefly

The Netflix description of Duck Soup:

Thanks to the patronage of well-heeled widow Mrs. Teasdale, Rufus T. Firefly becomes a dictator of the tiny country of Freedonia. But when the ambassador of the bordering nation of Sylvania declares his love for Mrs. Teasdale, Firefly declares war. The Marx Brothers are at their sidesplitting best in this raucous political satire, in which Chico, Harpo and Zeppo co-star as spies and counterspies.

This was my first Marx Brothers movie. And it exhausted me. Their style of quick wit and quick bits left my head spinning as I tried to catch up again and again. I’m absolutely sure I missed some funny comment, a double meaning and a sidelong glance or two.

I don’t know anything about the Marx Brothers except that they’re funny. So I don’t know if the roles given to each of them are typical of their careers. I don’t even know if Harpo, who played Pinky in this film, is always mute in his appearances. I chose not to investigate them further until I’d experienced the movie. I feel like there is so much information available out there on anything and everything, that it’s sometimes nice to ignore it all and go in with a completely open mind. The over-inundation can be very distracting when trying to enjoy art for art’s sake.

This movie reminded me, at times, of any number of cartoons. The scene in particular where there are three characters dressing alike, all interacting with the same person but in very different styles, looked like it was pulled straight from an episode of Looney Tunes. Pinky dresses up like Rufus T. Firefly but remains silent; Chicolini dresses up like Rufus T. Firefly but speaks with an Italian accent; and Rufus T. Firefly appears in the scene as himself, not knowing that Pinky or Chicolini has been imitating him to Mrs. Teasdale just moments before.

This leaves Mrs. Teasdale thoroughly confused, as she is presented with each of these versions of Rufus T. Firefly, and tries to assimilate in her mind how the three versions fit together as one whole person, for of course she does not know or question that it is not the same person she keeps interacting with. This is something unlikely to happen in real life, as most people would be able to distinguish one person from another, no matter how similarly they are dressed. But of course, this movie is not exactly striving for realism.

Exhausting and unrealistic as this movie was, I had a great time watching it… rewinding sections… and re-watching for clarification. This post is short because I'm still trying to stop my head from spinning. Hail, hail to Freedonia!

My takeaway: In movies, as in life, wars of many scales can be waged, won, lost or ended by a woman. And when you can’t think of anything else to say, object!