Firefly: Gentlemen, Chicolini here may talk like an idiot, and look like an idiot, but don’t let that fool you. His father was called Simon, not Sam, and Marrix, not Marx; his mother’s real name was Miene Schönberg, but her stage name was Minnie Palmer. A harp, he tells them. Amid much bugling, successive guards announce “His Excellency’s car!” But even the car is not a car: following another fanfare, Harpo appears on a motorcycle.

Over the years, Duck Soup has been praised for its understanding of paranoia in international diplomacy and of the economics of warfare. Subscribe now for exclusive offers and the best of cinema.

Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated.Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if …

Now, step on it!” And with that, Harpo accelerates off, leaving the sidecar firmly in place. In popular culture. A pun is a word that doesn’t mean what it says, or rather, means what it says but also means something else. If Ethyl runs out, get Mabel.

I’d argue that there are two things that make Duck Soup the best of the Marx Brothers’ movies. Chico was using a rhyme of vaguely Italian-sounding nonsense, but some similar rhymes in English start with "one potato, two potato, three potato, four.." or "eeny, meeny, miney, moe."

User Reviews I gave him the same answer. And superb as Animal Crackers (1930), Monkey Business (1931), Horse Feathers (1932) and much of A Night at the Opera (1935) are, Duck Soup is by almost universal consensus rather better. Easy adj. Chico: Hey, I got an uncle lives in Taxes. Bette Midler plays twins separated at birth.

Always taking out his scissors and going snip-snip-snip, he snips off the ends of Chico’s frankfurter and Firefly’s quill pen, he snips off the peanut vendor’s apron, the ambassador’s tail coat and the soldiers’ fancy plumes. But whatever movement he makes, however daft, Harpo anticipates him and does just the same. It is the reception for His Excellency Rufus T Firefly, who has yet to arrive. Duck Soup began life as a screen draft entitled Oo La La. Harpo fears imprisonment, or worse, and begins to yell about his rights, but all to no avail. All I could do was run my gloved hands up the strings a couple of times and pray that somebody there would recognise the professional touch.”, But no: a guard gets the same noise out of the harp. Edit, In the 1930s, "duck soup" was a common American slang phrase referring to an easy-to-do task; an equivalent expression today would be "piece of cake." And for that we should be forever grateful. Directed by Leo McCarey.

I said I had come to Russia to put on a show. The Ape Man puts on a Scooby mask and pretends to be Scooby Doo's mirror image; but his hands give him away.Big Business (1988). Boots clomped all over the place as guards came running.”.

Edit, It was a variation on the many old childrens' games where kids would put out their hands in a circle, and each hand would be tapped in order while a rhyme was recited. Before long, his eyebrows followed suit. Max Linder thinks his cook is his mirror image.Duck Soup (1933). “The train was unbelievably crowded, ten and twelve people to each six-passenger compartment, and it stank of disinfectant, but I thanked God I was lucky enough to be on it.”, His show is a terrific hit with the Russians, who love clowns, but, on the way back to America, Harpo can’t shake off the awful feeling that for the past eight weeks he has been watched wherever he goes, “by eyes I couldn’t see. Instead, it is a painting of a moustache – ceci n’est pas une moustache – that he first daubed on his face with greasepaint in 1921, having arrived late for a performance, with no time to glue on his artificial whiskers. The world has become a pun.
First, while all of their films delight in taking potshots at figures of authority, Duck Soup is even more irreverent – and more substantial – in its satire in that it mocks militarism, politicians and patriotism. • The Marx Brothers film season begins at BFI Southbank, London SE1, on 14 January. Last modified on Fri 23 Feb 2018 06.45 AEDT. Made when the First World War was not such a distant memory, at a time when fascism and Nazism were gaining ground in Europe, the film’s clear contempt for jingoism and warmongering had a relevance that endures to this day. What does "Duck Soup" mean? Under the pressure of the courtroom, the puns bubble over, particularly when Chico turns turtle on the prosecutor: Chico: Now, I ask you one. “In a crisis like this, I feel Freedonia needs a new leader,” declares Mrs Teasdale.

| After various formal introductions, a troupe of ballerinas enters, scattering flowers along his projected walkway. When Groucho was asked during an interview for an explanation, he quipped, "Take two turkeys, one goose, four cabbages, but no duck, and mix them together. Everything is transformed into something else. By the time the song- and script-writing team of Harry Ruby and Bert Kalmar were called in (October 1932) to produce a workable script, the title had changed to Firecrackers.

But the mask itself is then unmasked: Chico turns Harpo round; his real face is on the other side of his head. “This would have been my salvation any other time, any other place, but in an open shed when it was 30 below zero. It is only when his fellow American pops up on the scene, and they accept his explanation, that Harpo is allowed to board the Moscow express. | I sold a code and two pair of plans,” chips in Chico.
The pair are double agents, or human puns. Chico: A relevant!

- Chicolini: Hey, I got an uncle lives in Taxes. After one taste, you’ll duck soup the rest of your life.” It is both a moustache, and not a moustache. Everything is where it should be and does what it is meant to, before the Marx Brothers send it all haywire.

Having broken into a house, he tries to open the safe, but he twists the volume dial of a radio by mistake.

Freedonia, Fredonia or Fredon is the name given to several fictional countries.The term Freedonia was later popularized by the 1933 Marx Brothers movie Duck Soup.Over time, however, the word has come to have a more generic meaning. Act? Go and break through the lines. One pun leads to another: they bounce with the speed and precision of a polished stone skimmed across a lake. The world of Freedonia is a world built on order. Everyone choruses: In 1933, when Duck Soup was first released, this deadbeat song with its patriotic lyrics would have brought to mind the forced jubilations of Stalin’s Soviet Union or Hitler’s Germany; even today, it remains the prototypical song for countries such as Azerbaijan and North Korea, speaking of order and shared purpose, of a population pointing in the same direction. He was to be the first American artist to perform in Moscow since the US, under President Roosevelt, had recognised the Soviet Union.

For those new to the Marx Brothers, this is the perfect introduction to Groucho, Chico, and Harpo (and even Zeppo), three of the funniest men to ever grace the screen. The Marx Brothers “A squad of guards lugged my trunk and harp into the shed. It is the rat-a-tat-tat speed of their delivery that distinguishes the Marx Brothers from their contemporaries, and stops them growing old. Did Groucho Marx utter a racial epithet in this film. Lucy is dressed like Harpo. [To Trentino] Maybe you can suggest something. That’s all very well, but it does mean that some very fine talents tend to get forgotten about, simply because their strength is versatility rather than consistency. Other comedies from that era now seem sluggish and laborious: Duck Soup is alive and kicking. From the trunk they removed 400 knives, two revolvers, three stilettos, half-a-dozen bottles marked POISON, and a collection of red wigs and false beards, moustaches and hands. | The world in 1933 was becoming increasingly overpopulated with tin-pot dictators.

There’s not an ounce of fat on the film; each scene is meticulously paced and structured, and each gag given just enough time (usually a second or so) to sink in before the next one comes along.

Registered charity 287780. Then there’s the perfect comic timing. The more Mrs Teasdale coos, the more he undermines her with his crazed wordplay. “Then they hit the jackpot. I just watched the Marx Brothers movie Duck Soup today, and afterwards found this explanation of the title offered by Groucho: “Take two turkeys, one goose, four cabbages, but no duck, and mix them together. Born: 2 October 1890, New York City, N.Y.Died: 19 August 1977, Los Angeles, Calif. Born: 21 November 1888, New York City, N.Y.Died: 28 September 1964, Hollywood, Calif. Born: 26 March 1886, New York City, N.Y.Died: 11 October 1961, Hollywood, Calif. Born: 3 October 1898, Los Angeles, Calif.Died: 1969. Mrs. Teasdale: Your Excellency.I really don't know what to say.

“I’m in a hurry,” cries Groucho, stepping into the sidecar. All rights reserved.

Mrs. Teasdale: Oh Rufus! User Ratings What is it has a trunk, but no key, weight 2,000lb and lives in a circus? Clearly the Brothers did take ‘guidance’ of a sort, even if it was sometimes the wrong sort. He is a bundle of anarchic energy, targeting the pompous and the self-regarding, like all the vengeful characters in Struwwelpeter rolled into one. I had better tell the truth.”, They ask what is in his harp case. “Sure. Americans do not entertain in Russia, they said. Then Hitler himself comes into the room, and Stewie has to convince him that he is looking into a mirror. Again, however, it’s not just the verbal delivery that counts; it’s the physical business too, be it Pinky and Chicolini’s tormenting of Edgar Kennedy’s irascible street vendor, or the justly famous scene involving a broken mirror. The joke here was not only that Chico was using a schoolyard game to pick who would go out into the battlefield but that he kept changing the rules to avoid being picked. Edit, A punchline by Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx) which appears startling to modern viewers is "My father was a little headstrong, my mother was a little armstrong. That’s where my uncle lives. You might also think that it was the writing that primarily defined the quality of a Marx Brothers movie. more on this quote ›› “- Prosecutor: War would mean a prohibitive increase in our taxes. Is Duck Soup a political satire?

Mrs Teasdale, played by the redoubtable Margaret Dumont, complains that she has already donated half her fortune, and will only lend more money if a new leader is put in place. A guy on the train lent them to me. “To the House of Representatives!