October 2nd was Groucho Marx's birthday. I've rewatched this, my favorite Marx Bros. film, in his honor. (Groucho is one of my all-time favorite comedians.) This is, IMHO, the best of Minnie's Boys' films. It has none of the saccharine love stories and songs that would plague later films. It not only marked Zeppo's last appearance as a Marx Brother, but it's also the film with the classic mirror routine which was recreated by Harpo in an ep of I Love Lucy.

A few nits, though:

The second time Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho) hops into the sidecar of Pinky's (Harpo) motorbike and is left behind, Rufus complains that it's the "fifth trip" he's made but hasn't gone anywhere. It is possible that we haven't seen his other three attempts at riding with Pinky. However, that trip was to take him to a party being thrown by Mrs. Teasdale (the great Margaret Dumont, Groucho's eternal love interest and foil). As he leaves the party, Firefly tells Pinky to get into the sidecar. He's been fooled twice by the silent driver. So just how many trips did Firefly attempt to make, five or two?

One question about the mirror scene. What happened to the pieces of shattered mirror? How'd Pinky get rid of them so quickly?

During the "Freedonia's Going to War" number, there's a long shot of the Four Marx Brothers on their knees in front of some of the people of Freedonia. Watch Zeppo (who plays Firefly's secretary, Bob Roland). In the long shot, he starts to rise before the other three Marxes. However, in the next shot, he's on his knees again, just starting to rise with the other three.

The banjos the brothers play during "Freedonia's Going to War" vanish in a subsequent shot.

"I'm a Marxist of the Groucho kind."

No way, Benn. The mirror scene, the funniest scene in movie history mind you, is offgrounds to nitpicking. Sacred ground.

I know, Kevin. I know. And given the surrealistic nature of this film, I really hated to do it, but the fact that the pieces of glass were removed so quickly bugs me too much to ignore. It is, however, the only thing I allowed myself to nitpick about the mirror scene. And yeah, you're right, it is, beyond question, an absolute classic. (Then again, because of the film's surrealism, I probably shouldn't have mentioned the banjo nit...)

"We're fighting for this woman's honor, which is more than she ever did."

The banjos I can chalk up not just to the surrealism but to the fact that it's a musical (which is a kind of surrealism anyway).

I got the next box set of DVDs preordered. I don't know if the Duck Soup is going to be a different transfer than the one that's already been released (and re-released), but the box has a few I don't have on disc plus a bonus disc.

One of the first things I learned from the Internet was that there were people who prefer A Night at the Opera to Duck Soup, something that never would have occurred to me and my friends.

Duck Soup, like the four films before it, is very anarchistic. I think most people find the anarchy off-putting. A Night At the Opera and its "sequel", A Day At the Races, were the refined versions of the Marx Brothers. Opera, for instance, gave the Brothers Marx specific targets to mock. To me, it's very formulaic. Personally, I feel that Minnie's Boys were at their best and purest when things were chaotic. The films that followed Races were, of course, not only of lesser quality, but were uneven. The worst Marx Brothers film is, IMHO, Love Happy. But then again, it's really a Harpo solo movie, with Groucho and Chico (Chick-oh, not Cheek-oh) thrown in. It's boring and very unfunny.

"I have an uncle from Taxes!"

Another big contrast between the Universals (the early films) and the Warner Brothers (most of the later ones) is that while Groucho may have a job/position that he's not really suited for (could he really be a great African explorer/hotel manager/dean, etc?), the other characters in the early films accept this without question, which adds to the zanniness of the films. But in the later movies, most of the people don't believe he is what he says is. He can't really be a patron of the arts, or a doctor, etc. Now what I don't like about this is that it gives the upper hand to the other characters and not to the Marxes.

And yes, you're quite right about the chaos. Chaos is present in the later movies, but is focused chaos really chaos?

That said, I'd avoided Go West for years (bad period, too focused a target, and I don't like westerns to begin with) and only ever seen recently on the last box set. I actually rather liked it, but that, I'm sure, says more about my expectations than the film itself.

I'd have to compare Love Happy side by side with The Big Store to see which is worse.

The best episodes of You Bet Your Life were released recently on disc, and there really are some great ones, ones with Harpo and (in the audience) Chico (and yes, I pronounce it correctly).

'That's a some joke, eh boss?'

I handn't really thought about how everyone buys into the concept of Groucho being a dean, African explorer, etc. That's a great observation. But it's not just confined to Groucho, though. I mean, Trentino goes along with the idea that Chico and Harpo are spies, despite how imcompetent they clearly are. In the five early films, everyone bought into the reality the Marxes presented to them. In the later films, they wouldn't.

I like Go West. It's not a great Marx film, but it does have some good moments in it.

As you point out, The Big Store is a pretty lame film. I'd be tempted to rate it the worst, but I give that title to Love Happy for the simple reason that it's a Marx Brothers film in name only. As I've said, it was really a Harpo solo vehicle, with his brothers shoehorned into the story. Groucho in particular seems bored by the whole thing.

"I'll see you at the opera tonight. I'll hold your seat till you get there. After that, you're on your own."

Looks like this discussion is just you and me, Benn. I got the Love Happy DVD over a month ago (for no other reason than I'm a completist) but haven't been able to bring myself to watch it. Fortunately, like Groucho, I do get frequent bouts of insomnia so I'm saving it til then.

The Circus would be every bit as bad as The Big Store if not for that one single song.

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
-- Groucho

Um ...

I saw Duck Soup this summer. I really liked it. It made me laugh like few contemporary movies have. That said, I can't really remember too much off the top of my head about it.

Coupla notes:

"Freedonia" was one name considered for the United States at the continental congress (along with "Columbia", "Appalachia", and "Alleghania"). Eventually they left it as "America", despite the fact that that meant the US's inhabitants would be called "Americans", which at the time tended to mean Native American Indians.

"Sylvania" just means "tree-land" or "forest-land" as in "Transylvania."

I don't know if the setting was directly inspired by the Balkan situation or by the very similar one from Tintin (Syldavia vs. Borduria). Or perhaps that's anachronistic, I don't know.

Personally, i think the scene with Harpo, Chico and the sausage van owner exchanging hats is up there with the mirror scene...but my top Marx brothers scene has to be the one from "Night at the Opera" with the boys switching the beds around from room to room as the pigheaded detective goes bonkers.

"The table is set for four? That's nothing, my alarm clock is set for eight!"

Personally, i think the scene with Harpo, Chico and the sausage van owner exchanging hats is up there with the mirror scene... - Thande

He wasn't a sausage van owner. He sold lemonade. Part of his feud with Chicolini and Pinky involved Pinky (Harpo) running barefooted in a vat of lemonade the vendor was trying to sell to the Freedonians.

The vendor, incidentally, was played by the master of the slow burn, Edgar Kennedy. Kennedy starred in several shorts of his own back in the day and was a star in his own right. I remember when I little kid in Dallas, I saw some of Edgar's short films on Slam Bang Theatre on some weekday mornings. I thought they were pretty good and when I saw Kennedy in Duck Soup, well, that just made the scenes that much more interesting to me because I knew who he was.

"He may look like an idiot...But don't let that fool you. He really is an idiot."

Can a Marx Brothers' movie be nitpicked at all? Wasn't a lot of the dialog (and probably the situations as well) right off the cuff?

Far from it. They were well scripted. The brothers took the shows on the road and rehearsed them to death, getting the timing of their jokes down pat so that they don't start a new joke while the audience is still laughing at the previous one. This is why there are some odd pauses in Groucho's monologues. However, I don't think the way a person or two laughs when watching them at home resembles the way we laugh when watching them in the theatre, but they can't be blamed for that. I watched some of the movies (like this one) probably five times before I heard all the jokes, since I was laughing so hard at the previous one. Plus, some jokes get different reactions from today's audience; some of them, I suspect, are actually even funnier today.

Maybe there aren't that many nits, but surely lots of great lines. Or a discussion of which scene was funnier and why...

Some great lines and moments (from my rather hazy memory ):

Official: ...taxes!
Chico: Hey, Texas, my uncle lives there!
Official: No, no, 'taxes', you know...dollars!
Chico: Yeah, that's where my uncle lives, Dallas, Texas!

(Chico looks out on the battlefield)
Chico: I'm not going out there without one of those big armoured machines with tracks, whaddaya call 'em?
Groucho: Tanks.
Chico: Don't mention it.

(Groucho gets a vase stuck over his head, and Harpo's idea of 'helping' is to paint Groucho's face on the outside of the vase...)

I know that its neck-&-neck between Duck Soup & A Night at the Opera as to which is considered the best Marx Brothers movie ever,but Duck Soup is my favorite.Though both films are wonderful of course.Of their later efforts,which were never as great as their early films, I liked A Night in Casablanca.You would have thought that At the Circus would have offered tons of comedy potential because of the setting,sadly it was not to be.Its quite a disappointment.

For me, the biggest laugh in all the Marx brothers movies is in A Night At The Opera when Groucho is out in the audience. The woman comes up to sing her wailing song and Groucho, perched outside of a balcony, goes BOOGIE BOOGIE BOOGIE.