''Duck Soup'' is a
silent comedy
Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...
short film
A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...
starring
Stan Laurel and
Oliver Hardy prior to their official billing as the duo
Laurel and Hardy. The team appeared in a total of 107 films between 1921 and 1951.
Plot
Fleeing a group of forest rangers, who are rounding up tramps to serve as firefighters, Laurel and Hardy take refuge in a mansion. The owner has gone on vacation and the servants are away, so Hardy pretends to be the owner and offers to rent the house to an English couple. Hardy gets Laurel to pose as the maid. Unfortunately, the owner returns and tells the would-be renters that he owns the house. Laurel and Hardy then flee again and are caught by the rangers and forced to fight wildfires.
Production background
''Duck Soup'' was considered a
lost film
A lost film is a feature
Feature may refer to:
Computing
* Feature (CAD), could be a hole, pocket, or notch
* Feature (computer vision), could be an edge, corner or blob
* Feature (software design) is an intentional distinguishing char ...
for nearly fifty years, until a print was discovered in 1974. It was previously thought by film scholars that the comedians shared few scenes, if any, but in fact they appear as a team throughout the entire picture, albeit rather primitively, dressed in tramp costumes, with Hardy sporting an unshaven chin,
monocle
A monocle is a type of corrective lens used to correct or enhance the visual perception in only one eye. It consists of a circular lens, generally with a wire ring around the circumference that can be attached to a string or wire. The other ...
, and
top hat
A top hat (also called a high hat, a cylinder hat, or, informally, a topper) is a tall, flat-crowned hat for men traditionally associated with formal wear in Western dress codes, meaning white tie, morning dress, or frock coat. Traditional ...
. In the next few films,
Laurel and Hardy were together as separate performers and not working as a
double act, before their potential as a team was used again, notably in ''
Do Detectives Think?'' (1927), another Hal Roach two-reeler.
The film was directed by
Fred Guiol
Fred Guiol (February 17, 1898 – May 23, 1964), pronounced "Gill," was an American film director and screenwriter. Guiol worked at the Hal Roach Studios for many years, first as a property man, later as assistant director and finally writer and ...
. However, the more important contribution was by the films' supervising director,
Leo McCarey
Thomas Leo McCarey (October 3, 1898 – July 5, 1969) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He was involved in nearly 200 films, the most well known today being '' Duck Soup'', ''Make Way for Tomorrow'', '' The Awful T ...
, who probably more than anyone else at Roach saw the greatest possibilities for Laurel and Hardy as a comedy team. McCarey later used the same title for the classic
Marx Brothers
The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act that was successful in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in motion pictures from 1905 to 1949. Five of the Marx Brothers' thirteen feature films were selected by the American Film Institute (AFI) ...
film, ''
Duck Soup'', which he directed for
Paramount Pictures in 1933. The sketch on which the film was based was written by Stan Laurel's father,
Arthur J. Jefferson.
''Duck Soup'' was remade as ''
Another Fine Mess'' (1930).
The print found in 1974 was a cropped 9.5mm re-release with French intertitles replacing the originals. However, since then a pristine quality full aperture 35mm nitrate print was located at the
BFI National Archive
The BFI National Archive is a department of the British Film Institute, and one of the largest film archives in the world. It was founded as the National Film Library in 1935; its first curator was Ernest Lindgren. In 1955, its name became the N ...
, which appears to be from a British re-release. A restored version of the film with a
theater organ
A theatre organ (also known as a theater organ, or, especially in the United Kingdom, a cinema organ) is a type of pipe organ developed to accompany silent films, from the 1900s to the 1920s.
Theatre organs have horseshoe-shaped arrangements o ...
soundtrack accompaniment was televised on the
Movies!
Movies! (also known as simply M!) is an American free-to-air television network, owned by Popcorn Entertainment, LLC, a joint venture between Weigel Broadcasting and the Fox Television Stations subsidiary of Fox Corporation. The network's prog ...
channel in the U.S. on December 26, 2020.
Cast
References
Further reading
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External links
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{{Fred Guiol
1927 films
1920s English-language films
1927 comedy films
American silent short films
American black-and-white films
Films directed by Fred Guiol
Laurel and Hardy (film series)
Films with screenplays by H. M. Walker
1920s rediscovered films
Silent American comedy films
Rediscovered American films
1920s American films