Duck Soup
All team (16)
Short description
Duck Soup is set in Freedonia, a small country on the edge of bankruptcy. To keep it afloat, the wealthy widow Gloria Teasdale offers a large sum of her own money, on the condition that Rufus T. Firefly be installed as the country's leader. Firefly takes power with little interest in governing, and his behaviour soon provokes the ambassador of neighbouring Sylvania, who wants Freedonia for himself and also resents Firefly as a rival for Mrs. Teasdale's attention. The ambassador hires two bungling spies, Pinky and Chicolini, to discredit the new leader and get hold of his battle plans. The scheming on both sides leads the two countries into a war that unfolds as chaos.
The film is a Marx Brothers comedy directed by Leo McCarey, the only one of their pictures he directed. It was released in 1933 and runs 68 minutes; the screenplay is by Harry Ruby, Bert Kalmar and Arthur Sheekman, and Herman J. Mankiewicz produced. Groucho Marx plays Firefly, Harpo and Chico Marx play the spies, Zeppo Marx appears as Bob Roland, and Margaret Dumont plays Mrs. Teasdale. McCarey went on to direct The Awful Truth and Love Affair, among other films. Critical response was strong, with a critics' rating of 9.3/10 from 55 reviews, while audiences rate it 7.7/10 on IMDb and 7.3/10 on TMDB from far larger numbers of votes.
What's left behind the scenes
- One day, while standing near the set, screenwriters Harry Ruby and Bert Kalmar overheard an extra say that '...whoever wrote this should be locked up,' and that the person was 'simply not cut out for the job.' Kalmar, usually a balanced and calm man, admitted to Ruby that he wanted to 'punch that extra.' Before it came to blows, it was revealed that the extra had been paid to make those statements. This was orchestrated by Chico Marx, a comedic actor from the Marx Brothers quintet, who was also appearing in the film.
- The idea to film the mirror scene belonged to director Leo McCarey. It is claimed that filming this scene took two hours.
- In early drafts of the script, the fictional state of Sylvania was called Amnesia.
- 'Duck soup' was a slang expression of that era, meaning something easily accomplished or achievable.
- As part of the film's promotional campaign, Paramount Pictures organized a series of prank events featuring the Marx Brothers and ducks rented from a nearby bird market and local farmers.
- In early drafts of the script, the new leader of Freedonia, named Rufus T. Firefly, was a representative of a cartridge and shell company, which inspired corresponding jokes. This detail echoed the film's military themes.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
