Sunday, May 24, 2015

My 150 Favorite Movies - #36

Duck Soup (1933)

For my money one of the absolute funniest screen teams of the twentieth-century, the Marx brothers had some of their most memorable bits in this comedy classic from the 1930's that was way ahead of its time. A relative flop both with the audiences and critics at the time of its release, it is now recognized as arguably their best film. Skewering both politics and war, Groucho stars as Rufus T. Firefly, President of the bankrupt country of Freedonia, who declares war with neighboring Sylvania, over the love of the wealthy Mrs. Teasdale, played by the inestimable Margaret Dumont. Among the film's classic quotes: "Remember, you're fighting for this woman's honor, which is probably more than she ever did." Selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, Duck Soup has also appeared on AFI'S "100 Years...100 Movies" list, film critic Barry Norman's list of the 100 Best Films of the 20th century, and Roger Ebert's list of The Great Movies. Time Out voted it the 17th greatest comedy of all time.