Synopsis
Rufus T. Firefly is named president/dictator of bankrupt Freedonia and declares war on neighboring Sylvania over the love of wealthy Mrs. Teasdale.
Your Movie Library
Cast
- Groucho MarxRufus T. Firefly
- Harpo MarxPinky
- Chico MarxChicolini
- Zeppo MarxBob Roland
- Margaret DumontGloria Teasdale
- Raquel TorresVera Marcal
- Louis CalhernAmbassador Trentino
- Edmund BreeseZander
- Leonid KinskeySylvanian Agitator
- Charles MiddletonProsecutor
Recommendations
- 100
Chicago Sun-Times
There is an odd moment when Harpo shows Groucho a doghouse tattooed on his stomach, and in a special effect a real dog emerges and barks at him. The brothers broke the classical structure of movie comedy and glued it back again haphazardly, and nothing was ever the same. - 100
The Guardian
The sheer silliness is inspired. - 100
Empire
The Marx brothers on top form with their quickfire comedy and banter. - 100
TV Guide Magazine
A masterpiece...DUCK SOUP is perhaps the best, and funniest, depiction of the absurdities of war ever committed to celluloid. - 100
Time Out
Genius just about covers it. - 90
Variety
In place of the constant punning and dame chasing, Duck Soup has the Marxes madcapping through such bits as the old Schwartz Bros. mirror routine, so well done in the hands of Groucho, Harpo and Chico that it gathers a new and hilarious comedy momentum all over again. - 90
Chicago Reader
The Marx Brothers' best movie (1933) and, not coincidentally, the one with the strongest director—Leo McCarey, who had the flexibility to give the boys their head and the discipline to make some formal sense of it. - 88
The Seattle Times
The Marx Brothers at their purest and funniest - no romantic subplot, no musical interludes with Harpo, no distractions from the fun of watching Groucho deflate Margaret Dumont as he becomes dictator of Fredonia and frivolously declares war. Cleverly directed by Leo McCarey, it was the team's least popular 1930s film, perhaps because the tone of non-stop anarchy proved too unsettling to Depression audiences. [10 May 1991, p.65]
