Duck Soup

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35mm

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Sunday, Apr 27
12:40

Showtimes updated on Tuesday evenings

Duck Soup

Introduction by Film Critic J. Hoberman

1933. 69 m. Leo McCarey. NBC/Universal. US. English. Rated NR.

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A scattershot satire starring Groucho Marx as the incompetent and lecherous autocrat Rufus T. Firefly, Duck Soup is comedy perfection, a 69-minute assault on the folly of dictatorships, war, and government in general. Released just as FDR took office during the deep Great Depression, Duck Soup was a flop at the time, and considered wildly irreverent. Yet has stood the test of time as the Marx Brothers’ essential film, with one brilliant comic scene after another, climaxing with a wild musical number spoofing the insanity of war. Historian J. Hoberman, author of the BFI Film Classics monograph Duck Soup, will introduce the film.

Children’s tickets are available for Duck Soup and Avalon as part of the Jewish Film Festival’s Family Day.

Tickets: $15 (members), $20 (nonmembers), $9 Children

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"The Four Marx Brothers—Groucho the Gabber, Harpo the Honker, Chico the Chiseler and Zeppo the Zero—were the wildest, most anarchically funny movie comedians of their era. (Of any era.) And this is the high water mark of their unique cinematic insanity: a ferocious satire on government, war and diplomacy that leaves no propriety or pretension unpricked, no sacred cow unslaughtered."
Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune

SPECIAL EVENTS

Introduction by Writer and Critic J. Hoberman

Introduction by Writer and Critic J. Hoberman

Sunday, Apr. 27 2025, 12:40

Film critic at the Village Voice for over three decades, J. Hoberman has written over a dozen books, including Bridge of Light: Yiddish Film Between Two Worlds (with Jeff Shandler), Entertaining America: Jews, Movies and Broadcasting, and contributed to numerous anthologies. His most recently published book is a monograph on the Marx Brothers's movie Duck Soup. He currently teaches a graduate seminar in documentary theory at Columbia University.
Duck Soup by J. Hoberman: J. Hoberman's study of the film traces its reputation history, from the initial disappointment of its release to its rise to cult status in the 1960s when the Marx's anarchic, anti-establishment humor again seemed timely. Hoberman places Duck Soup, alongside analogous comedies: Dr. Strangelove (1964), the Beatles' films, Morgan! (1966), The President's Analyst (1967), and The Producers (1968). It attained canonical stature as a touchstone for Woody Allen and would be recognized by the Library of Congress in the 1990s. Hoberman's analysis provides a historical and political context as well as an in-depth production history, drawing on primary sources and emphasizing director McCarey's prior work along with the Marx Brothers in addition to the situation at Paramount, a substantial synopsis, and an account of the movie's initial reception, concluding with its subsequent elevation to comic masterpiece.

Tickets: $15 (members), $20 (nonmembers), $9 Children

This film is part of the Jewish Film Festival 2025 series.

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