And this week's Friday Night movie has been... Duck Soup!
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Anyone heard of this? This is a famous movie from the 1930s headed by the renowned comedy troupe the Marx Brothers.
I've said many times that it is a gamble visiting movies from the Golden Age of Hollywood (1910s-1960s) as they tend to date poorly. And the genre that suffers the ravages of time the most is the comedic movies. Still I do know of the Marx Brothers and I do recall, once upon a time, seeing and thoroughly enjoying Bringing up Baby (another comedy of the same era). So could this surprise me?
Needless to say I hadn't seen any of the Marx Brothers prior to this. I mean I knew who they were and of their distinct comedic personalities, I knew this particular movie was a rare excursion in political satire and I knew it angered Mussolini but I had never seen the Marx Brothers actually in action.
Actually, forget what I said about 1930s comedy aging: This is still pretty funny. Lots of sight gags, one-liners (courtesy of Groucho), physical comedy and a sense of bringing chaos to order. Even now the personalities the brothers have shine through and still work decades later. Interestingly enough, I grew up watching Looney Tunes and it's fascinating to see how that brand of humour can be traced back to these guys. In fact, a lot of these gags have indeed been replicated many times before but here they are still laugh out loud funny.
Remarkable how time has not ravaged this movie at all
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