Duck Soup (1933 Film) - Production

Production

The Marx Brothers' previous film, Horse Feathers, had been Paramount's highest-grossing film of 1932. Encouraged by this success, the studio suggested on August 2, 1932, that they rush out a follow-up. Already at this early stage, the story (provisionally entitled Oo La La) was set in a mythical kingdom. On August 11, 1932, The Los Angeles Times reported that production would commence in five weeks with the famed Ernst Lubitsch directing.

This was a turbulent time in the Marx Brothers' career. Reorganization at Paramount Pictures brought fears that money due the Brothers would never be paid; as a result, the Brothers threatened to leave Paramount and start their own company, Marx Bros., Inc. Their first planned independent production was a film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway musical Of Thee I Sing, with Norman McLeod leaving Paramount to direct. During late 1932 and early 1933, Groucho and Chico were also working on Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel, a radio show written by Nat Perrin and Arthur Sheekman; there was even, at one time, talk of casting the two as their radio characters for the new film (an idea that would eventually be used for the later Marx Brothers film The Big Store).

By October 4, 1932, Arthur Sheekman, Harry Ruby, and Bert Kalmar began writing the screenplay for the next Paramount film, which was now called Firecrackers. Herman Mankiewicz was to supervise production, beginning in January 1933. By December 1932, Firecrackers had become Cracked Ice. Grover Jones was also reported to have contributed to the first draft by Ruby and Kalmar. In The Marx Brothers Encyclopedia, Glenn Mitchell says that "the first script's content is difficult to determine".

On January 18, 1933, Harry Ruby, Bert Kalmar and Grover Jones submitted to Paramount their "Second Temporary Script" for Cracked Ice, and Paramount announced that shooting would commence on February 15. This script shows that the basic story of what would become Duck Soup had been fixed. In February, Paramount announced that the title had been changed to Grasshoppers ("because animal stories are so popular"), and that filming was set back to February 20.

However, on May 11, 1933, the Marx Brothers' father Sam "Frenchie" Marx died in Los Angeles of a heart attack, and shortly afterwards, the contract dispute with Paramount was settled. The New York Post reported on May 17 that the Brothers would make a new comedy for Paramount, called Duck Soup. Leo McCarey was set for direction of the film. Three days later The New York Sun reported that Duck Soup would start filming in June. Duck Soup's script was completed by July 11. The script was a continuation of Ruby and Kalmar's Firecrackers/Cracked Ice drafts, but contained more elements. Many of the film's clever gags and routines were lifted from Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel, giving Perrin and Sheekman an "additional dialogue" credit.

Director McCarey reportedly came up with the title for the film, having previously used it for an earlier directorial effort with Laurel and Hardy. This continued the "animal" titles of the Brothers' previous three films, Animal Crackers, Monkey Business and Horse Feathers.

"Duck soup" was American English slang at that time; it meant something easy to do. Conversely, "to duck something" meant to avoid it. When Groucho was asked for an explanation of the title, he quipped, "Take two turkeys, one goose, four cabbages, but no duck, and mix them together. After one taste, you'll duck soup for the rest of your life."

McCarey also thought up "the very Laurel & Hardy-like sequence in which Harpo and Chico stage a break-in at Mrs Teasdale's house." Another McCarey contribution was the "mirror scene" a revival of an old vaudeville act, (see above).