Duck Soup (1927 film)

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Duck Soup
Theatrical poster for Duck Soup (1927)
Directed by	Fred Guiol
Produced by	Hal Roach
Written by	Arthur J. Jefferson (play) H.M. Walker (titles)
Starring	Stan Laurel Oliver Hardy
Distributed by	Pathé Exchange Inc.
Release date(s)	March 13, 1927
Running time	20 min.
Language	Silent film English intertitles
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Duck Soup was a short silent film made by Hal Roach Studios in 1927. It was the first occasion Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy appeared together on screen at Hal Roach Studios. It was considered a lost film for nearly fifty years until a print was found in 1974. It was previously thought by film scholars that the comedians barely shared any scenes, if any at all, but in fact they appear as a team throughout the entire picture, albeit rather primitively, dressed in tramp costuming, with Hardy sporting an unshaven chin and top hat. In the next few films, Laurel and Hardy were together as separate performers and not working as a double act, before their potential as a team was used again, notably in Do Detectives Think.

The film was directed by Fred Guiol but a more important contribution was noted by the films' supervising director, Leo McCarey, the man who probably more than anyone else at Roach saw the greatest possibilities for Laurel and Hardy as a comedy team. McCarey later used the same title for the classic Marx Brothers film, Duck Soup he directed at Paramount in 1933. The sketch on which the film was based was written by Stan Laurel's father, Arthur J. Jefferson.

It was remade three years later as Another Fine Mess.