The last time we watched a Marx Brothers movie was for the film class and neither of us really liked it. Still, Monkey Business isn’t generally considered the best film by the Marxes. This one is, plus the brothers are such a big deal in the history of comedy in cinema that I thought this should be obligatory viewing. Interestingly, while it is thought of as a masterpiece today and it was one of the least successful of the brothers’ movies when it was released and had a lukewarm welcome even from critics.

The first thing I noticed about this movie compared to the previous one is how much bigger and grander it is. Groucho becomes the leader of the tiny and fictional country of Fredonia when the rich widow, Mrs. Teasdale, who seems to bankroll the entire country insists on it. Neighboring Sylvania wants to invade Fredonia and discredit Groucho and so sends in Chico and Harpo as spies to dig up dirt on him. As usual, Zeppo, the fourth Marx brother, has only a minor and forgettable role as Groucho’s assistant.

This setup makes for a great excuse to have grandiose scenes full of pomp, grandstanding and elaborate costumes, with large crowds ready to sing Fredonia’s bombastic national anthem at the drop of a hat. All this makes the incongruity of the brothers’ antics even more apparent and to me makes everything much funnier. And if you think Groucho trying to run a government is funny, wait until you see what happens when he tries to run a war which you just have to know is inevitable.

I think Groucho’s verbal patter is actually slower in this movie which helped me catch his jokes and appreciate them better. The fact that there’s a more solid story to tie things together makes Chico and Harpo’s skits feel less random. Their act as peanut sellers annoying a lemonade seller is a fantastic example of physical comedy, with movements and expressions that look easy and natural but call for amazing choreography and comic timing.The famous mirror scene is probably not that funny because everyone has seen variations of it so many times before but this is one of the earliest appearances of the idea and it was apparently very influential.

I’m also fond of the theory that to modern audiences its premise is something that is inherently funny, at least in the West: self-important tinpot dictators and the ridiculousness of flag-waving jingoism. That extra bit of political meaning lends it the weight it needs to keep from becoming just a footnote in the annals of film history. Audiences in the 1930s might have felt that it struck a bit too close to home and reportedly Mussolini thought it was a personal insult aimed at him. It might not have seemed funny to them when a renewed European war felt all too real.

Anyway I found Duck Soup to be a lot of fun and quite a bit more entertaining than Monkey Business ever was. The brothers have many other movies but there is so much else to watch that we have little reason to come back to the Marx brothers so I guess that’s it for now.