Duck Soup (1933) #60

In the original AFI list, Duck Soup was #85 so it climbed a healthy 25 spots.  The new #85 is A Night at the Opera (1935) which debuted on the tenth anniversary list.  Ain't coincidence great?  Duck Soup was the last Marx Brothers film for Paramount.  During production there were bitter contract negotiations going on.  The plot is simple and the movie relies on gags from the Marx Brothers glued together with a little story.  Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho) is appointed leader of bankrupt Freedonia at the insistence of Mrs. Gloria Teasdale (Margaret Dumont).   Harpo and Chico are spys for rival state Sylvania.  Zeppo, in his last Marx Brothers film, plays the straight man secretary to the over the top Groucho.  There's a war between Freedonia and Sylvania later in the movie due to Groucho's insults of the Sylvanian Ambassador.   That's the plot summary.

The gags are funny.  Chico and Harpo messing with a street vendor and all three of them swapping hats is funny.  Not laugh out loud funny...but amusing.  The mirror gag (two actors facing each other with one pretending they are the reflection of the other) was a classic then and Harpo and Groucho perform it well.  If you like the Marx Brothers then you'll love the movie.  If you don't then you won't.  I don't think the movie has aged well.  It would seem the judges for AFI thought it did but I can think of half a dozen comedies I'd much rather see that weren't even on the list.  Just being old shouldn't be any part of the criteria for inclusion.

Actually it's probably time to lay out the process used by AFI to come up with the list.  There was a ballot of 400 movies sent to 1500 judges.  There are some fantastic comedies that didn't even make the list of 400 movies.   I suspect the inclusion of the film boils down to two basic items:

1. Everyone has heard of the Marx Brothers and while you may not have seen it recently or remember specifics you "know" they're funny since well...everyone knows they're funny.
2. The mirror scene/gag.  While not the first it was a great rendition and was then used a number of times by others.

Sorry but I don't think it should be in the top 100.  Perhaps A Night at the Opera will fare better.  At least I hope it will.