10 Strangest Fictitious Countries

Though it's often claimed otherwise, The Marx Bros.' Duck Soup was not a critical and commercial failure. It requires no reappraisal from newer generations, it was interpreted correctly the first time. For a film that opened during the Great Depression, in fact, it went over about as well as to be expected.

The Marx Bros., it's storied, found their style of comedy when they were working vaudeville houses in 1912 and an annoyed Groucho began berating the audience. Instead of getting angry, they laughed.

By 1933, they had become well established in Hollywood, with five released films and their first only previewed. Duck Soup would be their last under Paramount.

Duck Soup opens much like most Marx Bros. setups, with Groucho in over his head with a wealthy socialite. In this instance, Groucho is tasked with running the bankrupt nation of Freedonia while it's in danger of being overtaken by neighbouring Sylvania. We aren't really given a rundown of Freedonia's mandates, and if they were written, it'd likely be in disappearing ink. Duck Soup is intentionally frustrating that way.

Determining who contributed what to the script, or even trying to suss out what was improvised, is a lost cause. But the jokes are still just as funny.

It's still as funny as it is timely, relentlessly sending up nationalism for the absurdity it can be. Just when you think Mussolini is irrelevant...