QUARTET OF HUMORISTS

Evening Star, Issue 21721, 16 May 1934, Page 14

QUARTET OF HUMORISTS

MARX BROTHERS 1H 1 DUCK SOUP ’ Why it .should be funny to see Harpo Mors produce ;i pair ol scissors from his belt and snip the tails oil a respectable man’s coat or to see Grouclio Marx perform a scandalous dance before the Cabinet meeting over which he is presidin'; nobody knows. 'Jbc iact remains, though, that it is funny—exceedingly funny. The four Marx brothers- —IS arpo. Grouclio, Chico, and Zoppo —whose latest film, 1 Duck Soup, which commences at the Empire on Friday, have given to the cinema a form of humour so completely unlike anything that the stage can give or which anvone else in the cinema has given that it defies reason and logic and explanation. ‘ Duck Soup.’ in contrast to most or the earlier Marx Brothers’ films, has a plot. True, it is not much ol a plot, but most of the best scenes have nothing to do with it, and there is always the uneasy feeling that there might be more of those scenes if it was not necessary to spend time developing the story. It is all sheer nonsense from beginning to end, and it is all amazingly funny. One is suddenly transported into the midst of a group of harmless lunatics, who obviously have strong reason for every idiot act they perform and who act with the utmost sang froitl.