A Night at the Opera (film)
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| A Night at the Opera | |
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| Directed by | Sam Wood |
| Produced by | Irving Thalberg |
| Written by | James Kevin McGuinness George S. Kaufman Morrie Ryskind |
| Starring | Groucho Marx Chico Marx Harpo Marx |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (1935-1986) Turner Entertainment (1986-97) Warner Bros. (1997-present) |
| Release date(s) | November 15, 1935 (USA) |
| Running time | 96 min. |
| Language | English Italian |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
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 the first without Zeppo.
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 who was so unfortunate to cross their paths, whether they deserved it or not. (Usually, they did deserve it.) Thalberg, however, felt that this made the brothers unsympathetic, particularly to female filmgoers. So in the MGM films, the brothers were recast as more helpful characters, saving their comic attacks for the villains.
Though some Marx Brothers fans were appalled at these changes, Thalberg was vindicated when the film became a solid hit. Of course, it helped that the film contained some of the brothers' funniest routines. These routines were honed on stage, as the brothers performed the new material on the road before filming began (another Thalberg innovation).
Still, the path to success was not easy. According to Oscar Levant, the first preview was a "disaster", with "hardly a laugh". So was the second. Thalberg and George S. Kaufman spent days in the editing room, adjusting the timing to match the rhythm of a stage performance. About 9 minutes was cut from the running time, and the result was a hit.[1]
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[edit] 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.
[edit] 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 wealthy socialite Mrs. Claypool (Margaret Dumont). At the last opera performance of the season in Italy, Otis runs into his old friend Fiorello (Chico), who is best friends with Riccardo (Allan Jones), an opera singer who longs for his big break and who is in love with fellow opera singer Rosa (Kitty Carlisle). However, Riccardo's dreams are thwarted by the star of the show, Lasspari (Walter Woolf King), an egotistical man who wants fame — and Rosa — for himself.
Although Riccardo and Fiorello are not allowed to accompany the troupe on their trip to New York, they manage to stow 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 Otis winds up losing his place to Mr. Gottlieb (Sig Ruman), the New York opera's financier. When they find out that Rosa has been fired for her siding with Riccardo, the boys spring into action, sabotaging the opening night performance and making sure that both Riccardo and Rosa get their due as the new hits of the opera world.
[edit] Classic scenes
- The stateroom scene, which sees more and more people entering Groucho's tiny ship's cabin, already containing 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 time, and was designed in part by Buster Keaton.
The scene starts with Otis finding out that Fiorello, Tomasso and Riccardo managed to sneak onto the boat by stowing away in his steamer trunk. Because the boys other than Otis are hiding as stowaways, they have to stay in the room while a parade of people walk in, asking to either use their cabin for something, or to perform their appointed tasks. Crammed into this little space at the end of the scene were: the three Marx Brothers, 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.
- The contract scene between Groucho and Chico ("the party of the first part ..."), which is a masterpiece of non-communication:
- CHICO: Hey, wait, wait. What does this say here, this thing here?
- GROUCHO: Oh, that? Oh, that's the usual clause, that's in every contract. That just says, uh, it says, uh, if any of the parties participating in this contract are shown not to be in their right mind, the entire agreement is automatically nullified.
- CHICO: Well, I don't know...
- GROUCHO: It's all right. That's, that's in every contract. That's, that's what they call a sanity clause.
- CHICO: Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! You can't fool me. There ain't no Sanity Clause!
- The actual sabotaging of the opera, in which numerous things are done to Verdi's Il Trovatore, all in the attempt to substitute Riccardo for Lasspari onstage.
[edit] Hidden material
In the scene where the three stowaways are accused of being impostors, Groucho seems to talk gibberish with them. As a matter of fact, it is English. If you play it backwards, you can hear what they are saying ("This man is accusing you of being impostors", etc.). It was recorded normally, and inserted into the movie in reverse.
[edit] Trivia
- A Night at the Opera has been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
- The British rock group Queen later paid homage to this film by naming one of their most famous albums after it (see A Night at the Opera).
- The British punk band The Damned used Chico's quote ("There ain't no sanity clause") as a title for a 1980 single (see "There Ain't No Sanity Clause".)
- Cyndi Lauper featured a similar overcrowded stateroom gag in her music video for the song "Girls Just Want To Have Fun".
- Sting also recreated the overcrowded stateroom gag in his music video for the 1991 song "All This Time".
- The Warner Bros. animated show Animaniacs also paid homage to the stateroom gag in the short "Hercule Yakko".
- Though not one room, Mr. Mom also paid an homage to the stateroom gag in the finale.
- In the Disney Channel series The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, a scene almost identical to the stateroom scene occurs in the Martin's closet.
- At the end of the movie The Freshman, Rodolfo Lasspari is the alias used on Matthew Broderick's passport.
- The film's script is credited as the basis for the 1992 film Brain Donors.
[edit] Musical numbers
- "Di Quella Pira" (from Il Trovatore)
- "Miserere" (from Il Trovatore)
- "Alone"
- "All I Do Is Dream of You"
- "Cosi-Cosa"
- "Take Me Out to the Ballgame"
- "Anvil Chorus" (from Il Trovatore)
- "Stride la vampa" (from Il Trovatore)
- "Strido Lassu" (from Pagliacci)
[edit] See also
- List of United States comedy films
- "Cosi cosa" composers: Bronisław Kaper and Walter Jurmann
[edit] Notes
- ^ Oscar Levant, The Unimportance of Being Oscar, Pocket Books 1969 (reprint of G.P. Putnam 1968), p. 67. ISBN 0-671-77104-3.
[edit] External links
- Marx Brothers Night at the Opera Treasury
- Marx-Brothers.org
- A Night at the Opera at the Internet Movie Database
- A Night at the Opera at the TCM Movie Database
| The Marx Brothers |
|---|
| Chico Marx | Harpo Marx | Groucho Marx | Gummo Marx | Zeppo Marx |
| Films with Chico, Harpo, Groucho, and Zeppo |
|
Humor Risk (1921) • The Cocoanuts (1929) • Animal Crackers (1930) • |
| Films with Chico, Harpo, and Groucho |
|
A Night at the Opera (1935) • A Day at the Races (1937) • Room Service (1938) • At the Circus (1939) • |
