Duck Soup, part 4 January 1, 2008

Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby, who receive story credit on Duck Soup as well as Animal Crackers and Horse Feathers, were best known as a songwriting team responsible for such songs as “Who’s Sorry Now?”, “I Wanna Be Loved by You”, “I Love You So Much”, “Nevertheless” and “A Kiss to Build a Dream On”. They were portrayed by Fred Astaire and Red Skelton in the 1950 musical biography named after their biggest hit song, Three Little Words.
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Duck Soup, part 3 December 31, 2007

The mirror sequence (seen in the second of today’s clips) may be the most famous routine in Duck Soup, but it wasn’t original.

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Duck Soup, part 2 December 30, 2007

Duck Soup was the last movie made by Herbert (“Zeppo”) Marx (1901-1979), the youngest of the Marx Brothers. Contrary to conventional wisdom Zeppo did not leave acting because he was any less talented than Groucho, Harpo or Chico; offstage he was known as being every bit as funny as his brothers, who tended to be very businesslike and deadpan about their humor. He had understudied all three on Broadway and was said to have done Groucho so well that even the backstage crew mistook him for the real thing.

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Duck Soup, part 1 December 29, 2007

From 1933, the Marx Brothers’ masterpiece.

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