93
Metascore
15 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertThere is an odd moment when Harpo shows Groucho a doghouse tattooed on his stomach, and in a special effect a real dog emerges and barks at him. The brothers broke the classical structure of movie comedy and glued it back again haphazardly, and nothing was ever the same.
- 100The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter BradshawThe sheer silliness is inspired.
- 100EmpireIan NathanEmpireIan NathanThe Marx brothers on top form with their quickfire comedy and banter.
- 100TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineA masterpiece...DUCK SOUP is perhaps the best, and funniest, depiction of the absurdities of war ever committed to celluloid.
- 100Time OutTime OutGenius just about covers it.
- 90Chicago ReaderDave KehrChicago ReaderDave KehrThe Marx Brothers' best movie (1933) and, not coincidentally, the one with the strongest director—Leo McCarey, who had the flexibility to give the boys their head and the discipline to make some formal sense of it.
- 88The Seattle TimesJohn HartlThe Seattle TimesJohn HartlThe Marx Brothers at their purest and funniest - no romantic subplot, no musical interludes with Harpo, no distractions from the fun of watching Groucho deflate Margaret Dumont as he becomes dictator of Fredonia and frivolously declares war. Cleverly directed by Leo McCarey, it was the team's least popular 1930s film, perhaps because the tone of non-stop anarchy proved too unsettling to Depression audiences. [10 May 1991, p.65]
- Its relentless pot shots at war, religion and just about everything else making it more controlled chaos than movie.
- A production in which the bludgeon is employed more often than the gimlet. The result is that this production is, for the most part, extremely noisy without being nearly as mirthful as their other films.