Okay, so for those of you that are looking for a bad review, this won't be it. However, those of you that love the Marx brothers are are looking for a stellar review, this isn't it either.
The basic plot is thus: The country of Freedonia is in financial trouble. The leaders of the country have come to Mrs. Gloria Teasdale to bail them out once again with the money her husband left her when he died. She says that she will give them the money on one condition: that Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx) is named new president of Freedonia. Reluctantly, the leaders of Freedonia agree. At the inaugural ball, we run into Ambassador Trentino of Sylvania, who is looking to marry Mrs. Teasdale for her money, even though she is sweet on Firefly. Trentino teams up with a beautiful dancer, Vera Marcal. She will attract Firefly while Trentino moves in on Mrs. Teasdale. Firefly shows up late to his own ball, even though all of the guests sang a song about how he's never late. As the new president of Freedonia, Firefly instates a bunch of new laws that are a little absurd (like if a woman has an affair, they will make her choose between her husband and the other man. If she likes the other man, then they will take the husband outside and shoot him.). Trentino does not trust Firefly, so he sends in two spies, Chicolini (Chico Marx) and Pinky (Harpo Marx), to watch Firefly. It is evident after their first meeting, with all of the shenanigans that Chicolini and Pinky get into, that they aren't doing as much spying as just messing around. In fact, the pair get into a fight at their peanut stand with another vendor selling lemonade.They steal his hat and burn it on their peanut roasting wagon. One day, while Chicolini is selling peanuts outside Firefly's office, Firefly calls Chicolini up to get him to stop yelling about peanuts, and makes him the secretary of war by mistake. From there, the two go over to a party at Mrs. Teasdale's house. He comes in just in time to get in between Trentino and Mrs. Teasdale, and after slapping Trentino in the face, Firefly causes a war to break out between Sylvania and Freedonia. Mrs. Teasdale tries to get Trentino together with Firefly to settle things in a civilized way, but Firefly ends up slapping Trentino again, and the war is still on. That night, everyone stays over at Mrs. Teasdale's house. Firefly gives Mrs. Teasdale his war plans, and Chicolini and Pinky are sent in to steal them. It ends up that Chicolini and Pinky both dress up as Firefly and sneak into Mrs. Teasdale's room. Firefly catches on to the impostors, and Chicolini is caught and put on trial for treason. However, after a lot of fast talking and a song and dance number at the trial, all crimes seem to be forgotten because its time to go to war and Chicolini is the secretary of war. After the war wages on for a little while, Firefly finds himself trapped in a shelter with Mrs Teasdale, Chicolini, and Pinky. However, in a stroke of luck, after the Sylvanians attack the shelter, Trentino himself gets caught in the door, as if he were in stocks, and Firefly, Chicolini, and Pinky begin to pelt him with fruit until he surrenders. When the war is over, Mrs. Teasdale begins to sing the Freedonia national anthem to celebrate the victory, and Firefly begins to pelt her with fruit.
You know, for a movie that's barely an hour long, that synopsis took forever to write. And I left out some of the bigger slapstick parts.
Anyway, the great part of this movie is its comedy. It was absolutely hilarious. I had only seen references to Groucho Marx, never the real thing, and I was surprised by how uproariously funny he was. With the way he stomps around, to his fast talking quips, he kept me laughing the whole movie.
However... I never knew that he painted on his mustache? You can totally tell though, and it kinda distracted me.
Another thing that I didn't understand was why Groucho/Firefly was so mean sometimes. Like, he was really funny, but a lot of the time he would say really insulting things to Mrs. Teasdale, someone he supposedly wanted to marry? I don't know, it was funny, but confusing.
Something I asked myself after the movie was over was, "Why was THIS considered one of the greatest American movies of all time?" Then I thought that maybe it was a satire on something, so I did some research, but it turns out that it wasn't directly a satire of anything, but just really funny. I will hand it to them, its refreshing to watch a movie with all clean humor. However, there are a lot of movies out there that are really, really funny. Maybe I'll let this one slide because Groucho Marx had such an outstanding performance. He's an icon and deserves to be revered.
This movie was pretty short. It was very different from all of the other movies that I've been watching off this list. Most of the time, the movies are longer, and the makers have packed everything they can into about two hours. Duck Soup was 68 minutes, and they didn't really develop the characters at all. I felt like they set up Vera trying to woo Firefly, and then it got dropped pretty quickly. I understand that the fight for Mrs. Teasdale's affection was what started the war, but I didn't feel like it got developed enough. In their defense though, I don't think that Marx brothers movies were really about the plot as much as they are about the humor, but still, don't set it up if you're not going to finish.
I did enjoy the creativity with some of the jokes. Like the mirror scene between Chicolini and Pinky, I can totally see how that became iconic. Basically, Chicolini and Pinky are dressed up as Firefly, and they are walking by a place where a mirror used to be and mirroring each other's every move. I also loved that during the war scene Firefly kept changing into different outfits from different wars (union and confederate uniforms to name a couple). This was definitely smart humor at times, which was awesome.
The singing in this movie was so out of nowhere, but it was funny. I didn't expect for everyone to break out in song, but it really worked. Plus, all of the lyrics were just as funny as every other line in the movie. It was a surprise, but in a good way.
So... this movie gets... a 3.5 out of 5. I liked it, but I didn't think it was as spectacular as the other movies I've seen so far. Groucho Marx gets a 4.5 out of 5 for best male performance in a leading role (what?). I mean I couldn't just give him a poor grade without throwing some good props his way.
I'm going to try to watch From Here to Eternity soon. I hear its one of the best romance movies ever, so get ready for a sappy post.
