The Marx Brothers' greatest and funniest masterpiece - the classic comedy Duck Soup (1933) is a short, but brilliant satire and lampooning of blundering dictatorial leaders, Fascism and authoritarian government. The film, produced by Herman Mankiewicz, was prepared during the crisis period of the Depression. Some of its clever gags and routines were taken from Groucho's and Chico's early 1930s radio show Flywheel, Shyster & Flywheel. Working titles for the film included Oo La La, Firecrackers, Grasshoppers, and Cracked Ice.

Actor/director Woody Allen paid homage to the film in his Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) - with an excerpt from the musical number "The Country's Going to War." While attending an afternoon screening of Duck Soup at his local repertory movie theater, one of the film's characters - a depressed and neurotic NY Jew named Mickey Sachs (played by Allen himself), who is afraid of disease and dying - experiences a climactic epiphany that life was meant to be enjoyed, by narrating: "And I started to feel how can you even think of killing yourself? I mean, isn't it so stupid?..." Further, the mirror sequence was re-enacted by Harpo with Lucille Ball on her 1950's I Love Lucy TV show many years later.

The irrepressible comedians in this quintessential anarchic, satirical film simply but irreverently attack the pomposity of small-time governmental leaders (Firefly as President), the absurdity of government itself (the Cabinet meeting scene), governmental diplomacy (the Trentino-Firefly scenes), an arbitrary legal system (Chicolini's trial), and war fought over petty matters (the mobilization and war scenes). The non-stop, frenetic film is filled with a number of delightfully hilarious moments, gags, fast-moving acts, double entendres, comedy routines, puns, pure silliness, zany improvisations, quips and insult-spewed lines of dialogue - much of the comedy makes the obvious statement that war is indeed nonsensical and meaninglessly destructive. It also contains a few of their most famous sequences:

The mirror routine, contributed by McCarey, had been used by Charlie Chaplin in The Floorwalker (1916) and by Max Linder in Seven Year's Bad Luck (1921). Unlike many of their other features, there are no romantic subplots (with Zeppo) and no musical interludes that stop the film's momentum - no harp solos for Harpo and no piano solos for Chico. There are, however, a couple of musical numbers that are perfectly integrated into the plot:

Why the title Duck Soup? [Earlier in 1927, director Leo McCarey had made a two-reel Laurel and Hardy film with the same title - and he borrowed the title from there.] The film's title uses a familiar American phrase that means anything simple or easy, or alternately, a gullible sucker or pushover. Under the opening credits, four quacking ducks (the four Marx Brothers) are seen swimming and cooking in a kettle over a fire. Groucho reportedly provided the following recipe to explain the title: "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."

The film opens with the flag of Freedonia (emblazoned with an "F") flying over the small village. The government of a "mythical kingdom" - the Balkan state of Freedonia, is suffering an emergency. It has gone bankrupt through mismanagement and is on the verge of revolution. The country's richest dowager millionairess, the wide and widowed benefactress Mrs. Gloria Teasdale (Margaret Dumont in a welcome return as the perfect foil for Groucho) has offered $20 million to sponsor and support the cash-poor government, but only if it is placed under new leadership:

The opening scene is the classic inaugural ceremony and lawn party for the conferring of the Presidency of the tin-pot republic to a newly-appointed leader, Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx), characterized by a supportive Mrs. Teasdale as "a progressive, fearless fighter." She vows: "I will lend the money to Freedonia only if Firefly is appointed leader." Headlines in the Freedonia Gazette read: "FIREFLY APPOINTED NEW LEADER OF FREEDONIA." A sub-article reads: "Mammoth Reception Arranged to Welcome Nation's Leader Tonight - Selection of Rufus T. Firefly Greeted with Cheers of Freedonians."

In the coronation setting (a spoof of all such gala events), royal court guards at the entry announce the guests. Meanwhile, the representative of the neighboring Sylvania [the name of the country where Jeanette MacDonald ruled in Ernst Lubitsch's The Love Parade (1929)], Ambassador and rival suitor Trentino (Louis Calhern), schemes to win Mrs. Teasdale's hand in marriage by wooing the rich heiress (with the ultimate goal of annexing Freedonia to Sylvania). He has hired the seductive, sultry, and sinuous Latin temptress/dancer Vera Marcal (Raquel Torres), who wears a low-cut, revealing gown, to function as a secret agent and keep Firefly distracted [in a satire of all Mata Hari films]:

Firefly's secretary Bob Rolland (Zeppo Marx, in his LAST Marx Bros. film) arrives and assures Mrs. Teasdale, in song, that the absent statesman will appear "When the Clock on the Wall Strikes Ten." When the clock on the wall does strike ten, pretty dancing girls scatter rose petals and kneel in homage between an impressive lineup of helmeted, sword-bearing guards along the entrance way with swords uplifted. The assembled audience sings the national anthem "Hail, Hail Freedonia," but Firefly isn't anywhere in sight. After a long pause and a trumpeters' fanfare, the anthem is sung a second time and all the guests look toward the entrance, but Firefly still fails to enter.

Suddenly, in an upstairs bedroom, the ringing of an alarm clock is heard, and Firefly appears in bed with a nightshirt, nightcap, and cigar. He quickly removes his nightshirt to reveal a suit, and slides down an unlikely fireman's pole into the spacious ballroom hall. He takes his place in the line-up with his own honor guard at the end of the ceremonial line, joining them to wait for his own arrival and holding out his cigar with their swords. He asks one of the guards: "You expecting somebody?"

Mrs. Teasdale notices him and welcomes him (with understatement), and attempts to impose some degree of dignity upon the proceedings, but he assaults her with insults by skipping from non-sequitur association to another:

She begs him to lead Freedonia to the same heights it occupied when her late husband Chester V. Teasdale was President: "The future of Freedonia rests on you. Promise me you will follow in the footsteps of my husband." Firefly looks straight into the camera, and in his first major line rudely insults his most ardent supporter:

Then he engages the widowed Mrs. Teasdale in an insult-ridden conversation, but quickly covers up his insults and shamelessly flirts with her when he realizes she is a widow with money:

[Firefly's coat reverts back to the black tuxedo here.] When Firefly is introduced to the sleek, impeccably tailored Trentino, Ambassador from rival Sylvania, he immediately insults him a few times, calling him an "old skinflint":

Then, the new Freedonian President meets a "very charming lady," the seductive "famous dancer" Vera, still wearing a slinky evening gown displaying her bosom. Overwhelmed by her appearance, he shows off a number of his own ridiculous dance steps: "I danced before Napoleon. No, Napoleon danced before me. In fact, he danced two hundred years before me." When she seductively suggests dancing with him some time later, he tells her:

Firefly dictates a letter to his dentist in the middle of the inauguration. Mrs. Teasdale congratulates him on his coronation and sovereignty: "The eyes of the world are upon you. Notables from every country are gathered here in your honor. This is a gala day for you." He replies: "Well, a gal a day is enough for me. I don't think I could handle any more."

In the song and dance number, "Just Wait 'Til I Get Through With It," Firefly specifies the rules and program planned for his preposterous administration. He threatens, as a repressive, dictatorial ruler, to abuse his power, to be rude, obnoxious, irresponsible, insulting, cynical, and power-mad, ruining the country. Between verses, he plays a "Yankee Doodle" fife and dances around among the guests:

[Firefly's coat again changes back to the gray one at the conclusion of the song.]

To leave for an appointment in the House of Representatives, President Firefly calls for his palace's car. In a funny sightgag, Pinkie (Harpo Marx), his presidential chauffeur, roars into view in the presidential vehicle - a motorcycle and sidecar. Firefly (now in his black tuxedo with tails) jumps in the sidecar and commands: "If you run out of gas, get ethyl. If Ethel runs out, get Mabel." Pinkie roars off on the motorcycle without his passenger in the sidecar (a running gag throughout the film). Firefly jumps out of the sidecar and proclaims: "Well, it certainly feels good to be back again!"

In neighboring Sylvania (introduced with a waving flag with an emblazoned "S"), Ambassador Trentino has schemed against Firefly (who has suddenly become popular) by hiring two spies to shadow and "disgrace him and discredit him with the people." Enter hot dog and peanut vendor Chicolini (Chico Marx) and Pinkie, the mute chauffeur, who report to Trentino to carry out the subterfuge. They appear in their superior's office as all good spies do - in disguise "with spy stuff" and armed with an assortment of playful props. Pinkie wears a beard and rotating pinwheels for his eyes, all on the back of his head, and Chicolini wears a clown mask. Turning Pinkie around, Chicolini asks Trentino: "We fool-a you good, eh?" Trentino invites them in and they burst into his office. They answer his phone, but the ringing is the sound of Pinkie's alarm clock in his coat.

A telegram arrives and Pinkie intercepts it. Because all spies destroy messages, he quickly looks at it and angrily rips it up before it is read. Chicolini interprets for Trentino: "He gets mad because he can't read." Trentino invites them to be seated, but they both sit in the Ambassador's chair just as he is sitting down. Chicolini offers to share a smoke with his boss: "Here, have a cigar. That's a good quarter cigar. I smoked the other three-quarters myself." The pranks multiply - they take his cigar and fake lighting it with his telephone receiver, then light two cigars with a flaming blowtorch taken from Pinkie's pocket. Behind his back, Pinkie cuts Trentino's cigar in half.

They are asked if they have been trailing Firefly. Chicolini replies: "Have we been trailing Firefly? Why, my partner, he's got a nose just like a bloodhound...and the rest of his face don't look so good either." At one point, Pinkie is temporarily distracted by Trentino's blonde secretary. The two spies play an impromptu game of baseball with half of a cigar. Because Trentino is impatient about the delivery of their report, Chicolini tells how incompetently they have performed as spies following Firefly. The one clue they were given, a picture of Firefly, they have lost:

When Trentino asks for Firefly's record, Pinkie produces a gramophone record from his inexhaustible supply of props under his coat. When Trentino cries: "No, no!" and flings it at the ceiling like a clay-pigeon skeet - Pinkie blasts it out of the air with a pistol taken from his coat. Chicolini rings a bell on the desk, awards Pinkie a cigar as a prize, and shuts the cigar box humidor on Trentino's fingers.

In a classic dialogue, the Ambassador insists on hearing a full and detailed report of their espionage activities - and to his dismay, learns that they have accomplished nothing:

When Trentino, in frustration, pulls his hair out, Pinkie clips some of his hair with a pair of scissors like a barber. Chicolini deduces that they have not followed Firefly but instead followed a married man - the wrong man. Trentino delivers the punchline as they hang their heads in shame:

Pinkie continues his horseplay and pranks - he cuts the coattails off Trentino's coat and assures Trentino that he can "trap Firefly" using a rat-trap. He smears glue from a jar of paste on the ambassador's pants, pastes a daily newspaper to his bottom, and when cheerfully departing and shaking hands, closes the rat-trap on his fingers. At the end of the sequence, Trentino shows absolute distress. [Little does Trentino know that both of them are or will soon be members of Firefly's Cabinet (Chicolini will be the Secretary of War and Pinkie will be the Presidential chauffeur)].

In Firefly's first Cabinet meeting in the Freedonia Chamber of Deputies, he keeps his governmental aides and ministers waiting, while he finishes a game of jacks - bouncing a ball and attempting to scoop up a handful of jacks before catching the ball. During the governmental shenanigans, Rufus is handed the Treasury Department's report and asked if he finds it clear. He insults his Minister of Finance (William Worthington) and then tells his secretary Bob Rolland:

The new President refuses to discuss taxes or any real government matters when presiding over his cabinet:

Both the Secretary of War and the plumbing are noted as being "out of order."

Outside the Freedonia palace, Chicolini and Pinkie operate a peanut and hot dog stand, next to a Lemonade Seller's (Edgar Kennedy) cart. Pinkie gets involved in a fight with Chicolini for stealing peanuts, and old tricks appear - he hands Chicolini his limp leg, and when fighting delivers a kick when threatening a punch. The Lemonade Seller is angered when his customers are disturbed and driven off by the fight. He intrudes and immediately becomes their target.

While Chicolini shows how he has been kicked - delivering a kick to the Lemonade Seller's backside, Pinkie innocently clips the Seller's inside-out pants pocket and transforms it into a peanut bag. When the Lemonade Seller approaches Pinkie and they collide, Pinkie's taxi-horn sounds. Chicolini explains that they are both spies: "Look. He's a spy and I'm a spy. He a work-a for me." After being annoyed and kicked in the pants again by Chicolini, the Seller finds Pinkie's limp leg hanging in his hand.

In a classic, three-headed, hat-switching sequence, the hats of Pinkie and the Seller fall off. Hats are switched when they stoop to pick them up. They quickly and smoothly exchange their hats, in a shell-like game on their heads, and the frustrated, "slow-burn" Lemonade Seller ends up with Chicolini's pointed dunce cap on his head. Confused and exasperated, the Seller gives his leg to Pinkie, and Chicolini gives one of his legs to the Seller. Pinkie sucks some of the lemonade into his taxi horn, and it squeezes into the Seller's face when they collide their stomachs together. For revenge, the Lemonade Seller takes the horn and squeezes lemonade into Pinkie's trousers, causing him to make a face and show discomfort like he's wet his pants. To settle the score, Pinkie burns the Lemonade Seller's bowler hat on the flaming hot dog cooker.

Aiding Trentino's spy efforts to infiltrate into the Freedonian government, Firefly calls foreign spy Chicolini away from his peanut stand and offers to appoint him to his Cabinet as his Secretary of War. Chicolini wonders how much the job pays:

After inviting the peanut vendor into his office, the telephone rings and Chicolini answers the call for Firefly:

The phone rings a second time with Chicolini answering and responding similarly. Firefly looks around in amazement after the phone is hung up:

In another classic dialogue, Chicolini is appointed to Firefly's Cabinet by playing a completely childish and contradictory quiz game:

Pinkie enters the office and all three leap to answer the phone when it rings. Pinkie cleverly carries on a "conversation" with differently-tuned taxi-horns.

Firefly confers with Chicolini regarding the nature of the army:

The "peanuts" man is thrown out of the office. As Firefly writes a note with his long-feathered quill pen, Pinkie cuts off the top half of the feather - abruptly halting Firefly's flourishing pen. To identify himself to Firefly, Pinkie rolls up his sleeve and shows him:

Firefly is incredulous: "I bet you haven't got a picture of my grandfather?" Pinkie is ready to turn around and pull down his drawers, but Firefly has had enough and suggests he'll see it some other time.

Firefly's secretary, Rolland arrives with a letter from Trentino designed to undermine Firefly's rule. Rolland recommends how to "get rid of that man at once!" His undiplomatic plan is to provoke Trentino with insults, causing him to strike back - and then be thrown out of the country. Firefly departs for a tea party at Mrs. Teasdale's home, although he hasn't been invited. He knows he can insult the overly-sensitive Trentino there. As Firefly hops into his sidecar next to his chauffeur, he is left behind a second time:

[Both Chicolini and Pinkie have treated him as if he doesn't exist - on the phone and in the sidecar.]

Governmental relations between Freedonia and Sylvania are governed by the tense relationship between Firefly and Ambassador Trentino and their rivalry for Mrs. Teasdale. The Sylvanian ambassador fears Firefly's influence because it has averted a revolution in Freedonia. When Firefly arrives at the tea party, greeted by the guests with the national anthem "Hail, Hail Freedonia," he dunks an invited guest's doughnut into a cup of coffee. He immediately competes with Trentino to charm Mrs. Teasdale with his attention:

Trentino, acting imperially, believes Firefly's conduct is inexcusable, and angrily walks away, insulting him: "You Swine!...You Worm!...You Upstart!" The third insult provokes Firefly to slap him with his gloves. Trentino fears the incident may plunge the two countries into war:

As Trentino leaves and a rivalry between the two countries is sparked, Firefly boasts of his blue-blood heritage: "Why the Mayflower was full of Fireflys. And a few horseflies too. The Fireflys were on the upper deck, and the horseflies were on the Fireflys." Firefly calls for his car and to avoid being fooled again, insists on switching places with the chauffeur. So Firefly gets on the motorcycle and roars the engine, but remains frozen as Pinkie and the sidecar take off. Firefly quips again: "This is the only way to travel."

The next scene parallels the inevitable rivalry looming between the two countries. It is a silent, classic visual sight gag - a battle of rival concessions. The two street vendors (peanut vendor and lemonade vendor) clash again in a memorable pantomime encounter. The Lemonade Seller (with a new white straw hat) helps himself to a bag of peanuts and refuses to pay. When Pinkie, who is watching the stand for Chicolini, holds out his hand to be paid, the Seller paints his palm with mustard. Pinkie wipes his hand clean on the Seller's apron, cuts off the soiled portion with a big pair of scissors and throws it away. Pinkie knocks the bag of peanuts to the ground.

The Lemonade Seller then grabs another bag of peanuts. Pinkie immediately knocks it to the ground too. As he bends down, his new hat is taken and slowly roasted on the hot dog spit. The Seller is so aggravated that he overturns the peanut stand and then returns to his own lemonade vending stand to sell drinks to a long line of customers. Suddenly, everyone in the line disperses in shock. Pinkie has rolled up his trousers, perched himself on the edge of the clear glass lemonade tank, and is seen happily paddling and splashing with his bare feet in his opponent's lemonade.

Mrs. Teasdale tries to act as troubleshooter by entering into the conflict between Trentino and Firefly to bring reconciliation. She telephones from her place and urges Firefly to come over at once. Lounging in his bed and eating soda crackers, an image to mock the Idle Rich, Firefly takes the phone call from Mrs. Teasdale. On the verge of war, Firefly brings his plans for war to Mrs. Teasdale for safe-keeping. In her home, he shamelessly flirts with her and imagines them married: "Married. I can see you right now in the kitchen, bending over a hot stove, but I can't see the stove." He puts his arm around her as they sit on the sofa and shares his thoughts: "Oh, I was thinking of all the years I've wasted collecting stamps." He asks for a lock of her hair, after amending his request: "I'm letting you off easy - I was gonna ask for the whole wig."

Trentino and Vera enter from Mrs. Teasdale's porch. Trentino wants to avoid all-out war and attempts to reconcile their differences by being willing to do anything, but Firefly explains why war is inevitable:

Both Vera and Mrs. Teasdale beg Firefly - is there anything they can do to get him to reconsider and relent? Firefly replies: "Well, maybe I am a little headstrong, but I come by it honestly. My father was a little headstrong, my mother was a little armstrong. The headstrongs married the armstrongs and that's why darkies were born."

Firefly laughs away their silly conflict, but then prompts and even encourages Trentino to repeat the offending word from their previous encounter, causing their conflict to continue:

Firefly slaps Trentino across the face with his gloves. Trentino departs, vowing Sylvania's declaration of war on Freedonia: "This means WAR!" Firefly adds:

Trentino schemes to steal into Mrs. Teasdale's house to acquire the Freedonian war plans. Vera Marcal is a "weekend guest" in the Teasdale house - she is to act as an accomplice to help his hired spies, Pinkie and Chicolini. The same evening, Mrs. Teasdale has summoned Firefly to spend the night in her house for protection.

Attempting to break and enter into the Teasdale mansion to steal Freedonia's battle plans, Pinkie and Chicolini engage in an extended routine of being locked out. In the doorbell sequence, first the servant is locked out, then each of them are separately locked out, and finally, both of them are left on the outside. They ring a large bell and then the front doorbell and hide behind a hedge as a servant comes out to look around. Pinkie dashes inside the front door, but shuts the door on his partner. The servant is also locked out. Then Chicolini rings the bell, and Pinkie comes out to look. Chicolini slips inside and shuts the door on him. Pinkie is locked out. (The servant is still wandering about outside.) Then, when Pinkie rings the bell, Chicolini comes out and the servant comes back, goes in, shuts the door and locks both of them out.

They are successfully brought in another door by Trentino's accomplice Vera Marcal. She cautions them to be careful and absolutely quiet so they won't be detected: "If you are found, you are lost." Chicolini asks: "How can I be lost if-a found?" Although they are compelled to be as quiet as possible, Pinkie unavoidably makes loud noises with whatever he touches. Pinkie lights a loud hissing blowtorch for a flashlight. He also creates a virtual symphony of sound: the clock in the living room chimes, he triggers another music box playing "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf," and as he dances to the music, he plucks the piano strings like a harp. Chicolini finally stops the music by smashing Pinkie's hands with the piano top.

By phone, Firefly is awakened by Mrs. Teasdale who is worried about the security of the war plans. As Firefly prepares to go retrieve the plans from her, Chicolini locks him in his bedroom's toilet. Firefly helplessly screams: "Let me out of here. Hey, let me out of here, or throw me a magazine!" Pinkie and Chicolini both decide (independently and coincidentally of each other) to dress up in white nightshirts and nightcaps and masquerade as Firefly - adding his distinctive moustache, glasses, eyebrows, and cigar to their disguises. Chicolini then heads for Mrs. Teasdale's upstairs bedroom to ask her for the plans.

There in Mrs. Teasdale's room, she queries his Excellency about his "strange" accent, so Chicolini explains: "Maybe sometime I go to Italy, and I'm practicing the language." She writes out the combination to the downstairs safe where the plans are stashed. Pinkie, also dressed as Firefly, races into the bedroom - Chicolini hides under the bed, thinking it is Firefly. He puffs on his cigar, makes faces, honks his horn - and then abruptly leaves (with the safe's combination written on a piece of paper) after seeing his partner under the bed. Mrs. Teasdale, believing that she is alone, starts to undress. But Chicolini emerges from under the bed and she is startled:

She faints on the bed, thinking she is hallucinating, and Chicolini goes for water to revive her. When Chicolini hears the real Firefly approaching (after breaking out of the bathroom), he again hides under the bed. Firefly hears Mrs. Teasdale's question: "How about my glass of water?" A confused Firefly replies: "I give up. How about your glass of water?"

Sliding on the downstairs landing in stockinged feet, Pinkie (still garbed as Firefly) approaches the wall safe and turns the dials to unlock it. Like a radio dial, the safe begins to uncontrollably blare out a spirited rendition of a Sousa march - "The Stars and Stripes Forever" - and he tries desperately to turn off the sound, first by covering the safe with a pillow and a curtain, and then by spraying it to drown it with water.

Upstairs, Mrs. Teasdale is quizzical about all the noise:

Firefly calls for guards at his headquarters (not "hindquarters") to surround the house. Leaving Mrs. Teasdale, he goes downstairs to find the source of the disturbance. To quiet the safe once and for all after smashing it, Pinkie drops the wall safe out the window. When he sees Firefly coming to investigate, Pinkie runs headlong directly into a large wall mirror, smashing it into pieces. The broken glass vanishes and a room is revealed beyond the mirror.

Next follows the inspired, celebrated mirror pantomime scene, a superlative, lyrical, artistic example of mute physical comedy [a revival of a classic vaudeville routine]. Pinkie (disguised like Firefly) confronts the real Firefly, and pretends to be his mirror image, simultaneously playing back every gesture and movement. Firefly suspects his "reflection," another white-nightgowned figure, and tests the reflection in the perfectly-timed, ghostly-silent pantomime to catch him.

When a third character - Chicolini - enters the scene's frame, the routine ends - the game of disguise is over, although it was over much earlier. Firefly grabs Chicolini by his nightshirt as Pinkie escapes.

After his arrest, Chicolini is brought to trial for high treason (for selling Freedonia's secret war code and plans), a capital offense - "CHICOLINI UNDER ARREST; FACES TRIAL FOR TREASON." "Spy Trapped Attempting to Steal War Plans at Gloria Teasdale Home. Firefly to Prosecute, Quick Conviction is Promised." The trial scene dialogue in the classic scene is entirely composed of outrageous, excruciatingly-shameless puns delivered in a sideshow atmosphere. Presiding prosecutor Firefly both attacks and defends him in the trial. Another stony-faced prosecutor (Charles B. Middleton) tells Chicolini that if found guilty, he will be shot:

Feeling sorry for the defendant, Firefly takes over his defense after jumping over the judge's bench:

To confuse the prosecutor, he begins another quiz game:

A defense, of sorts, is given for the defendant by Firefly:

Chicolini would rather take a different sentence: "I tell you what I'll do. I'll take five and ten in Woolworth." Before Chicolini is sentenced, a messenger interrupts and announces the news that Sylvanian troops are about to land on Freedonian soil for war. There is debate over the disastrous effects of an impending war:

"More bad news" arrives. Mrs. Teasdale enters to make one more final effort to prevent war. She brings Firefly the good news: "I've talked to Ambassador Trentino and he says Sylvania doesn't want war either." Without responding to the real issue, Firefly questions the way she has pronounced the word "either." She announces that Trentino has forgotten his quarrel with Firefly and is calling for a peaceful conference. Firefly compliments her for her noble deed:

Firefly imagines being snubbed and his anger escalates. Firefly acts out what would happen if Trentino refuses to shake his hand - embarrassment, public humiliation - and then it is almost as if the rejection has taken place. Firefly cries:

At that moment, Trentino enters with his entourage and his arms outstretched and willing to shake hands, but fantasy has become reality. The last-minute attempt at peace-making fails. Firefly greets him with another declaration of war: "So, you refuse to shake hands with me, eh?" and slaps him in the face. Trentino has no choice but to reply: "Mrs. Teasdale, this is the last straw. There's no turning back now. This means WAR!"

In the spectacular musical ensemble, "The Country's Going to War," the coming of war is celebrated by the four Marx Bros. and the people of Freedonia. [The scene is reprised within Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters (1986).] The call to arms is lampooned with numerous parodies of musical styles including a patriotic parade, a Negro spiritual ("All God's Chillun Got Guns"), a hillbilly song ("Comin' Round the Mountain"), and a Virginia Reel barn dance:

In a historical parody, Pinkie is dispatched to waken the citizenry with a bugle, in a memorable Paul Revere-like ride scene. While alerting citizens late at night on his white steed after seeing three lights ("they're coming by land and sea"), he comes upon a blonde woman undressing in an upstairs window. He gives up his Paul Revere midnight duties in the scene of exploded-expectations and enters her room, but is forced to find a place to hide in the bottom of a sudsy bathtub when her husband (Edgar Kennedy again) arrives home. And then, the husband settles into the bath tub on top of a submerged Pinkie. When Pinkie's taxi horn honk is heard underwater, he surfaces with bugle blowing, sounds a wet reveille and flees, leaving a startled husband in the tub.

Pinkie reaches his own house where a woman is waving to him from a second-floor window. He enters the front door on horseback. The next image is taken at the foot of the bed - Pinkie's discarded boots, a pair of ladies shoes, and horseshoes are all laid out on the floor. Perversely, Pinkie shares a bed with the horse, and the woman sleeps in a single bed alone.

In the war room, Firefly is dressed in a strange military uniform. [He wears a different costume in almost every sequence until the end of the film, including various military outfits from the Civil War and Revolutionary War, a Boy Scout troop leader's uniform, and even a coon-skin Davey Crockett cap. All the war costumes suggest that the war scene symbolizes all American wars.] He sends telegrams to the battlefront collect and because there isn't time to dig trenches, Firefly orders some ready-made: "Get them this high (gesturing up to his neck) and our soldiers won't need any pants...Get them this high (gesturing above his head) and we won't need any soldiers." Rival Trentino is also delivering equally absurd orders to Chicolini:

Firefly is frustrated by war messages back and forth: "I'm sick of messages from the front. Don't we ever get a message from the side?" Firefly's secretary arrives in the besieged headquarters to announce that one of the generals is suffering a gas attack. To answer with more double entendres, Firefly offers an antidote:

Firefly asks his telegraph operator about communications:

A large shell bursts through an open window and blasts a large hole through the opposite wall. Firefly picks up his damaged Panama hat: "Gentlemen, this is the last straw." He asks for his Stradivarius - a violin case with a machine gun inside: "I'll show them they can't fiddle around with ol' Firefly!" Firefly picks up the machine gun and fires mistakenly on his own troops, boasting happily:

When told that he has returned friendly fire, he keeps it under his hat (metaphorically and literally). He offers Bob a banknote as a bribe to cover up his mistake: "Here's five dollars. Keep it under your hat. Never mind. I'll keep it under my hat."

Pinkie's main contribution to the war effort is to wander on the battleground's front lines with a sandwich board over his shoulders - a recruitment sign to gather more volunteers:

Chicolini, a spy for Sylvania and the Freedonian Secretary of War, enters the Freedonia headquarters and punches the time clock as he enters:

Firefly tries to keep gunfire and shells out by pulling down the blinds. Pinkie's hat twirls around on his head as it is hit by a rapid-fire machine gun. Mrs.Teasdale calls for rescue and Firefly delivers the famous line to his cohorts as they rescue her:

Beseiged, they are soon running low on ammunition and overwhelmed by a counter-attack. When the house is hit by shells and it explodes, a large ceiling beam crashes to the floor in the shape of a cross or "X." A volunteer is selected to seek aid in a parody of the draft system. Pinkie hangs a "HELP WANTED" sign on the door, and then is chosen for the dangerous mission when Chicolini fools him in a circular counting game. As Pinkie prepares to march off, Firefly shakes his hand, kisses him, and makes fun of him:

Pinkie cuts off the tail on Firefly's cap, and then falls backwards into a closet that explosively detonates with fireworks. Firefly telephones for assistance, sending help to the front. Stock footage shows the response to his call for aid:

When Firefly is shot in the rear-end, he cries: "They got me. Water!" Firefly gets a large white flower vase stuck on his head while drinking water from it: "Get me out of this! The last time this happened to me I was crawling under a bed." Pinkie removes the "Groucho" face-painted vase from his head by exploding a stick on dynamite inside it. Firefly emerges from behind a cloud of smoke: "Any mail for me while I was gone?"

Firefly keeps track of the war tally with a pool-hall counter. Freedonia finally emerges victorious and the war is won when Trentino rams the door and then gets his head stuck in the door of the Freedonian headquarters. Captured, he is pelted with apples until he surrenders.

The final line in the climactic absurd battle episode is delivered when Mrs. Teasdale cries:

She also attempts to sing to their victory with the glorious national anthem of Freedonia: "Hail, hail, Freedonia, land of the brave..." but is pelted with tomatoes, apples, and oranges.