A Night at the Opera

After a string of hugely successful films made at Paramount, the Marx Brothers, in a coup for the time, set up shop at MGM. Spurred mostly by the death of Irving Thalberg, the legendary "boy genius" producer at Paramount, the Marx Brothers relocated to MGM, whose complete dominance over A-level filmmaking was just beginning. Securing the Marx Brothers was one of their shrewdest moves, picking them up right after their first real bomb, 1933's "Duck Soup". The financial disappointment prompted the Marx Brothers (who were consummate perfectionists, going so far as to "try out" material they were about to put to film the night before in front of live audiences to see which gags worked) switched studios, added musical numbers (legitimate ones, not "Hooray for Captain Spaulding!"), and moved "straight man" brother Zeppo to a behind-the-scenes capacity. Their first venture with MGM would prove to be one of their biggest hits, both ciritically and commercially, and was seen as a return to brilliance after their bizarre deviation with "Duck Soup" (which oddly enough, now stands as their masterpiece, embraced by more sophisticated audiences). "A Night at the Opera", when it is not bogged down by its flimsy romantic subplot (which I can only attribute to MGM believing this would broaden the Brothers appeal), is quite the equal to any of their supposedly more "mad cap and zany" Paramount titles. Any film that ends with the Marx Brothers wreaking havoc during a production of Verdi's "Il Trovatore" has to be great, right?

Beginning in Italy, the film centers around an opera company, with a pompous ass of a featured tenor, Lassparri, who loves a beautiful young soprano named Rosa, who loves a handsome, but anonymous, baritone named Baroni. Forcefully inserting themselves into this romantic entanglement are the Brothers. Groucho is Otis B. Driftwood, a shyster opera producer, who is trying to woo Mrs. Claypool (played by Marx regular Margaret Dumont, who made the studio transition with the team), the opera company's owner. Chico and Harpo play two goofballs who inadvertently figure into the proceedings, their involvement in these films is never adequately explained, but somehow, a piano, harp, and tons of slapstick always ensues. This time they play two hangers on of the opera company, who along with lovesick Baroni, stow away on the steamer the company is on, bound for America. The three hide out in the stateroom of the ambulance chasing Driftwood (in this case the ambulance is Mrs. Claypool, Driftwood's meal ticket), and these cramped quarters account for the film's, and perhaps the Brothers, most celebrated sequence. The room, which is already too small for one person, let alone the three others Driftwood did not anticipate, proceeds to be filled by two chambermaids, an engineer and his assitant, a manicurist, a woman looking for her Aunt (woman: "Is my Aunt in here?" Groucho: "No, but you can probably find someone just as good!"), a cleaning woman ("I've come to mop up!"), and four stewards carrying huge trays of food. All of these people pile into Groucho's tiny little room, only to spill out when Mrs. Claypool opens the door.

Upon arriving in New York, the film builds towards the knockout finale number, in which the Brothers completely sabotage the opening production. After sneaking through customs impersonating bearded aviator brothers, and avoiding a muscle bound Detective in an inspired sequence involving two apartments, a fire escape, and the constant rearrangement of furniture, everyone converges at the Opera House. Lassparri and the other producer vying for Mrs. Claypool's money, Herman Gottlieb (played by the great character actor Sig Ruman), are ultimately shamed, Baroni and Rosa are reunited, with Baroni becoming the company's featured attraction, natch. As for the Brothers, well, their mission in each of their films always seems to be to cause as much mayhem and mischief as they can, then unite the young lovers. Ostensibly Groucho wins over the partnership of Mrs. Claypool, and Chico and Harpo probably have jobs with the company too, but really, who cares? The final number features countless gags, all while the opera is going on, including Chico and Harpo sliding the sheet music for "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" into the middle of the scores of the orchestra, selling peanuts and popcorn, and playing catch when the orchestra swings into that number, dressing up as gypsies and entering the stage to avoid the police, and absolutely trashing the hanging backdrops. Somewhere in all of this Harpo plays his harp, Chico plays "All I Do (Is Dream of You)", written by a young MGM company man, Arthur Freed, which of course would later turn up in his masterpiece, "Singin' in the Rain", and Groucho introduces Chico to the vagaries of signing a contract, famously coming to an impasse over the Sanity Clause (Chico: "You can't fool me! There ain't no Sanity Clause!"), all while negotiating the accord standing over the knocked cold body of Lassparri. Despite being slowed by studio imposed subplots and musical numbers, the film still has tons of the Brothers trademark anarchy, and coming on the heels of their other masterpiece "Duck Soup", represents their undisputed creative highpoint.