100 Greatest Movies - #85 Duck Soup

The next movie on the watch list was Duck Soup staring the Marx brothers. This is on the 100 Greatest Movies list (#85), the 10th Anniversary List (#60), and the 100 Greatest Comedies list (#5).

Since this was ranked as the number 5 greatest comedy of all time, I was building myself up for a treat. The movie is only 67 minutes long, so I figured this would be a good evening movie as well. Turns out I was wrong on all accounts. I did find several of the situations funny and the interactions were humorous but the movie in general was nonsensical and the jokes got a bit tired. Many of the jokes were slapstick and others were plays on words where Groucho's shtick seems to be twisting conversations into making them insulting to the person he was conversing with. Although this could be funny, more often then not I found myself not really understanding what he was saying. The movie follows the plot where a small nation is strapped for cash and the only to get the money the leaders must appeal to the richest member of the country. She agrees but only if one of the local celebrities, Firefly, takes control (Groucho). What followed was almost a movie but it ended up being more of a series of short skits taped together. To sum this up i think my wife put it best when she said "that was awful".