Roy Blount, Jr.'s
New Book Hail, Hail, Euphoria on The Silver Screen Classic
Duck Soup by The Marx Brothers |
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Hail, Hail, Euphoria!
Presenting the Marx Brothers in Duck Soup, the Greatest War Movie Ever Made
Nearly 80 years after its release, the Marx Brothers film Duck Soup remains one of the most influential pieces of political satire in history. In Hail, Hail, Euphoria!, bestselling author Roy Blount Jr. tells the history and making of Duck Soup, examining the comedic genius of the Marx Brothers in their finest hour and nine minutes. In Duck Soup, a slim, agile, quick-witted, self-assured young man is summoned to save a nation from financial ruin. As the nation's new president, he brings together a team of rivals, a band of brothers. Those brothers are Pinky, Chicolini, and Lt. Bob Roland.Their leader? None other than Rufus T. Firefly. The humor and idiosyncratic wit of Duck Soup are saluted by the author's own in this gem of a book, offering a behind-the-scenes tale of show business and brotherhood that only a true Marx Brothers aficionado could tell. Roy Blount Jr. is the author of 21 previous books, covering subjects from the Pittsburgh Steelers to Robert E. Lee to what dogs are thinking. He is a regular panelist on NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me! and is a member of the American Heritage Dictionary Usage Panel. Born in Indianapolis and raised in Decatur, GA, Blount now lives in western Massachusetts with his wife, the painter Joan Griswold. He has been an annually returning member of the Words & Music faculty for many years. He has been awarded the Faulkner's Society's ALIHOT (A Legend in His Own Time) medal for his contributions to literature. For more on Roy Blount, Jr. and his work, Click Here!
ABOUT THE FILM:
The Marx Brothers' greatest and funniest masterpiece - the classic comedy Duck Soup (1933) is a short, but brilliant satire and lampooning of blundering dictatorial leaders, Fascism and authoritarian government. The film, produced by Herman Mankiewicz, was prepared during the crisis 
period of the Great Depression. Some of its clever gags and routines were taken from Groucho's and Chico's early 1930s radio show Flywheel, Shyster & Flywheel. Working titles for the film included Oo La La, Firecrackers, Grasshoppers, and Cracked Ice. So, why the title Duck Soup? In 1927, director Leo McCarey had made a two-reel Laurel and Hardy film with the same title - and he borrowed the title from it. The film's title uses a familiar American phrase that means anything simple or easy, or alternately, a gullible sucker or pushover. Under the opening credits, four quacking ducks (the four Marx Brothers) are seen swimming and cooking in a kettle over a fire. Groucho reportedly provided the following recipe to explain the title: "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."
It was the Marx Brothers' fifth film in a five-picture contract with Paramount Studios, before they went on to MGM. It was their last and best film with the studio. The film was directed by the first-class veteran director McCarey (who would go on to direct The Awful Truth (1937), Love Affair (1939), Going My Way (1944), and An Affair to Remember (1957) - a remake of his 1939 film). The screenplay was written by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby (with additional dialogue by Arthur Sheekman and Nat Perrin). Originally, it was to have been directed by Ernst Lubitsch.
The outrageous film, devoid of any Academy Award nominations, was both a critical and commercial failure at 
the time of its release - audiences were taken aback by such preposterous political disrespect, buffoonery and cynicism at a time of political and economic crisis, with Roosevelt's struggle against Depression in the US amidst the rising power of Hitler in Germany. (This film quote, spoken by Groucho, was especially detested: "And remember while you're out there risking life and limb through shot and shell, we'll be in here thinking what a sucker you are.") Insulted by the film, fascist Italian dictator Mussolini banned the film in his country.
Fortunately, the film was rediscovered by a generation of 1960s college students, and by revival film festivals and museum showings. As a result, the film has attained immortal status. This was the last of the Marx Brothers films to feature all four of the brothers. Their next film (without Zeppo), for MGM and its producer Irving Thalberg, Hollywood's most prestigious studio, was their landmark film A Night at the Opera (1935), with a more developed and polished plot-line.
The irrepressible comedians in this quintessential anarchic, satirical film simply but irreverently attack the pomposity of small-time governmental leaders (Firefly as President), the absurdity of government itself (the Cabinet meeting scene), governmental diplomacy (the Trentino-Firefly scenes), an arbitrary legal system (Chicolini's trial), and war fought over petty matters (the mobilization and war scenes). The non-stop, frenetic film is filled with a number of delightfully hilarious moments, gags, fast-moving acts, double entendres, comedy routines, puns, pure silliness, zany improvisations, quips and insult-spewed lines of dialogue - much of the comedy makes the obvious statement that war is indeed nonsensical and meaninglessly destructive, especially since the word 'upstart' was the insult word (Ambassador Trentino called Firefly an 'upstart') that led to war between the two countries.
It also contains a few of their most famous sequences, such as the lemonade seller confrontation and the mirror pantomime sequence
The mirror routine, contributed by McCarey, had been used by Charlie Chaplin in The Floorwalker (1916) and by Max Linder in Seven Year's Bad Luck (1921). It was later replicated in a Bugs Bunny cartoon, re-enacted by Harpo with Lucille Ball on a 1950's I Love Lucy show episode, and also appeared as part of the opening credits for the 60s TV series The Patty Duke Show. Actor/director Woody Allen paid homage to the film in his Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) - with an excerpt from the musical number The Country's Going to War. While attending an afternoon screening of Duck Soup at his local repertory movie theater, one of the film's characters - a depressed and neurotic NY Jew named Mickey Sachs (played by Allen himself), who is afraid of disease and dying - experiences a climactic epiphany that life was meant to be enjoyed, by narrating: "And I started to feel how can you even think of killing yourself? I mean, isn't it so stupid?..."
Unlike many of their other features, there are no romantic subplots (with Zeppo) and no musical interludes that stop the film's momentum - no harp solos for Harpo and no piano solos for Chico. There are, however, a couple of musical numbers that are perfectly integrated into the plot:
When the Clock on the Wall Strikes Ten and Groucho's song with the chorus - the Freedonia Hymn Just Wait 'Til I Get Through With It and
the staged production number, The Country's Goin' to War (it was the only musical number in any of their films to feature all four of the brothers together.)
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