Today I have duck soup, and no that's not a reference to the Marx Brothers film from the 1930s, despite most of my staff being a bunch of arseholes - they could be the fucking Marx brothers... especially with their ridiculous ways such as socialising with each other, chatting, wanting to eat without chatting on the phone, laughing and having sex with non family members, These cretins make me sick.

I poached the ducks myself, they were from a commoners farm so who cares, they can't stop me... they know who I am.... I'm better than they are because I have money and a non region specific generic English accent.

My word it's busy again, yet another old man on the trade counter, excuse me a second....

"HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII"

I've gotta go, he needs a common oil filter for his deutz engine and I've gotta get ten filter manuals out to bore the living shit out of the cunt.

You be good now!

This being said, I thought it might be interesting to document some of the goings on here in Illinois for your humble narrator in terms of numbers.  Also, if you're interested, my favorite movies ever, according to the months of research into my own preference I conducted, are, in order, 1) Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb 2) Duck Soup 3) The Muppet Movie 4) Annie Hall and 5) Raiders of the Lost Ark. That's just a hunk of FYI for you folks.  Don't argue with me about the quality of these films, because I swear to Christ you'll get a heap of verbal beating from the man doing the analysis.

Okay, sorry about that.  These are the facts numerically speaking I've gathered up in the weeks I've spent here in the Windy City.

a) I've been to a bar called McDunna's on Fullerton near my apartment six weeks running...on Wednesdays.  Three of these Wednesdays I had work the next day, including tomorrow.  Any one who knows me, or knew me at any point, or thinks they can guess at my predilictions based on the fact that The Muppet Movie is my third favorite movie ever, can tell you that drinking during the week is not my thing, and yet this crazy streak continues.  It may help to tell you that they have domestic drafts for a buck on Wednesdays (check it out!)

b) I've been a party to three fire related events in the six weeks I've lived here.  One involved us nearly burning the building down while trying to boil water (and I'll leave it at that), two was the neighbors nearly burning the building down while leaving their headphones in the oven (and that's all the explanation we got) and three was the movie theater on Webster nearly burning down while me and the Munchak were watching Get Smart.  At least on the last incident we scored some free passes to that death trap of a theater.

c) In relation, I've been to the movie theater eight times in the past six weeks, to see six different films, none of which starred Sarah Jessica Parker, I'm proud to say.  This is pretty much par for this guy, I think.  Most of these movies I enjoyed to some degree, except The Happening, which was completely fucking retarded, to steal a review from most of America's critics.  The only reason we even went to see it was because the girlfriend really wanted to see the trailer for the new X-Files movie, which leads me to...

d) I've watched the first 30 episodes of The X-Files, apparently in preparation for the new film, which the girlfriend has threatened we are not only going to see the midnight before it opens, but also anywhere between five and twenty times afterward.  I've taken out a second mortgage and posted one of my kidneys on Ebay in preparation.

e) More unrelatedly, I've vomited three times since moving, twice in a 12 hour period.  I think that's a pretty nice improvement.  The girlfriend claims this almost makes me bulimic.  Opinions?

f) I've only bought two books, both of which were copies of Moby Dick.  Comments on my ludicrous spending?  Cram it, chum!

g) I've only copied one movie, as the Netflix have just restarted.  That one movie was 2007's Beowulf. What's wrong with that?  Okay, okay, there's plenty wrong with that, but I'm not much of a purist about that hard-to-read, over-rated bundle of nonsense crammed down high-schoolers throats. 

h) To wrap this up, I'd like to point out, inconsequentially, that I did get to see, for the first time, episodes of My Favorite Martian, The Green Hornet, and Father Knows Best, thanks to MeTV and Me Too, great local stations that come in without the benefit of subscribing to cable.  I also saw this dynamite, completely bewildering game show on Telemundo called 12 Corazones, which makes no sense to me, as it's in Spanish, but is incredibly fun, mainly due to the incredibly hyper host I've Googled and discovered is named Penelope Menchaca, which is a fittingly fun name. 

This is my life in Chicago thus far.  Eight movies, two books, three vomits, six McDunna's, 12 Corazones.  Not a bad bit of stuff happening here.

The first entry to this new feature on Bizzle Bros is the first movie that was randomly selected for me to watch.  Now, to begin this I'll be honest.  I've never watched a movie that was made before the 60's.  Aside from Vertigo in which I only watched the first half.  So my idea of comparing a movie from 1933 to what was funny then compared to whats funny now may be 'off' a bit.  I also do not consider myself a film or literature buff, so If I am missing some deep metaphor's in this film or satirical innuendo's I apologize.

Regardless, here is my documentation of my experience watching the movie Duck Soup.

As you would assume (with being a list called Movies You Need to See Before You Die), Duck Soup is critically acclaimed as one of the Marx Brother's finest pieces of work.  The Marx brothers were at the time the world's biggest comedy troupe, almost like a vaudville act they worked together with their signature brand of slapstick comedy.

First of though, I would like to point out that there is no mention of why this movie is called Duck Soup.  Maybe that was some slang term back in the 30's but I have no idea why they chose that title, other then to show ducks literally in a boiling pot of soup in the beginning of the movie.  So right there, I'm not really feeling this 'classic'.

Now, I understand that "funny" has changed drastically over the last 75 years.  But there are always those things in the world that are classically funny.  In Duck Soup probably its most memorable (and way too long) scene is the 'Mirror Scene' (as shown above).  Where the one Marx brother has dressed up as Gaucho and they both stare at each other in what they think is a mirror.  Imitating back and forth their actions in comical ways.  That was funny, I mean I didn't really laugh out loud at any point but it was the 'smile on my face' funny.  OK, maybe not even that.  However that move was copied over and over by Looney Tunes, Lucille Ball and the Pink Panther.

As far as the plot goes of the movie, there really is none.  Its actually based off of one ridiculous thing after another.  Even the best comedies in the world today have some vague plot, even if it is just to move the story and movie along.  Each scene really had nothing to do with anything except for the occasion moment for song and dance, and the 'somewhat funny' costume changes by Gaucho.  Overall not only was this not funny to me, but I really dont think it was a movie.  It was just alittle too emphasized on the comedy and not on the movie, which I just assume is how movies were in 1933.  Unless you really have the urge to watch those films that are put on 'most influencial' lists, I recommend you stick with something from 1970 or beyond.

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Groucho_Marx
http://www.groucho-marx.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marx_Brothers

So... it was Mother's Day and I made a reservation at Peking Cuisine for lunch.  No, you don't really need a reservation to eat there, any day, but you do need a reservation for Peking duck.  I'll get to the duck later, there was a good crowd already feasting inside that day... so that's a good sign.

The menu items here are authentic items, many of which might scare your average American.  The first appetizer dish is of sichuan origin and called 'Couple's Slice of Lung' or fuqi feipian.  I didn't know until today that it consists of beef tongue!  I knew that it had beef stomach and I am okay with eating that... but tongue?  Well, it was good... so I can't say much about tongue.  The texture is slightly softer than regular beef and I think it had some tendons in there somewhere.  Even with the discovery, I think I will continue to eat tongue... but it wasn't as spicy as it looks.

The legendary pig ears!  Now, this restaurant did it a lot differently... usually its just an orange pile of mess, but this restaurant arranged the ears nicely, compacted it all together quite beautifully.  At first, I was skeptical, because I don't usually eat pig ears like this (I'm used to this).  But this new way of eating it is even better!  You can really get a feel for the gelatin complexity in between the crunch.  It might sound a little unorthodox, but such is food, and you just can't knock it until you try it.

This is a particular type of cold noodle dish, very refreshing on a hot summer's day.  The noodles are very thick and reminds me of jello, but al dente.  It has a pull to it when you chew.  The sauce is a soy sauce garlic, very heavy on the garlic.  Good dish overall, but I think I've had better elsewhere.

Stir fry bean sprout leaves, its just that simple.  I love simple, clean Chinese stir fried vegetables, Chinese people tend to eat a lot of leafy greens and that was what I had growing up.

This dish was just wrong.  It came out brown when I was expecting clear sauce.  It was sweet when I didn't expect it.  The rice cracker was the only thing good in this dish... oh and straw mushrooms!  It was suppose to be shrimp over sizzling rice, where the rice starts to sizzle when the hot shrimp mixture gets poured over it.

This dish was ordered wrong in some sense too.  We thought we ordered crispy pork intestines but instead got stir fried pork large intestine with green peppers.  Sadness was me, until I tasted it.  I have some strange acquired taste for intestine... and I loved this newly discovered dish!  I usually eat intestines fried, or if its not fried, then spicy... this was none of the mentioned, but still dang good!

This is one of the few restaurants in Houston that does Peking duck, it is eaten 2 ways or a 2 course duck meal.  The first to come is the roast duck neatly sliced.  One duck fed 7 people, that's because we ordered a whole bunch of other stuff too.  How to eat Peking duck?  Take a piece of meat and a piece of crispy skin and place over tortilla.  The Chinese tortilla is a lot thinner than your Mexican tortilla, but not as thin as Vietnamese rice paper.  Put sweet duck or really hoisin sauce over the duck meat and skin.  Garnish with green onion strips, wrap, and eat!  The duck was alright, it was good, but didn't put me in a food daze.  Something satisfying if you are craving Peking duck.

The second course is the duck soup.  Duck bones are cooked for hours to make soup.  I love duck soup.  It has a nice rich flavor to it.  Inside this soup, they added cabbage, clear vermicelli, and tofu.  It compliments the heavy, greased roast duck because of it's light, crisp taste.  Something soothing after the duck.

So... overall, I was a teeny weeny bit disappointed.  I was hoping for a wow factor that I just didn't get.  I remembered the food being better, but that was a long time ago and I might have upgraded my tastes since then.  The best dish of the night was the pig ears, followed by the pork intestines.  The service was horrible, and we waited at least 45 minutes.  Those I kind of just disregard in a traditional Chinese restaurant... because if I factored those in, you would lose the experience of tasting some really authentic dishes!

Being as MILLION DOLLAR LEGS stars W.C. Fields as the president of a tiny Ruritanian country, there's an obvious temptation to pair it with DUCK SOUP, which stars Groucho Marx as etc etc. But that might do a disservice to MDL, which can't compete on the laugh-count with the unstoppable comic juggernaut of DS.

Instead I propose Marcel Carné's DROLE DE DRAME (A.K.A. BIZARRE, BIZARRE) which has approximately the same demented whimsy and unsettled forward momentum, pitching one aberrant situation after another at the punchy audience until end titles set in. Both films are premised on the idea of government, police, and all human institutions being fundamentally cock-eyed and probably malevolent, but do so without anger but with instead a shrug, wink and surreptitious extrusion of the tongue at authority. Neither film gets that many belly laughs, but both score heavily on peculiarity and brimming reserve of absurd ideas.

W.C. Fields is prez of Klopstokia because he can arm-wrestle any man to a stand-still. His nearest rival, Hugh "woo-woo" Herbert (who somehow manfully restrains himself from saying "woo-woo" at all in this film) is plotting against him with the aid of the entire cabinet and a spy, Ben Turpin, who remains a silent comedian throughout, popping up in various disguises and hiding places, his pupils aiming across each other at opposite edges of the screen. Jack Oakie, that large, shiny, alternately simpering and beaming fellow, is a brush salesman smitten with Fields' daughter, who seeks to win pop's approval by solving the nation's financial crisis. This entails entering the Olympics, a promising plan since everybody in the country is a superhuman athlete (also, all the women are called Angela). The Hugh sans "woo-woo" plots to sabotage the team using Mata Machree, the Swedish siren, whom no man can resist.

The story is by Joseph Mankiewicz, and mines levels of silliness not to be found in any of his later films as auteur. There is also uncredited throughput by Ben Hecht, who certainly did have an antic side, and credited scripting by Nicholas T. Barrows, a man with a substantial Keystone Studios pedigree, and Henry Myers, who would later co-write DESTRY RIDES AGAIN. The result is much as you might expect if you stirred all those authorial voices into a soup.

It's not exactly hilarious but it's consistently amusing, and frequently eye-popping. Should be seen (to be believed) and luckily can be seen as it's in the superb and essential W.C. Fields DVD box set, along with the truly great Fields films and plenty of other oddities.

A year or so ago there was virtually no Fields commercially available. Now virtually all of it is. And some people will say there's no such thing as progress, as the planet slowly boils to a crisp.

DROLE DE DRAME, made before Carné and Prevert's, like, immortal classics,  is one I need to revisit as I can barely recall the specifics of it (I first saw it on faded VHS with illegible subtitles, and have yet to check out my shiny new DVD). I know that Michel Simon plays an expert on the mimesis of the mimosa. Jean-Pierre Barrault plays a bicycling madman. Louis Jouvet plays the Bishop of Bedford in a kilt. My favourite moment is when Simon, who's suspected of murder, returns to his home in a false beard, worried that the police may be tearing the place apart. They ARE, but not in the way he expected: they're just MUCKING ABOUT like little kids, pushing each other around on a drinks trolley, etc. Delightful.

Thiss iz a pictyour ov me takin at my frends fyoonerall. i didint like him much thatz whye im bouncing up and down

This post will aim to address some queries from friends with regards to the method used for the soup in my previous posting.

1) Why did I use skinless duck?

Ducks are very fatty birds, with the skin, the soup will turn out very fatty and may also end up being too "ducky" in taste. The fats in meat usually adds stronger smell to the dish, e.g. Lamb fats.

Even without the skin and fats, the broth can still be wholesome from prolong boiling, extract flavors from the bones.

**The amount of fats i ladled out from the soup before adding the salted vegetables**

2) Why separate the meat?

The meat tend to "melt" away after prolong boiling, which spoils the soup's appeal and texture. Separating the meat helps keep the meat chunky yet tender rather then soggy. Then again, it is at the same time very subjective to the people you are serving the soup to, my dad, for an example likes the meat in his soup really tender.

3) Why do we soak the salted vegetables?

Some other recipes only asked for blanching, however, i prefer soaking as it helps at the later part of the cooking. In many occasion of preparing the duck soup, the salted vegetable's flavor tend to overpower the duck's, thus resulting on a very "flat" flavored soup, which longer boiling hours will not help.

In order to prevent the irreversible outcome, i rather use salted vegetables that is less salty and add accordingly later. Furthermore, some brands of salted vegetable tend to be much saltier then other, which becomes very tricky for first timers.

You will notice in most of my instructions, I don't give exact quantity. Reason being that I find cooking savoury dishes very subjective to the person cooking and/or eating. You can roughly gauge the quantity from the images posted. **if you really need help, you can contact me direct =)

Preparation time: 30 min

Cooking time: 5 Hours ( in pressure cooker) or 7 hours (on stove)

Serves 6 people

Ingredients:

1. Whole Duck, bone separated with skin removed (get the poultry seller to prepare it for you
2. Ginger
3. Preserved Mustard Vegetable
4. Sichuan Preserved Vegetable optional (find out the different types of preserved vegetable here)
5. Tomatos
6. Chinese Sour Plum
7. Chinese Wine

Preparation:

Step 1: Prepare the duck by blanching the duck slightly:pouring hot water over them quickly without soaking, it removes the "duckie smell" from the duck. This method is a traditional method that is being passed down from grandma which I find made a difference to my soup's taste, however, its effectiveness is debatable.

Step 2: Peel Ginger and smash the ginger slightly to release flavor. I added a bit more ginger then usual as it was raining yesterday, but usually i would recommend like half of what you see.

3) Place bones (bones only not the meaty part/legs) and ginger into the pot to boil. Use just enough water to cover the bones and ginger. Allow to boil for 3 hours in pressure cooker or 5 hours in pot: this process helps thicken the flavor of the broth.

4) While the duck is in the pot, prepare the preserve vegetables. I am using both mustard vage and sichuan vege because i like both kinds and they each add a different kind of flavor to the soup, but using either one be fine. Cut preserve vegetables into thick strips then soak in hot water. Put aside for later use.

Rational behind soaking: The preserve vegetables tend to be very salty, by soaking them release excess salt, if not you may end up with a very salt soup, which might overpower the duck's flavor.

5) When the broth is done, put in the rest of the meaty parts, Chinese sour plum and the drained preserved vegetables into the soup to boil for another 1(pressure cooker) or 2 hours (pot on stove). Add more hot water if necessary.

**Do not add cold water as it might affect the chemical reaction in the soup. =) Something I learned from a book on soups

*I would usually recommend Japanese plum for cooking as they are more delicate in taste. However, for
Chinese soups or heavy meat, the Chinese plums are more suitable.

6) Your soup should be done and sufficiently flavored after long hours of boiling, sip to try if the flavor is of liking. You can always boil it longer for thicker flavors. Refrain from adding too much salt though, as the preserve vegetable still contain some salt that will continue to flavor the soup. - If really necessary, add before serving.

Once satisfied with the flavor, add in tomatoes for the finishing touch! - Tomatoes should affect the acidity by a little only. Boil for another 15 minutes to cook tomatoes, unless you like well cooked tomatoes, try not to over boil them. Personally, I like them marshy, so i leave them to cook for about 30 min.

7) Your soup is almost done! At this time you can add some Chinese wine (2 table spoon) to add more body to the soup. Bring to boil again and the soup is ready to be served!

Hope you like it!

It is especially apropos today, as Nuke's alma mater, the Mississippi State Bulldogs tangle with the Oregon Ducks this evening in the NCAA's.

Since I didn't see it on the Speedshop menu, I'll offer this recipe for some tasty "Duck Soup" in honor of our opponent in this evening's contest in Little Rock.

Ingredients: * 2 to 3 wild ducks, * 1 package of crab and shrimp boil or bottle, * 2 cups garlic butter
Directions: 1 Boil ducks in large pot with crab and shrimp boil for one hour, sticking fork in ducks to allow the shrimp boil to penetrate meat. 2. After boiling, put duck into oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. 3 Baste with garlic butter while cooking...

Also, this tasty one-liner from Duck Soup

Mrs. Teasdale: Your excellency, the ambassador's here on a friendly visit. He's had a change of heart.
Rufus T. Firefly: A lot of good that'll do him: he's still got the same face.

This is the World Famous Friday Open Thread. A free speech zone. Comments, questions, recipes, predictions, and track-backs are welcome.

WFFOT: To boldly go where no thread has gone before!

THERE WILL BE BLOOD is so overwhelming on a visceral level that it's kind of hard to talk about. I will have to see it again.

 Disorganised thoughts:

The opening, wordless twenty minutes have rightly commanded attention. I loved how the first dynamite explosion BLASTS blue sky into the frame, in what feels like the first intense colour apart from blood-red of the single opening title.

If Anderson's previous work has often danced close to the shadow of Robert Altman, in terms of locations, themes, structure and casting, this one feels more like his Terence Malick movie, with its natural light, landscape cinematography, and indirect approach to plot.

The images of the burning oil well actually seered into my retinas -- I'm not being poetic, I literally had an afterimage stuck there, and when I blinked there was a tiny silhouette of Daniel Day-Lewis dancing about under my eyelids. Bastard.

I wonder if Day-Lewis' performance is not only a John Huston imitation (and a damn good one, though Clint Eastwood got quite close in WHITE HUNTER, BLACK HEART without doing very much) but a John Huston PORTRAIT. It's not just the accent and voice, but the bandy gait, the cigar, the mannerisms, and the whole WAY of speaking. If the dialogue hasn't been drawn straight from the Upton Sinclair book (and those in the know seem to agree that the novel is a fairly distant ancestor to the movie) then it's firstly a very fine piece of consistent and engaging and unintrusive faux-period writing, and secondly a very good encapsulation of the way Huston speaks in interviews.

This might make sense of P.T.A.'s constant screening of THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE during the shoot. Because I'm not convinced the two films have so much to do with each other, but I do think Daniel Plainview has a lot to do with John Huston.

(Refresh your memories of Huston's delivery with the above.)

He lacks Huston's twinkle, of course. But both men share a devilish charm, which is seen when Plainview speaks to crowds and seduces them with carefully chosen words and an air of supreme confidence and paternal concern. And Huston's cruelty is pretty well documented. Asked why he would be particularly mean to anybody who appeared vulnerable or unstable, he would reply, "Their heads are on the block, kid, their heads are on the block." Which almost makes bullying (the most indefensible activity) seem sort of quirky and whimsical.

While Paul Dano also gives a stunning performance (he should have got an Oscar nomination for his WALK alone), his character doesn't have quite the mystery of the Day-Lewis monster. He is revealed as a false prophet, and we discover that he himself knows it too. We also discover Plainview's anti-religious side, without having it actually EXPLAINED to us. We can only guess at its causes, while reflecting that it's another trait in common with Huston (WISE BLOOD is one of J.H.'s few really heartfelt films).

One thing that's unusual about the P.T.A. film is the extent to which it forces you to really think about the Plainview character. He has an attempt at explaining himself to Kevin J. O'Connor's character, but enough of his motivation is left in shadow to make him an urgent discussion point as you leave the cinema. All he can say is that he's angry, and hates most of humanity, and he seems to regard this anger as an inborn trait he can do nothing about.

Was Huston angry? It's a theory, at least. Much of Huston's behaviour seems to have been in defiance of his poor health in childhood. Did the drive and determnation that forced him to repeatedly throw himself into a rapidly-flowing river as a boy, to prove his need to live, bring with it a rage against all weakness -- a projection outwards of the vulnerability he wished to destroy in himself?

This psychiatric stuff isn't really my natural element, but the film seems to force one to it, which is part of its peculiar strength. I'm reminded of André Hodeir's fine piece on the Marx Brothers (recommended by David Ehrenstein here on the blog), where he comments in passing on the scene in DUCK SOUP where Groucho psychs himself into a state of outrage at the thought of something which hasn't even happened ("I hold out my hand to him and that hyena refuses to accept it!"). Hodeir observes, "the psychological mechanism of anger is displayed here with great comic subtlety," and I think the same might be said of Day-Lewis' whole performance here. As in real life, anger leads to more anger. When Plainview starts to finally unleash it, it can't be stemmed and even after he's fully revenged himslef it continues to flood out, with horrible consequences.

Perhaps that's why he's so chipper in the last shot -- has he finally been freed of a monster that was gnawing his insides?

You can see the Groucho version here:

The moment is 3 minutes 50 seconds in, but the rest is all good too -- you can see Charles "Emperor Ming" Middleton reprise his role of prosecutor from Von Sternberg's AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY (a film which seems to have obsessed Groucho, judging by his further reference to it in HORSE FEATHERS).

 

Duck Soup by Jackie Urbanovic  first caught my eye because of the Marx brother film with the same name.  Max decides to prepare a delicious soup and puts his culinary skills to the test. Max is MIA when Bebe the bird, Dakota the cat, and Brody the dog enter the kitchen. The animals search for Max...who knows where he just might turn up. :)

When Marian Sang by Pam Munoz Ryan and Brian Selznick chronicles the story of Marian Anderson, a talented singer and the first African American to sing at the Metropolitan Opera. It is told through narration and traditional songs. It beautifully depicts Marian's perseverance to achieve her dreams while facing  multiple roadblocks. Brian Selznick's uncle Richard's recollections inspired the telling of this tale, even though Richard's memory proved exaggerated and sometimes untrue. Selznick's illustrations drew my attention more than the text. (The picture is of my signed copy by Brian Selznick.)

The Dumpster Diverproves that beauty is in the eye of the beholder; one woman's trash is another person's treasure. It is the story of Steve, a boy who dives in the neighborhood dumpster. He seeks out the perfect gifts for his neighbors The author, Janet Wong, provides the inspiration behind the book on her website:

Why did I write The Dumpster Diver?
 
I am drowning in junk. My basement, garage, and closets are full of just-slightly-broken furniture, outdated electronics, parts and pieces of my son’s old toys, and strange doodads that people thought would make a funny gift. Every year I take a big load of my best junk to Goodwill. I leave the slightly-broken stuff at home. I could throw the broken stuff away, but that would seem too wasteful. And so the piles in my basement, garage, and closets continue to grow.
 
A few years ago I met Kerry Wade, an artist who makes furniture out of old things. I loved the chair he crafted out of broken wooden skis. When I asked him how he got the idea to make it, he answered, “Oh, I’m just a Dumpster Diver!” The idea of this intrigued me; I don’t want kids to start jumping into Dumpsters, though! In The Dumpster Diver, the kids decide (at the end of the book) that asking neighbors for old and unused stuff is much better than digging through trash.
 
The Dumpster Diver is a call-to-action to all of us to stop throwing good stuff away. I would be thrilled if my book started a trend: I’d like to see groups of children and adults get together to fix and build new things out of Useful Junk. This would be a good Earth Day project. Or something fun and unusual to do at birthday parties, or in the summer. A substitute for frenzied shopping at the mall—and good practice that might lead to becoming an inventor, engineer, or Mad Scientist!
 
My message to kids: Reduce-Reuse-Recycle! Have fun with your junk, while you make this world a better place!

Anyhow, I was carefully monitoring Fiona's joy-levels as she watched the clips, and the clear winner was this one:

You probably all know it, but it's an interesting one nonetheless. Bear in mind, this isn't about the best cinema, merely the most bliss-inducing, and that's clearly not the same thing -- but this is still a magnificent sequence. The animation of the apes is impressive, they have real weight and substance and meat on their bones, and real bones too. Unlike Jessica Rabbit they aren't unstructured plastic excrescences, and unlike the Little Mermaid their features don't float, unmoored, on their faces, like flotsam.

Then there's the song. The Sherman Brothers had a few years of being able to do no wrong, with fantastic work in THE JUNGLE BOOK, CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG and MARY POPPINS. Go listen if you don't believe me. "Me Ole Bamboo" from CCBB is the song all of Scotland will be dancing to tonight.

Fiona and I both groove equally to the scat singing and the more coherent, yet still non sequiteur-ish interjections like "Take me home, daddy!" That always cracks me up. And the words "Not yet Balloo!" have an iconic resonance in our household.

What's also cool is that when Fiona first saw this, as a tiny tot, she didn't like it, was seriously freaked out by it, in fact. "I don't like the monkey! Why are his arms so long?" she cried as she was manoevred from the auditorium. It's one of the nice things about growing up, we can appreciate the appeal of a singing oran-outan without experiencing the primal terror than initially accompanies his every movement.

And if that's not something to feel euphoric about, I don't know what is.

(Euphoria #3 should be along sometime early in the new year)

This is the only Marx Bros. movie without a romantic subplot, which Zeppo had carried in the four previous movies. (Thus it's the only one of their movies with no scenes that you're inclined to fast-forward.)

Zeppo briefly went into business as an agent with his older brother Herbert ("Gummo"). Later he became a successful inventor of a motorized bicycle and a watch for heart patients that warned or cardiac arrest. His best-known invention is the Marman clamp, which was used to transport the first atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

(NOTE: today's section runs 14:04)

Technorati tags: Duck Soup, Marx Brothers, Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Zeppo Marx, Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby, Arthur Sheekman, Nat Perrin, Leo McCarey, Herman J. Mankiewicz, Margaret Dumont, Raquel Torres, Louis Calhern, Edgar Kennedy, Edwin Maxwell, Paramount Pictures

It took me a moment, while messing around with TCB's insanely complex video/audio setup, to figure out that the Marx Brothers made talkies - of course, Groucho's delivery wouldn't be so legendary if it all came up in supertitle, and Harpo's silence wouldn't have been worth comment. Let the credits roll...

The credits contain a screen saying "Proud member of the NRA". This (except, perhaps, for the black and white thing) was the first indication that Duck Soup is from another era. It is from an era where plot coherence was secondary to slapstick opportunities and setups for Groucho's rapid-fire one-liners. It is from an era where you could make jokes about gas attacks, or "that's why the darkies were born". It is from an era where people routinely burst into song mid-film. And it is from an era where being without a hat was unthinkable.

The plot, for all its efforts to be convoluted, is rather simple: Mrs Teasdale, financier to the Freedonian government, insists that Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho) be installed as leader or else she won't lend them any more money. Teasdale herself is the object of the affections of both Firefly and the Sylvanian ambassador Trentino. The two insult each other and push their mythical fiefdoms into war.

There's an entertaining subplot in which Chicolini (Chico) and Pinky (Harpo), employed as Trentino's spies, spend much of their time bullying a lemonade-stand owner. Later in the film, they perform the classic "pretend mirror" routine (originally Charlie Chaplin's) - perfectly executed, and made even more comical by the fact that they're both disguised as Groucho. If Sideshow Bob's rake gag owes its provenance to anything, it's to Chico and Harpo - their slapstick routines run the amusing-tedious-hilarious route as well as any ill-fated evil sidekick ever could, some 60 years earlier.

Now, for someone as fond of awful puns as I am, I'm pretty ambivalent about Groucho Marx. Yes, he has some good lines, "Run out and find me a four-year-old child" being probably my favourite - but it seems that the story is wrenched and tortured just to provide him with setups. The best line, for the record, is "What about the old maestro?", and I think it's delivered by Chico. It's a little hard to tell, because they're all dressed like Groucho at that point. The script says it's Groucho. But I want it to be Chico.

On a side note: Zeppo really doesn't have much of a role, even as Groucho's straight man. Apparently this was his last Marx Brothers movie. The film would have been little poorer without him.

Anyway, Duck Soup, as a ridiculously light absurdity, is entertaining. It certainly didn't constitute a waste of an hour and a half, and it's frenetically paced and notable for having only one special effect - and I'm not sure whether the breaking mirror is done badly for comic effect or just because that's what movie special effects were like in the 30s. I wouldn't rate the film (in terms of a stand-alone picture, compared to all that has come since) all that highly, though. That's not to say that it isn't a hugely important movie - for instance, I can't imagine The Goon Show being made without it (Spike Milligan, of course, wasn't afraid to spend an entire show building up to an excruciating punchline, rather than Groucho's comparatively simple machine-gun of set-up/punchline, repeat ad nauseam). Indeed, there's probably little comedy made after Duck Soup that doesn't owe at least something to it.

In summary... it's a must-watch, but not a must keep. You might even need to watch it twice if you can't keep up with Groucho's delivery. It's the kind of film that's hard not to laugh at at least somewhere, but I doubt it would stand up to multiple viewings.