Forum - Duck Soup: The End of An Era...

Posts: 15
From:Bella Coola, BC, Canada
Registered: May 00

This line is mostly symbolic, with various tidbits to pick up on here and there:

-There is no piano or harp solo in "Duck Soup".

-There is also no mention whatsoever of a serious love interest for anybody(except Groucho and Mde.Dumont, who've always made love to each other.) In the movies that follow, the love scenes are intrusive and unincorporated into the comedy scenes; the movies suffer for it.

-"Duck Soup" is the last movie they made with their baby brother, Zeppo. This was a shame because the pseudo-straightman of the group, the one who handled the love scenes in times past, quit just before a time when the love scenes would suddenly become more important to the script.

-"Duck Soup" is also the last time we get to see Chico and Harpo pull their mock-fighting(which always ended with Chico getting booted in the pants)...

-And it's the last film in which Harpo chases a pretty girl for no reason whatsoever(this is kinda interesting because he ALMOST starts chasing a girl in Trentino's office, but a simple "Ah-ah!" from Chico keeps him in place; it's almost as if there were CLUES placed to signify the changeover).

-"A Night At The Opera" features a scene in which the Marx Brothers' are allowed onto a fancy buffet(while Baroni sings). This has the biggest signifigance of all, in my opinion; after all, in their previous movies, they were underdogs who bent the rules in order for themselves to come out on top(look at the "Captain's Cabin" scene from "Monkey Business", where Groucho and Chico swindle the ship captain's lunch right out from under his napkin.) As soon as they are allowed to triumph(by feasting at the buffet), there's nothing left to cheer for.

-Just about the only things which survived the changeover were Groucho's crooked walk(which eventually becamed overexaggerated and a parody of itself), Chico's dialect(which was quit being used as a vehicle for bad puns-which were funny-and instead was used simply for bad jokes-which weren't), and Harpo's Gookie(his trademark introduction, the "leg/handshake" didn't even survive the crossover).

I know that a lot of this had to do with the Marxes' contracts being switched over from Paramount to MGM, where they were told how to "fix" their movies so that "everyone" would enjoy them, but there's still a certain...loss of innocence after finishing a helping of duck soup and spending a night at the opera. The Marx Brothers' spirit was bottled up and repackaged and sold to the public; never again would it be allowed to run over everything in it's path.

What does anyone else think?

[This message has been edited by srtallio (edited 14 September 2000).]

Posts: 1
From:Oregon, IL,USA
Registered: Sep 2000