Editing Duck Soup (1933 film) (section)

==Reception==
[[File:Duck Soup Groucho and generals.jpg|thumb|Groucho in one of the many costumes he wore in the war sequence of ''Duck Soup'']]

Although ''Duck Soup'' did not perform as well as ''Horse Feathers'', it was the sixth-highest-grossing film of 1933, according to Glenn Mitchell in ''The Marx Brothers Encyclopedia'' and [[Simon Louvish]] in ''Monkey Business''.<ref name="Louvish">Louvish</ref><ref name="silver">{{cite web  | last = Bourne | first = Mark  | title = Review: "The Marx Brothers: Silver Screen Collection" | publisher = The DVD Journal  | year = 2004  | url = http://www.dvdjournal.com/reviews/m/marxbrothers_ssc.shtml  | access-date = 2008-02-23 }}</ref><ref name="Mitchell">{{cite book  | last = Mitchell | first = Glenn | title = The Mark Brothers Encyclopedia | publisher = BT. Batsford Ltd | year = 1996 | location = London, England  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=GFQIAAAACAAJ  | isbn = 9781903111499}}</ref> However, the film was a box office disappointment for Paramount.<ref>{{Cite news|title=TAKING A LOOK AT THE RECORD|author=D. W.|date=Nov 25, 1934|work=New York Times|id={{ProQuest|101193306}}}}</ref>

One possible reason for the film's lukewarm reception is that it was released during the depths of the [[Great Depression]]. Audiences were taken aback by its cynicism at a time of economic and political crisis.<ref name="silver"/><ref name="filmsite"/> According to [[Leonard Maltin]] in ''The Great Movie Comedians'':
<blockquote>As wonderful as ''[[Monkey Business (1931 film)|Monkey Business]]'', ''[[Horse Feathers]]'', and ''Duck Soup'' seem today, some critics and moviegoers found them unpleasant and longed for the more orderly world of ''[[The Cocoanuts]]'' with its musical banalities. [...] Many right-thinkers laughed themselves silly in 1933—but a large number didn't. [...] The unrelieved assault of Marxian comedy was simply too much for some people.<ref name="Maltin">Maltin, pp. 135–136</ref></blockquote>

Years later, Groucho's son [[Arthur Marx]] described [[Irving Thalberg]]'s assessment of the film's purported failure during a [[National Public Radio]] interview:
<blockquote>[Thalberg] said the trouble with ''Duck Soup'' is you've got funny gags in it, but there's no story and there's nothing to root for. You can't root for the Marx Brothers because they're a bunch of zany kooks. [Thalberg] says, "You gotta put a love story in your movie so there'll be something to root for, and you have to help the lovers get together."<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/opera/ |title="Present at the Creation" – A National Public Radio story about the failure of ''Duck Soup'' and the success of the film that followed |website=[[NPR]] |access-date=2018-04-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130616020756/http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/opera/ |archive-date=2013-06-16 |url-status=dead }}</ref></blockquote>

Most critics at the time disliked ''Duck Soup'' because of its "dated" look at politics.<ref name="Louvish"/><ref name="filmsite"/><ref name="Griffin"/> Christopher Null believes that "the send-up of [[Benito Mussolini|Mussolini]]-types doesn't quite pan out. Take the comedy, leave the story."<ref name="filmcritic.com">{{cite web| last =Null| first =Christopher| title =Review of ''Duck Soup''| website =filmcritic.com| url =http://www.filmcritic.com/misc/emporium.nsf/2a460f93626cd4678625624c007f2b46/a722e8320481a92088256b27000f2bc1?OpenDocument| archive-url =https://archive.today/20130123012918/http://www.filmcritic.com/misc/emporium.nsf/2a460f93626cd4678625624c007f2b46/a722e8320481a92088256b27000f2bc1?OpenDocument| url-status =dead| archive-date =2013-01-23| access-date =2007-12-30}}</ref>

Groucho did not initially think highly of the film. When asked the significance of the film's politics, Groucho only shrugged and said: "What significance? We were just four Jews trying to get a laugh."<ref name="silver"/>{{efn|[https://archive.today/20121212105659/http://uashome.alaska.edu/~dfgriffin/website/Q&A.htm Danel Griffin] elaborates on this quote from Groucho at his website:<blockquote>"I've always been on the fence about this one. In my write-up, of course, I argue that even if the Marxes didn't intend any deeper significance, one still exists that its longevity has created. And of course, it's impossible to tell when Groucho is being sarcastic and when he isn't. But that he communicated with [[T. S. Eliot]], [[Antonin Artaud]], [[Salvador Dalí|Dalí]], etc., all who praised the Brothers' work, means that he was at least aware of the various readings of the film, and he engaged them on some level. I suspect that his outspoken opinion of ''Duck Soup'' simply changed over time. While the Brothers were still active, they were infamously embarrassed by the [[Paramount Pictures|Paramount]] films—hard to believe it, but there was a time when the Thalberg collaborations were actually considered better. Perhaps the "four Jews trying to get a laugh" comment was a dismissive one he made towards that era in general. Towards the end of his lifetime, critics reexamined the Paramounts and embraced them, and perhaps this gave Groucho incentive to finally admit that the film indeed was an intentional, biting satire. But who knows? Part of the charm of the Marx Brothers is that it's impossible to know where they're channeling.</blockquote>}} Nevertheless, the Brothers were ecstatic when Mussolini took the film as a personal insult and banned it in Italy.<ref name="filmsite"/><ref name="Groucho">Kanfer</ref> Residents of [[Fredonia, New York]], also protested the film because they feared that the similar-sounding nation would hurt their city's reputation. The Marx Brothers quipped in response, telling them to change the name of their town to keep from hurting their movie.<ref name="time">{{cite magazine | title = The New Pictures | magazine = [[Time (magazine)|Time]]| date=1933-11-20 | url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,929605-2,00.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071001004121/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,929605-2,00.html | url-status = dead | archive-date = October 1, 2007 | access-date = 2007-12-31 }}</ref><ref name="WB">Groucho later used a similar idea in his letters to [[Warner Brothers]] defending the title of ''[[A Night in Casablanca]]''. [http://www.snopes.com/movies/films/casablanca.asp Read the ''Night in Casablanca'' controversy and myth]. ''snopes.com''</ref>

Despite the tepid critical and commercial response at the time, ''Duck Soup'' is now seen as a classic political [[farce]].<ref name="silver"/> Film critic [[The Whalesong|Danel Griffin]] believes that ''Duck Soup'' is "on par with other war comedies like [[Charlie Chaplin|Chaplin]]'s ''[[The Great Dictator]]'' and [[Stanley Kubrick|Kubrick]]'s ''[[Dr. Strangelove]]'', only slightly more unnerving in that ''Duck Soup'' doesn't seem to realize it is anything more than innocent fluff."<ref name="Griffin"/> Fellow film critic [[Roger Ebert]] believed, "The Marx Brothers created a body of work in which individual films are like slices from the whole, but ''Duck Soup'' is probably the best."<ref name="Ebert"/> British film critic [[Barry Norman]] considered ''Duck Soup'' the Marx Brothers' best work, and included it in his list of the 100 best films of the 20th century.<ref>Norman, Barry ''100 Best Films of the Century'' (1992)</ref>

Revived interest in the film during the 1960s and '70s dovetailed with the counterculture of the era.<ref name="silver"/> American literary critic [[Harold Bloom]] considers the end of ''Duck Soup'' one of the greatest works of American art produced in the 20th century.<ref name="Bloom">[https://www.amazon.com/Harold-Blooms-twentieth-century-American-Sublime/lm/RNS8OM5V8AM70 "Twentieth-Century American Sublime" – Bloom's introduction to ''Modern Critical Interpretations: Thomas Pynchon'' (1987).]</ref>

In 1990, ''Duck Soup'' was selected for preservation in the United States [[National Film Registry]] by the [[Library of Congress]] as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".<ref name=":0" /> In 2000, readers of ''[[Total Film]]'' magazine voted ''Duck Soup'' the 29th greatest comedy film of all time.<ref name="silver"/> On [[Rotten Tomatoes]], the film has a 91% rating based on 55 reviews, with an average rating of 9.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Fueled by inspired silliness and blessed with some of the Marx brothers' most brilliant work, ''Duck Soup'' is one of its – or any – era's finest comedies".<ref name="rotten tomatoes">{{cite web| title = ''Duck Soup''   | website = [[Rotten Tomatoes]]  | url =https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/duck_soup/  | access-date = 2021-03-31 }}</ref> It is also one of the earliest films to appear on [[Roger Ebert]]'s list of ''[[The Great Movies]]''.<ref name="Ebert">{{cite web  | last = Ebert  | first = Roger  | author-link = Roger Ebert  | title = Review of ''Duck Soup''  | work = [[Chicago Sun-Times]]  | publisher = Rogerebert.com  | date = July 9, 2000  | url = http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20000709%2FREVIEWS08%2F7090301%2F1023  | access-date = 2007-12-30  | archive-date = March 10, 2005  | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20050310124935/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20000709%2FREVIEWS08%2F7090301%2F1023  | url-status = dead  }}</ref>

The film is recognized by [[American Film Institute]] in these lists:
* [[AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies]] – #85<ref>{{cite web|title=AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies |url=http://www.afi.com/Docs/100Years/movies100.pdf |publisher=[[American Film Institute]] |access-date=2016-07-16}}</ref>
* [[AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs]] – #5<ref>{{cite web |title=AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs |url=http://www.afi.com/Docs/100Years/laughs100.pdf |publisher=[[American Film Institute]] |access-date=2016-07-16 |archive-date=June 24, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624052741/http://www.afi.com/Docs/100Years/laughs100.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* [[AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition)]] – #60<ref>{{cite web|title=AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) |url=http://www.afi.com/Docs/100Years/100Movies.pdf |publisher=[[American Film Institute]] |access-date=2016-07-16}}</ref>

===Influence===
The United States [[Library of Congress]] has added ''Duck Soup'' to the National Film Registry,<ref name="registry">[https://www.cs.cmu.edu/Unofficial/Movies/NFR-Titles.html List of National Film Registry (1988–2003).] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012093512/https://www.cs.cmu.edu/Unofficial/Movies/NFR-Titles.html |date=October 12, 2007 }}</ref> and the film was included in both the original (1998) broadcast of [[AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies]] and [[AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition)|the 2007 update]].<ref>American Film Institute [http://www.afi.com/Docs/about/press/2007/100movies07.pdf "Citizen Kane Stands the Test of Time"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110811070405/http://www.afi.com/Docs/about/press/2007/100movies07.pdf |date=August 11, 2011 }}</ref>

Another testament to ''Duck Soup''{{'}}s legacy is its influence on [[Woody Allen]]'s films. Near the end of Allen's ''[[Hannah and Her Sisters]]'' (1986), a chance screening of ''Duck Soup'' convinces Allen's character that life is still worth living, and he abandons his suicidal impulses.<ref name="filmsite"/> His earlier ''[[Bananas (film)|Bananas]]'' (1971), a film chronicling the humorous rise of an unlikely dictator, has been dubbed a "spiritual sequel to ''Duck Soup''."<ref>[http://www.emanuellevy.com/search/details.cfm?id=5247 Welcome to Emanuel Levy – Bananas]</ref>

''Duck Soup'' is also frequently cited as a major influence on the comedic side of [[The Beatles]],<ref>"[http://www.thebeatles.com/story-tags/help?page=2&store=us Help!] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180811131603/http://www.thebeatles.com/story-tags/help?page=2&store=us |date=August 11, 2018 }}" ''thebeatles.com''. Retrieved 11 August 2018.</ref><ref>Sokol, T., "[https://www.denofgeek.com/us/movies/the-beatles/248034/the-beatles-help-movie-is-more-influential-than-you-think The Beatles' Help Movie is More Influential Than You Think]", ''denofgeek.com''. Retrieved 11 August 2018.</ref><ref>"[https://www.raptisrarebooks.com/product/the-beatles-signed-photograph/ The Beatles – signed photograph]", ''raptisrarebooks.com''. Retrieved 11 August 2018.</ref> and The Beatles themselves admitted that it was an inspiration for their film ''[[Help! (film)|Help!]]''<ref>{{cite book |title=Shout!: The true story of The Beatles |page=[https://archive.org/details/shoutbeatlesinth00phil_1/page/261 261] |isbn=0-552-11961-X |year=1982 |last=Norman |first=Phillip |publisher=Corgi |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/shoutbeatlesinth00phil_1/page/261 }}</ref>

The film has influenced [[animation]] as well, with homages appearing in various animated television series. It was spoofed in ''[[Animaniacs]]'' as the full-episode sketch "[[List of Animaniacs episodes|King Yakko]]". One specific gag from the original, the constant singing of the Freedonian national anthem, was spoofed in particular with a [[Perry Como]] caricature. Groucho's entrance in the film was borrowed in another ''Animaniacs'' cartoon, "[[List of Animaniacs episodes|The Three Muska-Warners]]".<ref>[[Maurice LaMarche]], [[Tom Ruegger]], ''et al.''. (2006). ''Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs: Volume 2. Special Features: The Writers Flipped They Have No Script.'' [DVD]. [[Warner Home Video]].</ref>

The film also inspired parts of [[Sacha Baron Cohen]]'s 2012 film ''[[The Dictator (2012 film)|The Dictator]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wtop.com/541/2869390/The-Dictator-demands-we-taste-the-duck-soup|title='The Dictator' demands we taste the 'duck soup'|last=Fraley|first=Jason|publisher=[[WTOP-FM|WTOP]]|date=May 18, 2012|access-date=June 11, 2012}}</ref> A critic for ''[[The A.V. Club]]'' noted that "Admiral General Aladeen and Rufus T. Firefly share the same bloodline, representing a more generalized contempt for world leaders of any stripe, whether they don a 'supreme beard' or a greasepaint moustache."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.avclub.com/the-dictator-1798172829|title=Review: The Dictator |last=Scott|first=Tobias|newspaper=The A.V. Club|date=May 15, 2012|access-date=June 11, 2012}}</ref> The ''[[Nashville Scene]]'' considered the film to be "an echo here of that funniest of xenophobe-baiting funnies, ''Duck Soup''."<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashville/the-dictators-too-gentle-but-sacha-baron-cohen-may-have-duck-soup-in-him-yet/Content?oid=2872519/|title=The Dictator's too gentle, but Sacha Baron Cohen may have Duck Soup in him yet|last=Wilson|first=Scott|newspaper=[[Nashville Scene]]|date=May 17, 2012|access-date=June 11, 2012}}{{Dead link|date=July 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' claimed that Baron Cohen's film "dodges soothing convention and ultimately merits comparisons to The Marx Brothers' ''Duck Soup'' and Charlie Chaplin's ''The Great Dictator''."<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/the-dictator-20120516#ixzz1xVivoCm2|title=The Dictator: Movie Review|last=Travers|first=Peter|magazine=[[Rolling Stone]]|date=May 16, 2012|access-date=June 11, 2012|archive-date=December 3, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171203195227/http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/the-dictator-20120516#ixzz1xVivoCm2|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The company [[FASA]], which publishes [[role-playing game]]s, derives its name from an imaginary Freedonian version of [[NASA]], the "Freedonian Aeronautics and Space Administration".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.whatwouldthesmartpartydo.com/2020/01/31/lou-prosperi-interview|title=What Would the Smart Party Do? Episode 117 – Lou Prosperi Interview|date=January 31, 2020|access-date=April 20, 2020}}</ref>