Of course, the Marx Brothers are among the greatest comedians of all time. Their movies are as much show as tell, with oddball musical numbers, insanely hilarious comedy bits and routines, and nasty zingers galore.

 

Anyone who wants to learn the dynamics of comedy should be studying the Marx Brothers the same as all of the other great comedy masters, and that’s a given.

 

But what all screenwriters can take from Duck Soup is the lesson of….

 

MOVE YOUR PLOT FORWARD WHILE SUCCEEDING AT GENRE-WRITING

 

Duck Soup is a comedic musical that is slightly over an hour long. In a comedy you are allowed a couple of scenes that are meant for no reason other than to make the audience laugh. In this film, there is a side-plot where Pinky (Chico Marx) gets into a feud with a lemonade stand attendant, which escalates through the movie to where Chico finally ends up in the attendant’s bathtub at his home, quite by accident. Those scenes are very funny and serve as the side storyline. Remove them and you lose nothing where the movie’s plot is concerned, because they have nothing at all to do with the plot.

 

But that’s okay, because Pinky’s feud serves as the acceptable comedic sidebar and lasts a total of three scenes in the entire film. You can do that, and get away with it.

 

It’s fine.

 

All of the other scenes relate directly to the main plot of the film, which is rival nation Sylvanian ambassador Trentino’s attempt to usurp control of the bankrupt nation of Freedonia, which is led by newly appointed leader, Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx).

 

In every scene, two things occur:

 

A) An absolutely ludicrous amount of word-play, physical humor, and outrageousness played brilliantly by a tremendously talented comedic cast.

 

B) The plot is moved forward to the eventual inevitability of war between the two nations due specifically to the stubborn nature of Rufus T. Firefly. The protagonist of the film clearly makes the decisions that lead to war between the nations, he is the catalyst. The Antagonist Trentino’s nefarious plans, while continuing to backfire, push the movie forward at all times, and lead to some of the funniest and most classic scenes in film.

 

This film features the “Mirror Scene” where Pinky, impersonating Firefly, confronts him in front of a large mirror and mimics his every move perfectly, or hilariously, not so perfectly but gets away with it until Chicolini (Chico Marx), also impersonating Firefly, charges in and messes things up. Funny as all of this is, it happens because Pinky and Chicolini, spies hired by Trentino, attempt to steal Freedoni’s war plans. It’s all plot-driven chaos.

 

It is hilarious that on several occasions in the film, Trentino attempts to create lasting peace. Every time, Firefly baits Trentino into insulting him, and Firefly slaps him which is an insult too great for Trentino to ignore, and negotiations break down. In every one of these instances, the protagonist, Rufus T. Firefly has a choice and makes it. He could solve the problem, shake Trentino’s hand, and create a lasting peace over and over. But he doesn’t. This constant Protagonist versus Antagonist battle is the central conflict of the film and that’s why this film works so well. It is structurally sound even while being simultaneously ludicrous and focused on its comedic and musical elements.

 

Many writers make the mistake of separating plot and comedy. They have scenes that are blase but move the plot forward, and then have scenes that are hilarious but drift away from the plot or keep the story moving sideways or even worse, grind the story to a halt.

 

The skilled comedic screenwriter moves the plot forward while simultaneously making us laugh.

 

But, you say, I don’t write comedy at all. Ever. So what will studying Duck Soup do for me? Well, the answer to that is simple. The lesson works no matter what kind of film you are building.

 

If you are building a horror or suspense movie, then you need to keep the plot moving forward while frightening your audience. Again, you have a couple of scenes where you can just scare the daylights out of us, but for the most part, you have to keep the protagonist chasing the goal of surviving, defeating the monster, saving the day, whatever you’ve decided the main goal is, that’s your plot. Anytime the main character is off-screen and not doing it, your manuscript is getting weaker, not stronger.

 

If you are building a romantic comedy then you need to keep the plot moving while building the relationship. All too often, less skilled writers keep the plot moving sideways, that is, not escalating by using the ticking time bomb to raise the stakes, so that the audience truly cares about what might happen if things go wrong. That is because sometimes writers separate the romance from the story advancing. And that is simply bad writing that needs to be corrected.

You can go down the line, across the board. Action movies are notorious for having too much action, too little story. Yet the ones that have both in abundance – where the action is rampant and the plot constantly moves forward during the action (Diehard is among the best examples), are in general much more memorable and lasting in the minds of both critics and an audience.

And so, that is the primary lesson for writers where Duck Soup is concerned. It’s always striving to be funny. There is no scene in it where the funny doesn’t dominate. But the plot always advances as well.

 

It’s not that you can do both at the same time. It’s that you MUST do both at the same time, in order to have a well-written manuscript. No matter the genre, or the tone, or the world you are building, this rule absolutely applies all the time.

 

Use all Musical Numbers to Further the Story

 

The same can be said for the musical numbers, which all happen at key points in the story. This is not coincidence and each propels the story forward into the next main aspect of the film. This is absolutely necessary in a musical. That the music numbers in this film all propel the story forward, and are brilliant comedy in addition, is another reason why Duck Soup is hailed as a superior film and the Marx Brothers’ most significant of all of their tremendous works.

Musical numbers should be handled the same way that fight scenes are handled in an action film, that steamy sex scenes are handled in drama and romance, that a gory death scene is handled in a slasher movie.

 

It is part of the fun of the genre, why people specifically are watching the film, and they should not be throwaway moments. They should be unique, well-timed, and geared towards shifting the story into a higher gear from which it should never return. Using a musical number to create a significant transition in the plot which affects all of the main characters is important, and the very best musicals strive to do this.

 

You should too, in your musical.

 

Duck Soup is one of the most fun ways to spend an hour and ten minutes of your time. But if you reverse-engineer it properly, fellow screenwriter, you will see there is more to it than initially meets the eye.