![]() He insisted that they took the show out on the road as a stage attraction in order to hone it to perfection. "Don't worry about a thing", Thalberg said to Harpo, "You get me the laughs and I'll get you the story". Add to this the always hilarious standby routine between the leeringly flirtatious Groucho and the haughty Margaret Dumont (who is just great!), and you have a winning film.But A Night at the Opera is marginally my choice, because it was the film that changed all that, as producer Irving Thalberg fulfilled his promise to make "a big-time act using small-time material" into big time all the way. The Marx Brothers have a number of classic unforgettable scenes: the ‘Party Of The First Part’ contract, the ‘backstage bed-switching,’ and the ‘overcrowded stateroom’ are among my favorite all-time madcap Marx Brothers routines. The Marx Brothers, as expected by the Depression-era audience, team up to poke fun at high society and show off their lack of respect for authority and their total disregard for proper social behavior. Soon the Brothers prove they are willing to sabotage Lassparri’s opening night performance to promote Jones’s career and romance. Jones’s manager is Chico, with Harpo just around for the cruise and to make subversive trouble and play the harp. When Gottleib signs Lassparri, who sails from Italy to America to appear in the opera, Jones stows away in Groucho’s tiny cabin to be near Carlisle. ![]() Meanwhile the conceited Lassparri chases soprano Kitty Carlisle, who is in love with aspiring unknown tenor Allan Jones. Claypool to invest in Gottleib’s opera company, and her entrance into society is assured. Driftwood schemes to make good on his bogus promise by introducing her to self-important opera entrepreneur Gottleib (Sig Rumann) the scheme is to get Mrs. Claypool (Margaret Dumont), who pays Driftwood to get her into high society but he has done nothing so far. His wealthy patroness is the dignified dowager Mrs. Groucho Marx is a shyster, nobody promoter Otis B. The film is built around the Marx Brothers’ attempts to give a pair of Italian opera singers who are also lovers, Rosa Castaldi (Carlisle) and Ricardo Baroni (Allan Jones), a chance to be together in the opera. ![]() At the time of this film’s release, the Marx Brothers were at their most popular and had just wisely dumped straight-man Zeppo (the unfunny one). #Groucho marx in a night at the opera tvYet the narrative is filled with too many uncomfortable filler scenes and a tepid love story, with the romantic leads just too boring to care about–they served the same function as TV commercials, as a time to tune out when they were onscreen. Though uneven there’s still much to admire in “Opera,” such as the comedy and high-polish gloss and a good script (credit must go to George Kaufman & Morris Ryskind). The “Opera” experiment was commercially successful, as this turning point film became their highest grossing film ever. The studio wanted to control the Marx Brothers’ unrestrained zany antics and have them behave in a more reasonable fashion, which the Brothers agreed to after their film Duck Soup was a commercial flop. MGM had Sam Wood direct them for the first-time, a run-of-the-mill helmsman at best, as the Marx Brothers begin their gradual creative descent into mediocrity. Under their new studio of MGM’s watchful eye and their new producer Irving Thalberg, things changed for the artistic worse even though the Marx Brothers got bigger budgets and better production values from their new affiliation (at Paramount they made the outrageous low-budget films of Duck Soup, Animal Crackers, and Horse Feathers). O’Connor (Detective Henderson), Edward Keane (The Captain), Walter Woolf King (Rodolpho Lassparri) Runtime: 92 MPAA Rating: NR producer: Irving G. Claypool), Kitty Carlisle (Rosa Castaldi), Allan Jones (Ricardo Baroni), Sig Rumann (Herman Gottlieb), Robert E. ![]() Driftwood), Harpo Marx (Tomasso), Chico Marx (Fiorello), Margaret Dumont (Mrs. Gerstad editor: William Le Vanway music: Herbert Stothart cast: Groucho Marx (Otis B. (director: Sam Wood screenwriters: George Kaufman/Morris Ryskind/story by James K. ![]()
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