Comedy in movies is practically as old as the medium of film itself.
It didn’t take long after the invention of the film to realize that the footage recorded could be used for telling a story. And sure enough, some of the first stories told by filmmakers contained comic elements, as it was one of the most simple and potent ways to evoke emotions from the viewers.
The genre, having been around for so long, has gone under many transformations and has been perfected by its masters, with Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton being some of the most successful comedy actors/directors/producers of the Silent era of cinema, mastering the art of what is known as ‘physical comedy’. By the time Duck Soup was released in 1933, the sound had already taken over the industry, with the former giants of the Silent era, such as Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin left to adapt to this new reality. Many of them weren’t able to achieve the same success as in their heyday, with the so-called ‘talkies’ (for the most part) requiring a different kind of humor.
Organized Chaos
The Marx Brothers, on the other hand, were capable of perfecting their craft even with such a radical transition of the medium. Interestingly enough, while Duck Soup is considered to be one of the greatest comedies of all time, it was a box office disappointment, especially in comparison with some of their previous efforts, like Animal Crackers (1930) and Monkey Business (1931).
Despite the inherent zaniness of its protagonists, Duck Soup keeps it focused, with each character, moment or line of dialogue serving a comedic purpose. So much humor thrown at the viewer at such a rate may seem overwhelming, but the movie works even then, mainly due to how timelessly hilarious are the events being depicted on screen.
Surrealism & Absurdity
Besides the well-deserved praise to the screenwriters for the clever one-liners and wordplay throughout, another highlight of the picture is the acting of the Marx Brothers themselves, who portray the protagonists of the story. Groucho Marx plays Rufus T. Firefly, leader of fictional country Freedonia, while Zeppo Marx plays Firefly’s secretary, with Harpo and Chico Marx playing spies for Sylvania, Freedonia’s main advisory.
The Brothers bring life to their characters, with them acting not as simple human beings, but as agents of chaos. Aside from the surreal opening shot of ducks swimming in a big pan with boiling water, which titles the picture, the initial minutes of the movie showcase politicians discussing in very serious manner the financial crisis that Freedonia is going through, ending with the agreement that the country needs a new leader, and Rufus T. Firefly is the main candidate.
With Groucho Marx as Firefly sporting a comically fake mustache and thick black painted-on eyebrows, all credibility that this figure has as the leader of a nation is immediately taken away. For the audience, this assumption is confirmed the second that he opens his mouth, beginning an almost exhaustingly laugh-a-minute descent into insanity and chaos, over the film’s sleek runtime of just 68 minutes.
Duck Soup & The Hays Code
The Marx Brothers were also innovative, self-aware, and anarchic, with one of the best scenes in the film doubling as a provocation, poking fun at the infamous Hays Code. The Hays Code, first published in March 1930 by the Motion Picture Distributors of America, was a set of guidelines aimed at censoring film in order to supposedly: “present stories that will affect lives for the better so that they can become the most powerful force for the improvement of mankind.”
The code’s aims were summarised as being the following:
1. That no picture shall be produced that will lower the moral standards of those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience should never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin.
2. Correct standards of life, subject only to the requirements of drama and entertainment, shall be presented.
3. Law, natural or human, shall not be ridiculed, nor shall sympathy be created for its violation.
This code also affected other films, including 1951’s A Streetcar Named Desire – with one such scene, portraying a rape, ultimately being cut from the final film, despite it originating in the play that it is adapted from. The film’s ending is also altered, as a result, showing how seriously the code was taken during the period in which it remained in effect. The Hays Code lasted until 1968 (in some capacity) before it was replaced by the MPAA rating system, a system that remains to this day.
One element of the code was that it prohibited movies to show a man and a woman in the same bed. The Marx Brothers poke fun at this restriction, with one scene starting with a camera, slowly panning across the floor of a bedroom, showing a pair of woman’s shoes, a pair of man’s shoes and four horseshoes. The next cut shows the entire bedroom, with a man and a horse sharing a bed, while a woman lays on another bed on her own. Another great moment is what became known as the ‘mirror sequence’ wherein one of the spies, dressed identically as Rufus Firefly, faces the real one and mimics his every movement so to make him believe he is facing a mirror, which builds up to the surreal moment when they change places, and the façade is only destroyed when the other spy appears on the frame, ruining the disguise.
This is a perfect example of the mastery of the art of physical comedy, so much so that the scene plays out perfectly with no absolutely sound whatsoever as if it was shot in the old days of silent cinema.