Duck Soup (1933)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1933
Running Time	65:59
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	Leo McCarey
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Groucho Marx Harpo Marx Harpo Marx Zeppo Marx Margaret Dumont
Case	?
RPI	Box	Music	Bert Kalmar John Leipold Harry Ruby

    While everyone has their opinion on which is the best of the Marx Brothers films, Duck Soup (their fifth film) is always on the list for discussion and often right at the top.

    In this film, Groucho plays Rufus T. Firefly who has been placed in charge of the completely bankrupt country Freedonia at the request of the wealthy Mrs. Gloria Teasdale. Mrs Teasdale is played by Margaret Dumont. Harpo plays Pinky and Chico Chicolini. Both are spies in the pay of the neighbouring country Sylvania. Zeppo is Lt. Bob Roland, a member of the Freedonia armed forces.

    Neighbouring Sylvania is trying to take over Freedonia. Revolutions are fomented (unsuccessfully), spies are sent in (unsuccessfully) and attempts are made to discredit the fine leader of Freedonia (unsuccessfully). They even try to steal the war plans of Freedonia.

    In between reducing the workers' hours, Rufus T. Firefly cuts their lunch hour to twenty minutes. He is wooing Mrs Teasdale, while at the same time the ambassador of Sylvania also has his eye on her. Trouble over this competition for her affections leads to war between Freedonia and Sylvania. The war scenes and the costumes that Groucho wears, different in each successive scene, is for me the highlight of the film.

    On the way to war are again some wonderful set pieces that in many cases don't have anything to do with advancing the plot: the ongoing state car (well motor bike and side car actually) joke, both peanut sellers vs. the lemonade seller, getting into the house (a fine piece of physical comedy), the mirror scene, the trial for treason and the ride of Paul Revere.

Video

    Presented at 1.33:1 which is close to its original 1.37:1 aspect ratio, this transfer is not 16x9 enhanced.

    There are a number of places where the image jumps a few frames.

    The image is soft. Age, film stock and lenses of the time have all taken their toll. Shadow detail is slightly worse than the other two films in the box set with many of the dark suits that the characters wear reduced to a single black monotone. There is slight low level noise. The overall contrast is also down compared to the other films with black and white at each end of the spectrum acceptable but the greys in between somewhat lacking.

    The transfer is free of any false colouration.

    There are no MPEG artefacts present. There is some shake but this is undoubtedly in the source material - even the dolly shots wobble a bit. Film artefacts are present in great numbers with a full set of scratches, marks, dirt, tramlines, and in some places stains.

    The subtitles are easy to read but do have to paraphrase the faster parts of the dialogue.

    This is a single layered disc.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Despite some small amount of distortion in the soundtrack, the dialogue is easy to understand. There are no problems with the audio sync from the transfer point of view.

    The music is distorted - recording techniques of the day were not known for their fidelity. We have some interesting musical numbers with solos and chorus.

    This is a mono soundtrack so the surrounds as well as the subwoofer are not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Theatrical Trailer (1:40)

    Presented at 1.33:1 and not 16x9 enhanced with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. There is a large bit of the image missing near the start of the trailer. Otherwise, the quality is similar to the main feature. I love the word cards that come up rather than having a voiceover. A clever and accurate trailer for the film.

    It would appear that while this disc was available both singly and in the box set that is identical to this release it also appears to be out of production. Single copies seem to go for something like $60 US and the box set for around $300 US. On availability, R4 gets the nod.

    This was Zeppo's last film, and not just as part of the Marx Brothers but full stop. Some people might sit there thinking that they have seen many of these jokes and routines before, but remember this is where all those other films got their material from. The ending is a bit of a surprise and again indicates the mores and customs that the Marx Brothers broke to set up much of their comedy.

    The video is acceptable.

    The audio is good for the dialogue, although the music is distorted.

    The trailer is better than nothing.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall