- I've always been surprised at the high level of critical regard for Duck Soup. Don't get me wrong, this is a very funny film, and I'm proud to own it alongside the other six of the Marx Brothers' first seven films. Still, it honestly doesn't stand out for me in any important way from their previous efforts. The setpieces are a little more impressive, sure, but fundamentally this is just another vehicle for Groucho's stream of one-liners, Chico's badly accented puns, and Harpo's constant shenanigans. Zeppo is also present, but this would be his last feature film with his brothers or anybody else. I suppose the concept of creating a "war comedy" was novel at the time, but the settings and situations in Marx Brothers films are inevitably upstaged by the brothers themselves.
- This time around, Groucho plays Rufus T. Firefly, newly elected leader of the small European nation of Freedonia. While we gather that the great leader spends most of his time eating crackers in bed or exchanging a few kind (and still more unkind) words with the wealthy widow Mrs. Teasdale (Margaret Dumont), the leader (Louis Calhern) of the nearby nation of Sylvania wants to know more. He therefore dispatches Chico and Harpo to serve as spies, which seems like a poorly considered idea, to say the least. Nevertheless, the two pose as peanut sellers before getting promoted to Firefly's Minister of War and official driver, and it isn't long before the three of them are waltzing around in competing greasepaint mustaches and trying to pry the war plans from Mrs. Teasdale. And when war finally arrives, the film gets even funnier.
- Duck Soup is certainly most famous for its excellent "mirror scene" in which Harpo mimics Groucho's every move, a gag that would show up again in both Looney Tunes and I Love Lucy, with Harpo reprising his role in the latter case. Personally, I was also very amused by Chico's unfortunate encounter with the indestructible Sousa march-playing radio and Groucho's plea for ally nations to assist the brothers and Mrs. Teasdale: "Send help at once! If you can't send help, send two more women...make that three more women!" As usual, Harpo steals every scene he's in, but even his considerable talents aren't put to their best use in this film. Instead, Duck Soup is a welcome reminder that the brothers really did have good reason to leave Paramount, even though it turned out their move to MGM would only produce two more good films.
- The prosecutor, played by Charles Middleton, was Ming the Merciless!
