Movies - A Night at the Opera

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	Movies - A Night at the Opera

A Night At the Opera is a 1935 comedy film starring the Marx Brothers. It was the first film the brothers made for MGM after their departure from Paramount, and, at the suggestion of producer Irving Thalberg, the film marked a change of direction in the brothers' career.

In their Paramount films, the brothers' characters were much more anarchistic: they attacked (comically) anybody that was unfortunate to cross their paths, whether they deserved it or not. (Usually, they did deserve it). Thalberg, however, felt that this made the brothers come across as unsympathetic, particularly to female film goers. So in the MGM films, the brothers were recast as more helpful characters. From now on they heaped their comic attacks upon only the obvious villains of the piece.

Some Marx Brothers fans were appalled at these format changes, yet the film undoubtedly contained some of the brothers' funniest routines ever. These were honed on stage, as the brothers returned to touring new material on road before filming began (another Thalberg change).

Production

True to its title, the film actually includes some real opera scenes, especially from Il Trovatore, with a duet sung by Kitty Carlisle and Allan Jones. The opera setting also allowed MGM to add big production song numbers (which were one of this studio's specialities), such as the song Alone with the departure of the steamship, and the song Cosi Cosa with the Italian buffet and dancing.

It stars Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, Kitty Carlisle, Allan Jones, Walter Woolf King, Siegfried Rumann and Margaret Dumont.

The movie was adapted by George S. Kaufman, Morrie Ryskind, Al Boasberg (uncredited) and Buster Keaton (uncredited) from a story by James Kevin McGuinness. It was directed by Sam Wood.

Plot and memorable scenes

In A Night At the Opera, the brothers help two young lovers to succeed in love as well as in the opera world. Groucho is Otis B. Driftwood, a hanger-on to weathy socialite Mrs. Claypool (Margaret Dumont). At the last opera of the season in Italy, Otis runs into his old friend Fiorello (Chico), who is best friends with Ricardo (Allan Jones), an opera singer who longs for his big break and who is in love with fellow opera singer Rosa (Kitty Carlisle). However, Ricardo's dreams are thwarted by the star of the show, Lasspari (Walter Woolf King), an egotistical man who wants both fame - and Rosa - for himself.

Although Ricardo and Fiorello are not allowed to accompany the troupe on their trip to New York, they manage to stash away on the boat, along with another of Fiorellio's friends, Tomasso (Harpo). Once in New York, the boys wind up getting in trouble, and even Otis winds up losing his place to Mr. Gottleib (Sig Ruman), the man who is financing the new opera in New York. When they find out that Rosa has been fired for her siding with Ricardo, the boys spring into action, sabatoging the opening night performance and making sure that both Ricardo and Rosa get their due as the new hits of the opera world.

Classic scenes included:

The stateroom scene (where more and more people are piled into Groucho's tiny ship's cabin, which already has a bed and a big wardrobe trunk, until they literally spill out at the end when Margaret Dumont opens the door). It is one of the most famous comedy scenes of all filmdom (designed in part by Buster Keaton
) (see image).

The scene starts with Otis finding out that Fiorello, Tomasso and Ricardo managed to sneak onto the boat by stowing away in his steamer trunk. Because the boys other than Otis can't leave the room (for fear of being sent back), they have to stay in the room while a parade of people start walking in, asking to either use their cabin for something, or to perform their appointed tasks - all at the same time! Crammed into this little space at the end of the scene were: the three Marx Brothers (Harpo allegedly asleep), Allan Jones, two cleaning ladies, a manicurist, a ship's engineer, the engineer's assistant, a girl calling her Aunt, and three waiters with trays of food and maybe more.

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Movies - A Night at the Opera

Production

Plot and memorable scenes

Classic scenes included:

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