Image: duck_soup.jpg Duck Soup

A Marx Bros comedy lampooning governments and nationalism and war. Groucho Marx plays Rufus T. Firefly who becomes president of noble country Freedonia, and leads that country to a gag-filled victory over scheming rival country Sylvania.

Nothing is taken very seriously, everything is a cue for a pun or visual joke or a song. Even in the mime scene where Harpo pretends to be Groucho where the mirror got broken both sides know it's not real, it's a game inside a game. This ludicrousness makes "Duck Soup" a more profound commentary on the senselessness of power politics than earnest works like Chaplin's "The Great Dictator".

The anarchy and non-sequiturs keep "Duck Soup" unpredictable to watch, and also inspire later comedians. A film fit for Groucho Marx who said he would never be a member of a club that would have him as a member.