FILM 1868: DUCK SOUP

FILM 1868: DUCK SOUP 

TRIVIA: Italian dictator Benito Mussolini banned the film from Italy because he thought it was a direct attack on him. When news of this reached The Marx Brothers, they were reportedly ecstatic.

Shortly before this film premiered, the city of Fredonia, New York, complained about the use of its name with an additional "e". The Marx Brothers' response was, "Change the name of your town, it's hurting our picture."

Screenwriters Harry Ruby and Bert Kalmar were standing on the set of one day when an extra standing next to them said, "I don't know who wrote this stuff but they ought to be arrested...they should be in a different business." Kalmer, who was known as a rational and calm man, said to Ruby, "I'm going over to hit him. Who does he think he is? He's just an extra!" But before fisticuffs erupted, Kalmer and Ruby were informed that Chico Marx had paid the extra to rib the screenwriters, just for the hell of it.

Final film of Zeppo Marx. After the film's premiere, he quit The Marx Brothers, citing a dissatisfaction with movie acting overall, and a weariness with being the butt of jokes regarding him as the "unfunny" Marx brother.

Leo McCarey told Cahiers du cinema in 1967: "I don't like (Duck Soup) so much...I never chose to shoot this film. The Marx Brothers absolutely wanted me to direct them in a film. I refused. Then they got angry with the studio, broke their contract and left. Believing myself secure, I accepted the renewal of my own contract with the studio. Soon, the Marx Brothers were reconciled with (Paramount)...and I found myself in the process of directing the Marx Brothers. The most surprising thing about this film was that I succeeded in not going crazy, for I really did not want to work with them: they were completely mad."

Included among the American Film Institute's 1998 list of the Top 100 Greatest American Movies.

Harpo Marx re-enacted the mirror gag opposite Lucille Ball on I Love Lucy: Lucy and Harpo Marx (1955).

Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.

In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked this as the #60 Greatest Movie of All Time.