STUFF YOU GOTTA WATCH - A Night at the Opera

A NIGHT AT THE OPERA

(1935)
With Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Margaret Dumont, Allen Jones, Kitty Carlisle, Sig Rumann, Walter Woolf King
Directed by Sam Wood
Black and White
Reviewed by JL

Make your own kind of music The Marx Brothers made a string of comic masterpieces for Paramount Pictures, but when the last and best of them all, DUCK SOUP, did poorly at the box office, the studio gave Groucho the axe, Chico the boot, Harpo the pink slip, and Zeppo was nowhere to be found by then so it didn't matter anyway. After two years of thumb-twiddling, the brothers landed a deal at the biggest studio of them all, MGM, when producer Irving Thalberg decided to take them under his wing and spiff up their image a bit. He removed just enough of their anarchy so that it was barely noticed (unless you were looking closely), and he reinstated romantic subplots into their pictures in the manner of THE COCOANUTS and ANIMAL CRACKERS, but now the brothers were more directly involved in patching up broken romances and helping those adorable youngsters pitch woo. For one picture, the Thalberg Formula worked like a charm; for their next picture, it worked less well but the comedy was good enough to salvage things; and thereafter the slavish adherence to the formula was one of the factors that killed the Marx Brothers' career. Thalberg deserves praise for making this comic masterpiece, just as he deserves to be damned for lighting the long and slow fuse that led to the Marx's demise (he's also the guy who destroyed GREED and insisted that the public be as charmed by Norma Shearer as he was). A NIGHT AT THE OPERA is a great comedy in every respect. But watch it immediately after one of their Paramount classics and you'll understand what was sacrificed and comprimised along the way. - JL

A BIT OF HISTORY FROM JOHN B

My friendship with my co-webmaster John L. began in 1996 when he wrote me an email about my opinion in a newsgroup that A Night at the Opera was a better movie than Duck Soup. From that one email came a great friendship and two movie websites. in 2008, I rewatched A Night at the Opera and wrote this to him:

"I am watching A Night at the Opera on TCM right now and guess what? Our friendship has come full circle! Our correspondence began because I expressed the idea that Opera was better than Duck Soup. Finally I see I am wrong. Opera is still a great movie, but after two dozen viewings, it has worn out its welcome with me, and now I see all the flaws instead of the gags. Anyway, Duck Soup is the better picture. You win."

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ADD ANOTHER QUOTE AND MAKE IT A GALLON

"Do they alllow tipping on the boat?"
"Yes sir!"
"Have you two fives?"
"Oh, yes sir!"
"Well, then you don't need the ten cents I was going to give you."

PLAY, DON!

After DUCK SOUP but before the Marx Brothers signed with MGM, Zeppo decided to leave the team and strike out on his own as a talent agent. Show biz legend has it that when Irving Thalberg pondered if the Three Marx Brothers should get paid at the same scale as the Four Marx Brothers, Groucho argued that without Zeppo, they were worth twice as much.