tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post658800543679983257..comments2024-03-18T00:41:13.588-07:00Comments on Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule: DUCK SOUP-- FUNNIEST MOVIE EVER?Dennis Cozzaliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-89373446728964834042009-08-04T03:11:26.008-07:002009-08-04T03:11:26.008-07:00I
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Every seat was full, the laughs drowned out dialogue throughout and there was actual applause at the end!Bookstevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09797445163866512849noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-65448298014783713682009-06-08T06:09:18.854-07:002009-06-08T06:09:18.854-07:00To answer your question: Yes, I believe "Duck...To answer your question: Yes, I believe "Duck Soup" to be the funniest movie ever.<br /><br />Brilliant post, Dennis.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-47985186432526582962009-06-04T15:48:00.958-07:002009-06-04T15:48:00.958-07:00What a wonderful post, Dennis! Your daughter sound...What a wonderful post, Dennis! Your daughter sounds like such a joy -- your love and admiration comes through in every post you write about her.<br /><br />My favourite comedy-with-a-live-audience experiences include SOUTH PARK: BLU and THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY, both of which have been mentioned already; as well as STEAMBOAT BILL JR., ROAD TO MOROCCO, and THE LADY EVE. ROAD TO MOROCCO stands out in particular as a film that probably would have struck me as a minor, corny little movie if I'd caught it on TV, but which seemed impossibly entertaining in the company of a couple hundred other moviegoers chuckling along with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby's amiable bickering and the effortlessly charming songs by Burke and Van Heusen.Paul Matwychukhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01917384620564525389noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-7530546243382758682009-06-03T02:17:56.926-07:002009-06-03T02:17:56.926-07:00With apologies for posting in serial fashion, anot...With apologies for posting in serial fashion, another movie theater moment, also at the Bing Theater. As part of a program of Tex Avery cartoons they were showing Blitz Wolf. When the Nazified Big Bad Wolf steps out of his staff car, a spontaneous hiss goes through the audience. On screen, with perfect timing, the Wolf pulls out a sign: "GO AHEAD AND HISS -- WHO CARES!" The place broke into gales of laughter, and I realized that this was exactly the audience reaction when it was first screened in 1942.Robert Fiorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06357467040644448167noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-57348603435094295662009-06-02T22:39:32.533-07:002009-06-02T22:39:32.533-07:00I'm not sure where I saw them first, but when ...I'm not sure where I saw them first, but when I was probably just about your daughter's age, Groucho Marx became my first ever hero. He still is one of them (though that Nelson Mandella guy is kinda cool too).Bob Westalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17515868620255715845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-84717334559777992032009-06-02T22:32:25.016-07:002009-06-02T22:32:25.016-07:00Oh god, Richard Pryor Live in Concert, I completel...Oh god, Richard Pryor Live in Concert, I completely forgot about that! That's got to be my number two, after Morgan's Creek, and a close one. I saw it at the Wiltern, pre-renovation, right at the tail end of the time it was still a movie theater. Not many people in the house, though.Robert Fiorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06357467040644448167noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-89366987401626365202009-06-02T22:27:49.284-07:002009-06-02T22:27:49.284-07:00I think I mentioned this before, but the funniest ...I think I mentioned this before, but the funniest movie I ever saw in a packed house was the first time I saw Miracle of Morgan's Creek, at the Bing Theater at LACMA. By the end of the movie ("It's a state trooper's uniform! I can see it from here!") I was literally leaning in my seat at a 45-degree angle and stamping my foot. The first time I saw a Preston Sturges movie I didn't know him from John, they sprung him on me at one of the late lamented Filmex 50-hour movie marathons. If memory serves I saw Sullivan's Travels, Christmas in July and The Great McGinty at that screening, and could have seen The Lady Eve if I'd had the stamina.<br /><br />Honorable mentions would be the first Ghostbusters and Mel Brooks' brief apex, Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein. I'd say the Brooks movies were the Duck Soup of my time, though actually in its time Duck Soup went over audiences' heads, and it was something of a flop. Incidentally, the part in Animal Crackers where Groucho addresses the audience is a parody of Eugene O'Neill's Strange Interlude, in which the characters speak to each other through masks, then turn to the audience and speak their inner thoughts. You might recall Groucho says something to the effect of "I feel a strange interlude coming on."<br /><br />The biggest reaction to a particular scene I've ever witnessed is in Buster Keaton's Seven Chances, where Buster is fleeing a mob of would-be brides down a hill, and smaller rocks start dislodging bigger rocks until he's in the midst of an avalanche. As he's running madly to escape the rocks he sees the mob has shifted directions and is coming after him from the bottom of the hill. He suddenly stops and scratches his head -- you wouldn't know from the description but it's probably the most perfect moment in movie comedy. It came about by accident. Originally they just filmed Buster running down the hill, and he accidentally kicked a rock which set a few other rocks moving. It got a laugh in previews, and they went back and spun the whole sequence out of it. You always hear people saying that silent comedies are particularly appealing to children -- has anybody actually tried them on actual children?Robert Fiorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06357467040644448167noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-62235862695172306362009-06-02T20:25:07.538-07:002009-06-02T20:25:07.538-07:00I've been lucky enough to have several experie...I've been lucky enough to have several experiences similar to the one you describe, even though I've given up on the "theatrical experience" altogether for exactly the reasons you mentioned.<br /><br />Among them were Shaolin Soccer, My Sassy Girl (the original version, obviously) and Attack the Gas Station (another Korean comedy). The most memorable was a screening of 1947's Gángsters contra Charros, from Juan Orol, Mexico's answer to Ed Wood and a filmmaker who remains sadly unknown in the U.S. Rosa Carmina, the star of the film, was present on that occasion and I sincerely hope she wasn't offended by the peels of laughter emanating from the audience, given that the comedy in Gangsters contra Charros is of the inadvertent kind.<br /><br />And finally, although it has a reputation as a bleak drama, Mathieu Kassovitz's La Haine is also one of the funniest films I've seen in a packed movie house.Marco Gonzalez Ambrizhttp://www.revistacinefagia.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-78619262840947172132009-06-02T18:29:47.538-07:002009-06-02T18:29:47.538-07:00Oh, this was wonderful to read. I've had the p...Oh, this was wonderful to read. I've had the privilege of seeing Duck Soup with an audience - in my case, a screening at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine - but that was more than 20 years ago. To be able to take someone to one and see it through their fresh eyes... what a treasure of a moment.<br /><br />I third the <i>South Park BLU</i> experience; people were literally <i>screaming</i> with laughter. A close second was <i>There's Something About Mary</i>, which I saw early enough in its run that not every joke had been revealed. Interestingly, I remember all the reviews mentioning the zipper gag, but not the hair gel gag. That, along with the dog on uppers gag, had audience people stamping their feet, and I swear I actually saw a guy fall out of his chair.Patrickhttp://www.examiner.com/x-3803-Portland-Pop-Culture-Examinernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-47255480352837605442009-06-02T14:04:20.507-07:002009-06-02T14:04:20.507-07:00Per your request for the funniest movie ever seen ...Per your request for the funniest movie ever seen in a packed house, what immediatly comes to mind is a very memorable Saturday night circa 1975 or so at my hometown theater, the Dolton Theater in Dolton, IL, for a double feature of "The Pink Panther Strikes Again" and "The Revenge of the Pink Panther." <br /><br />The theater was jam packed for this double feature, and there were sequences that generated so much laughter you could not hear the screen. Often, it didn't matter, not with the slapstick on display. <br /><br />I particularly remember the opening fight scene between Kato and Closeau in "Strikes Back", resulting in the almost total destrcution of Closeau's apartment. I don't think I've ever heard laughter like that at a movie before or since. <br /><br />I can't even remember the last time I experienced such all-encompassing laughter with contemporary movies. Oh, there's lots of "EEEWW" moments, but not genuine belly laughs. <br /><br />One that does come to mind is the very underrated "Rat Race" (2001) and one scene in particular. I can't remember the set-up, but somehow Jon Lovitz, complete with a temporary Hitler-style moustache, crashes a Nazi-decorated town car into a reunion of World War II veterans. Lovitz stands in the car and begins yelling, screaming and gesticulating wildly at the veterans like Hitler telling off his Russian Front generals. That scene had the entire audience roaring, the type of laughter that continued long after the scene had ended.Kevin Deanyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07697597405552599370noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-6353231749486835832009-06-02T13:43:33.682-07:002009-06-02T13:43:33.682-07:00My youngest loves Duck Soup and she, my wife and I...My youngest loves <B>Duck Soup</B> and she, my wife and I can watch the last bunker scene over and over and over again. It really is one of the great screen comedies and the last truly great Marx Brothers film before the studios took over and started demanding romantic interest subplots that got in the way of just listening to Groucho for an hour and a half.Greghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05730146625671701859noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-57180389203821512042009-06-02T10:30:06.544-07:002009-06-02T10:30:06.544-07:00Alonzo: I second your South Park: BLU experience (...Alonzo: I second your <I>South Park: BLU</I> experience (which I believe David Edelstein, in his original review, dubbed this generation's <I>Duck Soup</I>). I was in hysterics during that movie, even though I saw a matinee on a giant screen in Westwood that was very sparsely populated. Register a near-heart attack reaction from me the first couple of times I saw <I>Richard Pryor Live in Concert</I> theatrically as well.<br /><br />Kevin: I will pass the word. She knows she's got a good egg on her shoulders, but I like to tell her so every once in a while too! Coincidentally, I was reading a post on Answers.com yesterday from a woman who posted a very frustrated query, expressing the same confusion over this joke-- "I don't get it!!!" She then proceeded to get very defensive over what she perceived as condescending attempts to explain it to her. Yikes!Dennis Cozzaliohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-6081703444098955052009-06-02T09:46:39.658-07:002009-06-02T09:46:39.658-07:00Dennis: That was an absolutely marvelous post.
T...Dennis: That was an absolutely marvelous post. <br /><br />The elephant in the pajamas pun in "Animal Crackers" is my favorite pun of all time. Years ago, I related it to a group of friends and no one got it. They didn't get the joke. I was dumbfounded and pulled out the VHS tape, thinking maybe Groucho's delivery would better sell the joke. Nope, they still didn't understand it. It didn't make any sense to them. One finally got it, but she said, "It was stupid." Sigh.<br /><br />Be sure to tell your daughter she is smarter than some adults I know.Kevin Deanyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07697597405552599370noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-60911840875555302862009-06-02T08:26:54.170-07:002009-06-02T08:26:54.170-07:00I actually made a point to purchase the Marx Broth...I actually made a point to purchase the Marx Brother DVD box set earlier this year because I wanted to have it on hand for my soon-to-be-born daughter. It may very well be the only way she could be exposed to it, given the very limited classic film theater options available in Jacksonville, Florida. I do so want her to have the same reactions yours did, so maybe I'll start writing letters to the Florida Theatre and make suggestions for their Summer Movie series in a couple of years.<br /><br />I agree that comedy is the most potent of theater experiences. One of the most memorable for me was seeing the "South Park" movie on opening weekend in a packed house. It's definitely not Groucho, but the laughter in that large room was so infectuous that I had tears in my eyes for most of the evening.Alonzo Mosley (FBI)https://www.blogger.com/profile/01518458463986396352noreply@blogger.com