For other uses, see A Night at the Opera (disambiguation)

A Night at the Opera
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 (1986-96) Warner Bros. (1996-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]

In 1993, A Night at the Opera was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". It is also included in the 2007 update of AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies at number 85.

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 widowed socialite Mrs. Claypool (Margaret Dumont). At the last opera performance of the season in Italy, of Pagliacci, Otis runs into his old friend Fiorello (Chico), who is the best friend and manager of 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 opera, Lasspari (Walter Woolf King), an egotistical man who wants fame — and Rosa — for himself. Otis signs Riccardo to a contract, thinking he is signing Lasspari; Lasspari, meanwhile, is signed for the New York opera by snobbish financier Herman Gottlieb (Sig Ruman).

Although Riccardo and Fiorello are not allowed to accompany the troupe on their trip to New York, they manage to stow away on the ship, along with another of Fiorello's friends, Tomasso (Harpo), a dresser fired by Lasspari. Once in New York, the stowaways are pursued by the police for entering the country illegally, and Otis ends up losing his position with the opera to Gottlieb. When they find out that Rosa has been fired for 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.

Classic scenes

• Groucho plans a rendezvous with Mrs. Claypool in his stateroom; then he finds out how small it is, and that he, his trunk, and the bed barely fit in it. Besides, Fiorelo insists on getting something to eat ("We getta food or we don't go"). So Groucho calls a steward ("I say, Stew") and orders dinner.

GROUCHO: And two medium-boiled eggs.

FIORELO (inside room): And two hard-boiled eggs.

GROUCHO: And two hard-boiled eggs.

TOMASSO (inside room): (honk)

GROUCHO Make that three hard boiled eggs.

This continues until Fiorelo and Tomasso have ordered about a dozen hard-boiled eggs and Groucho has ordered about everything else--including coffee to sober up some stewed prunes. However, this is just to set the viewer up for the famous "Stateroom Scene", which sees a total of 15 people in Groucho's tiny ship's cabin, already containing a bed and a big wardrobe trunk. 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 Baroni 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: Otis Driftwood, Fiorello, Tomasso, Riccardo Baroni, two cleaning ladies, a manicurist, a ship's engineer and his heavy-set assistant, a girl looking for her aunt, and four waiters with trays of food (Prompting Groucho's classic line; "Is it my imagination, or is it getting crowded in here?"). The mass of humanity tumbles out into the hallway when Mrs. Claypool opens the door.

• 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 while being pursued by the police and theater staff, in which numerous things are done to Verdi's Il Trovatore, all in the attempt to substitute Riccardo for Lasspari onstage.

Hidden material

In the scene where the three stowaways are impersonating Russian aviators, Groucho seems to talk gibberish with the dignitaries. As a matter of fact, it is English; if played backwards, it can be heard what they are saying ("This man is accusing you of being impostors", etc.). It was recorded normally, and inserted into the movie in reverse.

Cultural References

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• The film's script is credited as the basis for the 1992 film Brain Donors, produced by David Zucker and Jerry Zucker of Airplane! and The Naked Gun fame.
• 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".
• Detective Comics 826 pays homage to this movie. In it The Joker captures Tim Drake, the third Robin and takes him on a mad spree in a car, running over anyone they encounter over the Christmas season. When the Joker plans to kill a street Santa Claus, Robin distracts him by saying "You can't fool me. There ain't no Sanity Claus." The Joker laughs and the two get in an argument over which Marx Brothers film the gag is from, with Robin claiming it is from The Big Store. The Joker is distracted long enough for Robin to punch him out and escape.
• 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.
• An 8th season episode of Seinfeld titled "The Pothole" features a homage to the stateroom scene in which the four main characters all cram into a small janitor's closet that Elaine is using to get Chinese food delivered; they all end up spilling out after Kramer spills ammonia.
• When Rosa sings in any of the musical numbers, including the opera scenes, Kitty Carlisle recorded the tracks. She did not want someone else's voice coming out of her mouth on screen.

Musical numbers

Harpo playing a variation of the movie's title theme on his signature instrument

• "Di Quella Pira" (from Il Trovatore)
• "Miserere" (from Il Trovatore)
• "Alone"
• "Santa Lucia"
• "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)

Notes

See also

• List of United States comedy films
• "Cosi cosa" composers: Bronisław Kaper and Walter Jurmann

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

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