Groucho and Leo in the soup

THE MARX BROTHERS' "Duck Soup" (1933) is one of the watershed films of American cinema. No less a comedy artist than Woody Allen calls it "probably the best talking comedy ever made," and uses an extended clip from it to anchor one of his own later classics--"Hannah and Her Sisters" (1986). Director Leo McCarey's greatest contribution to "Duck Soup" was the mirror sequence, where Harpo (with a painted on moustache, a la Groucho) doubles as his brother's nightgown-attired reflection.

To uncover this famous scene's origins, it is worthwhile to look into McCarey's professional relationship with Charley Chase, who was one of the great--but neglected--clowns of silent-screen comedy. Film historian David Robinson described him as "long and gangly, with a look of hurt bewilderment, a foolish tittle moustache and a vague air of being assembled of slightly ill-fitted parts." This neglects the dapperly attired handsomeness of Chase's comedy persona, though it still is a screen life filmmaker Robert Youngson characterized as "one long embarrassing moment."

The McCarey-Chase collaboration (1924-26) occurred at Hal Roach's fun factory, a silent comedy studio which had, by this time, usurped the laughter mantel from the much-honored Mack Sennett. Despite Chase's longer seniority in film at the time of the McCarey collaboration, most students credit the comedian's greatest works as coinciding with his McCarey teaming. For example, Peter Hogue's groundbreaking "Charley with a Y" article for Film Comment stated, "The artistic blooming of [Chase] is inseparable from the advent of Leo McCarey as Chase's director in mid-'24.... The onscreen results were particularly exceptional in 1925-26."

In screening dozens of these Chase-McCarey short subjects, I was struck by the inventiveness of these silent farces, anticipating such later McCarey screwball comedies as 'The Awful Troth" (1937) and "My Favorite Wife" (1940). Yet, nothing prepared me for the surprise to be found in the Chase-McCarey short, "Mum's the Word" (1926). "Word" is the most elaborate of McCarey's silent comedies of manners. Chase's screen mother has just remarried when he pays her a surprise visit. Since she has not told the second husband about her grown son, she asks Chase to pretend to be the valet. Predictably, the new husband will catch him in several seemingly compromising situations with his mother.

Simultaneously, yet another new member of the household, the maid (Martha Sleeper), adds further farce to the fun. Chase immediately is smitten by the beautiful servant. Before long, though, he finds her unduly interested in Chase's new stepfather, to the point of several after-hour visits to the older man's bedroom. Indeed, in a farcical tour de force, McCarey now stages numerous compromising situations involving all four principal players. "Word" ultimately reveals that the maid is the daughter of Chase's stepfather--he had been keeping his parenthood quiet, just as his wife had. While that was the culminating payoff at the time, the movie's revelation for today's viewer is that it showcases the origin of McCarey's unforgettable mirror scene in "Duck Soup."

The opening of this historic "Word" sequence finds Chase visiting his mother in her bedroom. When his stepfather (who still thinks he merely is the valet) comes to the door, the young man goes out the window onto a second-story deck. As the suspicious husband then paces back and forth, he thinks he sees the outside shadow of someone on the window shade (which had been pulled down with Chase's hasty exit). Yet, the shadow had matched the movement of the stepfather (Chase was pacing, too). Consequently, the older man varies his image as he passes in front of the shade--placing one hand pensively at his mouth, but the shadow mirrors his moving image exactly.

Perplexed, the husband makes another pass in front of the shade-moving at a sprinter's pace. Yet, the shadow remains in sync with his impromptu acceleration. Doubly puzzled now, Chase's stepfather crosses in front of the shade one final time. Given the sequence's apparent link to the later Groucho-Harpo minor scene, the jealous husband's last trio assumes a most ironic pose--he walks in the crouched over gait that now is synonymous with Groucho! Again, the shadow mirrors this unlikely movement. Only when the older man attempts to light a cigarette does the shadow fail to keep up. Comically, however, when the stepfather then throws up the shade, Chase has his lighter in readiness for the man--the ever dutiful servant.

At the expense of a pun (a comic device much favored by McCarey and the Marx Brothers), this ingenious routine obviously foreshadows the minor scene from "Duck Soup." Groucho, like the suspicious "Word" husband, comically will attempt to fool what purports to be an extension of himself--Harpo as a reflection--whereas Chase plays at being a shadow. Making this link between the two scenes is significant for three reasons.