Duck Soup

SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

The Marx Brothers films in general were the pop versions of what Theater of the Absurd dramatists and surrealist artists were producing at the beginning of the twentieth century. In Duck Soup the brothers found their best vehicle for their absurdist take on life in general, and more specifically on politics and war. The first shot of the movie is of ducks floating in a pot, quacking, possibly reflecting the brothers, although the bird representing Harpo is the silent one, so all he could do is move his bill (my joke, sorry). The title of the movie may have been provided by Groucho Marx describing a recipe: “Take two turkeys, one goose, four cabbages, but no duck, and mix them together. After one taste, you’ll duck soup for the rest of your life.” Even this anecdote shows how the brothers loved wordplay and poking fun at logic as being the answer to deal with all problems. The Marx Brothers, in their act in Vaudeville and later on Broadway and then in films, would be the anti-establishment force that attacked snobbery and constricting rules. They became the proxies for their audience that delighted in liberation from domineering, powerful figures of authority.

The plot exists only to set up the comic mayhem which then undermines it. It is pointless to discuss all the jokes packed into this short film. It’s best to just watch it and laugh your head off. But comments on its rebellious subversiveness and satiric thrust may be worth mentioning. Groucho plays Rufus T. Firefly, and his humor lights up the story as his name suggests. His painted-on mustache and eyebrows emphasize the lack of any attempt to even suggest that moviemaking is anything but an artistic way to comment on reality and not take it seriously.  He is the dictator of the ironically named country Freedonia. He is put into power by a rich person, perennial Marx Brothers straight woman Margaret Dumont playing Mrs. Teasdale. Her name suggests she is constantly teased, or that her wealth allows her to just have tea parties to pass the time, which she does in the movie. The country is in a financial bind (the film was released in 1933, in the middle of The Great Depression, so a nation’s failure economically would have connected with Americans) and Teasdale is tired of financing it. So, she demands a change in leadership if she is to pay out huge sums to save Freedonia. The film stresses that the wealthy are primarily the ones to influence who becomes a country’s leader. 

There is a formal, stuffy reception to introduce Firefly. It is populated by well-dressed attendees following mannerly codes of etiquette in a fancy ballroom. Teasdale introduces Ambassador Trentino (Louis Calhern), from the country of Sylvania. Vera Marcal (Raquel Torres) is a dancer who is a double agent for Trentino, who wishes to take over Freedonia. He has a plan to marry Teasdale to gain control, but Marcal says Teasdale is attracted to Firefly. Teasdale introduces Secretary Rob Roland (Zeppo Marx, the straight man who soon would leave the act), and just like Trentino, Roland quickly says “we’ve met” when introduced to Miss Marcal, which slyly suggests she is promiscuous. They then break into song about how Firefly will appear when the clock strikes ten. When it chimes, it does not ring out the correct number of chimes, showing how even time isn’t a reliable point of reference, and an attempt at presenting order is a fake facade in what really is a chaotic world. 

The phoniness of the country and its leader is continued in what follows. The song introducing the not democratically elected Firefly calls the country the “land of the brave and free,” which is an obvious reference to the United States. The fake news is that Firefly is never late, but he is still in his pajamas (no, there was no elephant in them. Sorry again, a reference to another Groucho joke). In this film, as in other Marx Brothers movies, Groucho is the insulter, whose jokes spiral into more and more outrageous tangents. When Trentino says, “I didn’t come here to be insulted, Firefly’s response is, “That’s what you think!” The subversiveness of Groucho’s double entendres pushed the censors to their limits. For instance, when Teasdale says she welcomes Firefly with open arms, he says, “How late do you stay open?” Another gem of sexual suggestiveness occurs when Firefly asks Teasdale to marry him and puns on his first name, saying, “All I can offer you is a Rufus over your head.” After finding out that Teasdale’s husband died, Firefly asks her, “Will you marry me? Did he leave you any money? Answer the second question first?” The thrust here is that human greed takes preference over love, especially with a selfish politician. That government figures can’t be trusted with money is emphasized when Firefly tells Trentino he’ll borrow some money from him and give him a note promising to pay him back, and if he doesn’t reimburse him, Trentino can keep the note. His joke suggests the promises of leaders aren’t worth the price of the paper they are written on. Similarly, he later says he’s paying off his dentist, but won’t enclose the check.

The satirical song that follows contains Firefly’s rules. They include no dirty jokes, demonstrations of pleasure, or even chewing gum, while at the same time singing about how free Freedonia is. There are a few bars from Popeye’s theme song, which refers to the cartoonish character that has become the country’s new leader. The song lyrics make fun of how the government continually places a burden on citizens by raising taxes. Firefly demonstrates the power of a tyrant over working people when he says he’ll deal with their demands for shorter hours by “cutting their lunch hour to twenty minutes.” Firefly plays a fife and marching music is heard, and citizens cheer in a programmed manner. The movie implies people are manipulated to respond to patriotic cues which conceal a dubious hidden agenda. Firefly sings that he’s against corruption, but undermines his stance by saying it’s okay if he gets his share of the graft. In a dark comic note, he pledges, as a leader with unlimited power, to order assassinations. He describes what he will do by using the jack-in-the-box tune, “Pop Goes the Weasel” as he holds up his hands as if he has a rifle in them.

Trentino in Sylvania meets with his two spies, Chicolini (Chico) and Pinky (Harpo), who he wants to get scandalous information on Firefly. Ebert notes that Chico always wears a Pinocchio hat in the Marx Brothers films. That observation fits with his character being Italian, but also adds to the anti-realistic presentation of the films of the brothers. They became famous with their verbal humor just when the silent era of movies was ending. Which makes it ironic that one of their characters, Harpo, never speaks, yet is one of the best silent actors of all time with his physical humor. Okay, he isn’t completely silent because he uses honking horns as a means of communication sometimes. Chicolini (which means “little Chico,” again stressing no attempt to pretend to tell a realistic story) and Pinky take over Trentino’s office with anarchistic, comic actions which undermine Trentino trying to act in a rational manner. One example of the absurdist humor rejecting the blind acceptance of human rational thought is in Chico’s line about not showing up at a baseball game cancelled because of rain, but still listening to it on the radio. Pinky uses scissors to cut Trentino’s hair and his jacket tails, as if shearing off any pretense that people should pretend to act as civil creatures. 

At a meeting of his staff, Firefly plays jacks and can’t understand a report, satirizing the ineptness of government leaders. Just like Chicolini and Pinky, Firefly puns his way through the session, mocking any attempt at running government in an orderly fashion.

In a scene worthy of Eugene Ionesco, the absurdist playwright, Chicolini pretends to be selling peanuts (the operative word here is “nuts”). Pinky is outlandish in frustrating any attempt by his fellow spy to extract information from him. They interact with a lemonade stand salesman (Edgar Kennedy) in this hilarious scene. Pinky continues to use his scissors, this time cutting pockets off of the lemonade man’s pants. He also steals money out of the pocket of a customer. Is this a reference to how the government in this Depression era period stole the citizens’ money? Also, the Theater of the Absurd dramatists emphasized the shortcomings of language, and misunderstandings were prevalent in their plays. The Marx Brothers in all their scenes constantly confuse others by misinterpreting what is said to them. Harpo as Pinky here, and in other movies with the brothers, can’t communicate at all (except with his body and his horn). Also, Pinky and Chicolini are not what they seem, since they are spies, Not being able to actually understand who one actually is occurs at the end of the scene with an expertly choreographed shuffle of the hats they are wearing with the lemonade man. (This scene inspired Nobel Prize winner Samuel Beckett to imitate it in his play Waiting for Godot).  The bit challenges the idea of relying on absolutes of identity (which is stressed much more in the famous mirror scene later). 

Firefly wants Chicolini to give up his annoying peanut stand for a “soft” government job. This line is another jab at government leaders doling out money for do-nothing employment in exchange for favors. Chicolini answers Firefly’s phone when people call, saying the man isn’t there, even though he’s standing right next to him. The movie may be commenting on the inefficiency and inaccessibility of bureaucracies. This idea is driven home when Firefly wants to make Chicolini Secretary of War, and Chicolini says he wants a standing army so they’ll save money on chairs. Chico in this movie and others with his brothers is sort of a con man who confuses the hell out of people with his puns that distract others from finding out what they want from him. In his interactions with Groucho, the latter is his mark who is constantly frustrated.

Don’t ask me how, but Pinky shows up as Firefly is throwing Chicolini out of his office. Whatever is considered “normal” goes right out the window whenever Pinky is present. He continues to disrupt any regular activities by using his scissors to cut things up. He answers questions with tattoos etched on his body. When he supposedly shows a picture of his house depicted on his stomach, Firefly meows and a dog appears coming out of the house to bark at the cat sound. There is no attempt at verisimilitude here. The Marx Brothers constantly remind us that art may escape, alter, or comment on reality, but it is an artificial rendering of the real world.

Roland presents Firefly with a letter that shows Trentino is a threat and must be removed from Freedonia through some covert plan (nothing is straightforward here) of insulting the man, which Firefly does at Teasdale’s tea party. At the gathering, Trentino complains that his attempt to romance Teasdale has been thwarted by Firefly’s presence. Firefly arrives at the tea party as he did at the beginning, bringing chaos which undermines the attempt to maintain order. He grabs a donut out of one person’s hand and dunks it in the cup of coffee held by another. His behavior makes fun of those who believe they are superior to others, which is what Jonathan Swift did in his satires. 

Pinky has another encounter with the lemonade man, who eventually topples the peanut cart in frustration because of Pinky’s antics. Not to be outdone, Pinky gets back by raising up his pants and sloshing around in the lemonade tank, driving away the customers. Outrageous behavior which flaunts the rules of society is on display once again as the Marx Brothers used the vehicle of the entertaining arts to challenge any restraints placed upon them.

Trentino says war between Freedonia and Sylvania is imminent, and Teasdale asks Firefly to visit her to try to stop the conflict. Firefly first presents romantic expressions, and then immediately squashes sentimentality like a bug. He says he wants to marry Teasdale and can see her in their home bending over a stove, but then he “can’t see the stove.” He asks for a lock of her hair, and then says he’s letting her off easy because he was “gonna ask for the whole wig.” There is another attack against the idle rich when he says she is off “playing bridge” instead of caring for anything else. 

Insults are traded again between Firefly and Trentino and the latter conspires (more hidden agendas) to steal the war plans that Firefly gave to Teasdale. Chicolini and Pinky show up at Teasdale’s home to work with Marcal to get the plans, but Firefly is also there as a guest. When Marcal asks for a flashlight, her rational request is answered with a ridiculous response, as Pinky produces a blowtorch. Marcal tells them to not make a sound, which should be Pinky’s specialty. But, he explodes all planned activity, (which is the Marx Brothers specialty), when he resets a clock so it rings twelve times and he starts a music box playing loudly. The speechless Pinky compensates by subsequently creating a racket by mistaking a radio for a safe.

Firefly is in bed (which is where he is a great deal, suggesting some leaders are lazy and sleep on the job) when Teasdale wakes him up and wants to give him the war plans back to make them safe. Chicolini overhears the conversation and locks Firefly in his bathroom. Chicolini makes himself look like Firefly wearing a nightgown. He paints his eyebrows and mustache. He looks just like Firefly, but his Italian accent does make Teasdale say he sounds differently. But he ridiculously says he’s practicing Italian. Pinky dresses up like Firefly too to pull the same scam. Firefly breaks out of the bathroom and now there are three of him roaming around. Teasdale encounters all three, one at a time, not realizing what’s going on. In this absurd world nothing is definite, not even one’s identity (as was noted by the hat routine earlier). 

What follows is the celebrated mirror scene that drives the above point home (repeated between Harpo and Lucille Ball later on her TV show). Pinky sees Firefly and tries to escape before being discovered. But, he runs right into a mirror. and shatters it. Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass are brought to mind, where the main character breaches the barrier between the so-called real world and the world of boundless fantasy. If there is one symbolic moment that sums up the comic vision of the Marx Brothers, it is this one. What follows is Pinky mirroring Firefly’s exaggerated movements which he couldn’t possibly do if this behavior was based in real life. Firefly at first thinks it’s himself he sees, but suspects there is something not quite right. As the scene develops the two worlds merge. This last point is made as the two men exchange places as they rotate their positions and even exchange hats. Again, we have art shown as only a version of life. Chicolini enters next to Pinky and that is when Firefly knows that he is being duped and captures Chicolini. 

Chicolini is accused of treason. We have another serious, regimented facade in the form of the trial for the brothers to subvert. For example, Firefly empties his briefcase and instead of legal papers there is his lunch, and he complains that some papers are missing which upsets him because he wrapped his dessert in them. Chicolini contributes to the assault on rationality with a series of puns and illogical statements. For instance, Firefly, for no reason, asks the defendant to pick a number from one to ten, and Chicolini says “eleven.” Firefly adds to the nonsense by again making contradictory statements, both asking for clemency for Chicolini and imprisonment in alternating remarks. 

Teasdale interrupts the proceedings saying that Trentino and Sylvania don’t want war and the ambassador is again coming to make peace. But Firefly, although starting out glad about ending hostilities, whips himself into a paranoid frenzy and by the time Trentino shows up, Firefly smacks him again with his glove. The scene is not only funny, but it also implies world leaders are warped by their power and suspiciousness which perpetuates violence (supposedly Mussolini banned the movie because he thought it was making fun of him). A musical number follows which carries the above thought further as leader Firefly’s enthusiasm for war influences his subjects as they sing about going into battle. They subvert a gospel song’s lyrics, with the line, “All God’s children got guns.” Darkly funny, and still relevant today. 

The waging of war is also satirized as Pinky, supposedly now on Firefly’s side, goes off chasing women (yes, there is what we would call sexual harassment today. It was a different time, but it still doesn’t make it right). Chicolini has also joined Freedonia’s fight and his and Firefly’s irrationality points to the senselessness of war. For instance, Firefly says that if they build trenches high enough, soldiers won’t have to wear pants, and if built higher, they won’t need soldiers. The humor goes dark again when Firefly takes out a machine gun and starts firing, but is told he is shooting at his own men. The film attacks war by implying it can be suicidal, only it does so in a comical way, like Dr. Strangelove, while The Deer Hunter does so dramatically. Firefly wears military clothing from different eras and countries as this sequence cuts back and forth, which emphasizes how military conflicts never cease. 

Firefly, Pinky and Chicolini capture and restrain Trentino, and then throw food at him, making him surrender, As Teasdale sings off key about victory, Firefly and company pelt her too as the movie ends, showing that both sides fighting wars are open to ridicule. The ending, like the rest of the movie is funny, because it is a comedy after all, despite some astute observations about reality, art, politicians, and war.

The next film is Seconds.