Customer Reviews

A Night at the Opera [VHS]

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4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The 1935 comedy A NIGHT AT THE OPERA is a grab bag of a movie that includes physical gags, verbal gags, a romantic subplot, backstage intrigue, an operatic aria, an elaborate dance number, stunts, absurdity, and sentimentality. The main attraction is, of course, the patented zaniness of The Marx Brothers -- the acerbic Groucho, the mute Harpo, and the dim-witted Chico -- whose unique brand of comedy is often edgy, subversive, and even surreal and other-worldly. Count me as one of those who thinks that such style of comedy loses some edge in A NIGHT AT THE OPERA, where the comic trio seem out of place in a methodical plot, realistic settings, and among ordinary people. These mundane elements are also, surprisingly, engrossing enough to often upstage the comedians. Groucho's usual anti-establishment stance also seems softened in order to give way to crowd-pleasing sentimentality. The Marx Brothers, like Jacques Tati, are creators of their own comic universes, and that's where they need to inhabit, such as in the whimsical delight DUCK SOUP, the Brothers' previous film, where their presence is more dominant. With that said, A NIGHT AT THE OPERA does have some of most memorable gags in the Brothers' history. A verbal confusion with Santa Claus, a tiny room cramped with 15 people, mixing opera with baseball, and Harpo's stunts with the ropes are some of the highlights.

The new Warner DVD of A NIGHT AT THE OPERA is encoded for Region 1 and 4, and has a cleaner video transfer than I expected considering the age of the film. Obviously, a video restoration has been done, as were the cases for many of recent Warner DVDs of old movies. The original mono audio is fine, save for some age-related hisses in the background. There are some jarring momentary losses of frames in a few places, such as in the scene of Groucho riding a carriage early in the movie. However, I noticed these "jumps" in older video versions as well. Both English subtitles and closed captioning are present for the film's dialogs. The lyrics to the songs "Alone" and Cosi-Cosa" are also captioned, but not subtitled. During the Verdi opera sequence, the caption simply says "[Singing in Italian]." French and Spanish subtitles are also provided, but, of course, many of the wordplays are simply lost in translation ("C'est ce qu'on appelle une clause 'sanitaire'.") None of the supplements on the disc are subtitled or captioned, however.

Leonard Maltin provides an engaging and informative audio commentary for the film. He points out that the film was cut for its 1948 re-release (the version used for this DVD) in order to remove all references to Italy, which fought against America in WWII. The original opening was supposed to be a musical number showing people in Milan singing, thereby establishing the setting of the film. Although wishing to avoid analyzing the film, Maltin does try to elucidate some of the ingenious touches in the comical gags. In the famous stateroom scene, he points out the way Groucho talks at just the right moments and all the people seem oblivious to the situation are what make the scene funny. He praises the great pantomimic skills of Harpo, and thoughtfully suggests that although he might have been a great silent film star, his talent really belongs in a sound world. He gives his thoughts on Chico's patently fake Italian accent. He also laments that in the age of political correctness, Marx Brothers' films may seem passé. He says although there seems to be improvisations, the dialogs are often so intricately constructed that improvisations are often not possible. He also recounts a few anecdotes, such as the Brothers' showing up naked in producer Irving Thalberg's office at one time.

The disc includes a typical half-hour making-of featurette "Remarks on Marx, which is interesting, for me, mainly for the few minutes of appearance by Kitty Carlisle, who recalls how she was originally not allowed to sing with her voice. A 20-minute musical short from 1937, "Sunday Night at the Trocadero," is included, and it features performances by Connee Boswell, The Brian Sisters, George Hamilton and his "Music Box Music" Orchestra, and a cameo by Groucho. The audio quality is so poor on this piece that I can only hear every other word. An amusing ten-minute short "How to Sleep" from 1935, starring Robert Benchley, is also present, as well as the theatrical trailer for A NIGHT AT THE OPERA. There is also a 5-minute TV appearance by Groucho in which he also recalls the naked incident in Thalberg's office.

Many have argued that A NIGHT AT THE OPERA is the Marx Brother's finest film, pointing out that it combined the best of the Brother's comedy with the biggest and boldest in MGM production values. Personally, while I really like the film, I wouldn't quite put it in the top slot. Any of the sequences containing the Marx Brothers themselves are gold, but I find that I'm not as enamored with the romantic subplot and singing as other reviewers have been (notably Leonard Maltin in this DVD's commentary). Still, arguing about which one of the fine films is actually the best is a little pointless. This is a great movie, regardless with how it compares to the others.

The biggest thing this film has going for it (outside of the wonderful Marx Brothers themselves, of course) is the big production values that MGM splashed out on. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, it's nice to have some great big sets for the Brothers to clown around in (Harpo's stunt double swinging through the rafters is great), but all things considered, I think I prefer the tongue-in-cheek send-up of the big dance numbers (as done in DUCK SOUP) to the production dances which are played straight here.

Margaret Dumont is underused, which is a shame since her dignified outrage usually accounted for big laughs. She gets a good scene at the beginning, and a handful of opportunities to look indignant later in the film, but she isn't the constant presence that she had been in other films.

Still, while I can pick out a few flaws here and there, this is overall a hilarious and fun movie. Much of what is considered classic Marx Brothers material is from this film: the too-many-people-in-the-stateroom scene, the Marxian deconstruction of a legal contract (if anyone thinks that "'The party of the first part' shall be known in this contract as 'the party of the first part'" isn't realistic, then I can show you fine print I've received from credit card companies that are even more tautological than that), and, of course, the grand finale wherein the three brothers completely destroy an opera-in-progress.

The DVD also contains an all-new documentary, which features (among other people) co-star Kitty Carlisle, who is amazingly sharp for being in her 90s, and Dom DeLuise, who talks a lot about food and appears to have been interviewed in the middle of making breakfast (no, I'm not sure why he's here). This is mostly a talking heads interview documentary and there's not a whole lot of brand new material or trivia, but it is nice to see some differing perspectives on things. The story of how Groucho got his name contradicts the anecdote given on the commentary track, and Carlisle refutes the conventional wisdom that states that Margaret Dumont didn't get any of the jokes Groucho was bouncing off her.

A short except from a 1961 broadcast of "The Hy Gardner Show" (who?) reveals Groucho recounting the story of he and his brothers stripping naked and roasting potatoes in the office of Irving Thalberg after the famed producer kept them waiting once too long. I trust you will enjoy the anecdote, because it's told a whopping three times during the course of these DVD extras. Shockingly, none of the tellings blatantly contradict each other.

Two shorts have been included as extras, though I'm not sure I understand their relevance. Robert Benchley's HOW TO SLEEP won the Academy Award in 1935 for Best Short Subject/Comedy, and it's certainly entertaining enough. As for the other short, SUNDAY NIGHT AT THE TROCADERO, well, I'm baffled. I can't make heads or tails of it. Set in a nightclub, a Hollywood talent scout is visiting this ritzy affair. Numerous song and dance people are attempting auditions, while the club's doorman is trying to impress by doing very bad celebrity impersonations (it didn't help that half the time I didn't recognize the name of the person he was impersonating or the name of the person people actually thought he was doing). Cameos by stars of the day abound by having the camera cut to different tables and a voice over shouting, "Hey, look! It's Bob Has-been!" (or whoever). It isn't helped by the fact that most of the careers of these minor celebrities ended soon after the shoot, so for me I was watching cattle call of anonymous hotshots. I couldn't figure out why these people were appearing as themselves. Was the audience supposed to believe that these people really hang out at this fictional locale? Groucho Marx (out of character and costume) has a three-second cameo where he looks as confused as I felt.

I'm wary of commentaries performed by people who weren't actually born when the film they're talking about was made, but Leonard Maltin does a fine job here. He relates a lot of anecdotes about the Marx Brothers, points out how the script is layering the subplots, and relates a lot of trivia that I had never heard before (for example, the only surviving print is actually an edited version made during WWII when all references to Italy have been removed, which explains why the film bizarrely never tells you were the first scenes are set). He even gets into the fun, shouting "What a twit!" when the evil opera singer refuses to sing on the cruise-liner for free.

Although the DVD of A NIGHT AT THE OPERA is included in "The Marx Brothers Collection" box set, it is also available for individual sale. Although I slightly prefer A DAY AT THE RACES (also out on DVD now), I couldn't recommend anyone not pick up this film. For Marx novices, there's a great movie. For Marx aficionados, there's informational material that may be enjoyed. In any event, the powers that be have given a great film an excellent treatment on the DVD format.

If you can ignore some of the unmemorable songs and scenes between the two romantic leads in this movie then you are in for a great movie. The brothers are still in top form in this movie even without Zeppo. It would have been nice to have him in here instead of his replacement as the straight man. But this is still top of the line Marx Brothers. You get them on land and sea and land again. There is more of a plot to constrain them than in their earlier movies, but when they take over the scene you're once again in their zany universe of humor for the sake of humor. There are so many great scenes in here that you'll forget about the few ones without the brothers that slow down the movie. I guess the studio people forced them to throw in those scenes that moved the superfluous romantic subplot along. Just sit back and enjoy them all crowded into that stateroom or the radio interview or wreaking havoc at the opera at the end. The magic is still there.

According to film lore, Louis B. Mayer (head of M.G.M. film studios) loathed the Marx Brothers and particularly disliked this film, which takes aim at the high-class world of opera-- a world Mayer believed should be sancrosact.

Although the film lacks the hard-edged hysteria of earlier Marx Brothers films made a Paramount, it does benefit from a solid dose of M.G.M. gloss: never had a Marx Brothers film LOOKED so good in a purely cinematic sense. Unfortunately, this gloss included a heaping helping of romantic subplot which has the effect of undercutting the brothers' screen time, as well as several insignificant musical scenes; this, however, is merely a fly in an otherwise balmy ointment.

Whether you prefer the Marx Brothers work at Paramount to their work at M.G.M. is largely a matter of individual taste. Both styles have much to offer.

On the one hand I want to say that I think "A Night at the Opera" is the greatest Marx Brothers comedy because their peculiar brand of lunacy works better when given a real world target such as Opera than in the fantasy land of Freedonia in "Duck Soup." On the other hand I want to say that I think "A Night at the Opera" has more funny stuff in it than "Duck Soup." I do not even want to begin to get into any consideration of what difference the retirement of Zeppo meant in all this. I just want to laugh my head off.

Groucho is Otis P. Driftwood, too busy trying to fleece Mrs. Claypool (Margaret Dumont) to waste time running an Opera Company. Harpo is Tomasso, the much abused valet to the pompous tenor Rudolpho Lassparri (Walter Woolf King), while Chico is Fiorello, self-appointed agent for the unknown but talent young singer Ricardo Baroni (Allan Jones), who is in love with Rosa Castaldi (Kitty Carlisle). When Groucho loses his job to stuffed shirt Herman Gottlieb (Sig Ruman), it is up to the Marx Brothers to restore order and sanity to the universe.

In terms of classic comic routines "A Night at the Opera" gives you (1) the Stateroom scene with all those people (and don't forget the hardboiled eggs); (2) Groucho and Chico discussing the clauses in a contract (including the Sanity Clause); (3) Chico and Harpo working "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" into the overture of the opera (get your peanuts); (4) a dinner date between Groucho and Margaret Dumont (looking at him is the price you have to pay); and (5) Chico the Russian aviator explaining how they flew across the Atlantic Ocean in a boat (always remember to take enough gas or else you will have to turn back). There are more-you now Chico plays the piano, Harpo plays the harp, and Groucho deflates a pompous windbag at some point--but I want to talk about other things now.

I think the person who really helps sell this film is Kitty Carlisle. In every Marx brother movie there are the boys, there is Margaret Dumont as the foil, and then there are the young boy and girl who sing their way into your hearts. Carlisle and Jones (the only boy singer to appear in more than one Marx Brothers movie) are clearly the best pair to ever take on these thankless roles. The boys clearly like her and take her seriously, which she does in return, giving "A Night at the Opera" a sense of heart. This does not happen in Marx Brothers movies (compare it to the campy efforts of the young lovers in "Animal Crackers"). On top of all this, Carlisle and Jones can sing and their duet from the end of Il Travatore is much better than all the sappy songs that the lovers usually sing in these films.

"A Night at the Opera" is directed by Sam Wood (who would later spend some time directing scenes on that "Gone With the Wind" film you hear so much about). James Kevin McGuineess receives story credit but the key thing is that George S. Kaufman had a major hand in the script (until it ended up in the hands of the actors of course).

Notes: Look for the father of the Marx brothers on the pier when the ship sets sail and please remember that it Leonard's stage name is pronounced "Chick-o" not "Chico." Put an end to this Marxist reinterpretation nonsense.

"A Night at the Opera" was released on DVD back in the late 90s by Image. Image had licensed the film from WB, and once that licence expired the disc was pulled. Since then that OOP DVD has fetched in the hundreds on Ebay. Finally WB has released it as a special edition.

Extra features are as follows:
Commentary by Leonard Maltin
All-New Documentary "Remarks On Marx"
The Hy Gardner Show (1/1/61) excerpt featuring Groucho Marx
Theatrical Trailer
Three Vintage MGM Shorts:

Fitzpatrick Traveltalk's Los Angeles: Wonder City Of The World
Sunday Night At The Trocadero
Robert Benchley's Academy Award -Winning How To Sleep

WB is releasing 6 other Marx Brother's films all at the same time. Universal also is preparing to release their Marx Brothers films this year, including "Duck Soup."

To me this is the very best Marx Brother's comedy, hands down. I love their antics as usual, but what they do to the opera "Il Trovatore" makes me laugh just as hard now as it did the very first time I saw this film. Being an opera fan makes this movie even funnier, although you don't need to like opera to love "A Night at the Opera". There are so many high points of this film that space would not permit. One of my other favorite moments occurs when the Marx Brothers are hiding in a small cabin aboard an oceanliner, I won't spoil it for you- it's precious! A masterpiece of comedy from my favorite trio. FINALLY, all the Marx Brother comedies are available on DVD!!

A Marx Brothers' movie for me is never about the plot. The plot is just the connective tissue used to get from one outrageous comedy piece to another. It's the pieces themselves that carry the weight of the picture. And my-oh-my are the pieces here astounding.

Everyone points to the stateroom scene, and justifiably so. It's the epitome of the Marx Brothers' style: Chico's mischief, Harpo's innocence/devilishness, and Groucho's bemused commentary. For me, the funniest moment of the scene occurs even before anyone enters the room, when Groucho tries to order room service from the steward. His joke about tipping ("Do you have two fives?" "Yes sir." "Good, then you won't need the ten cents I was going to give you."), and Chico and Harpo's desire for hard-boiled eggs have me on the floor laughing every time.

There are many such masterful moments here. Of course, the "sanity clause" scene, which seems to go on forever, producing laugh after laugh after laugh ("Bartender, two beers." "I'll have two beers, too."). The opening scene when Groucho is late for dinner. Harpo falling down the spiral staircase, and continuing around even after he's hit the bottom. And the riotous demolition of the opera at the end (when the orchestra plays 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame', I just lose it!). It's all madness, and it's all hilarious.

I, like many other Marx Brothers' fans, loathe the musical numbers that break up the comedy. Here we get a generous dollop of that pap when the lovers sing to each other. But the saving grace, and a real surprise, is the scene where Chico and Harpo take turns at the piano. Chico's deft and subtle clowning is brilliant, and offers a perfect contrast to Harpo's manic performance. It is one of my favourite scenes in the movie.

When the Marx Brothers shifted from Paramount Pictures to MGM, they had been in decline at the box-office and they were worried. Their new producer, the boy-wonder and ueber-mogul, Irving Thalberg, told them that their next film, "A Night at the Opera", would have half as many laughs and make twice as much money. He was right.

Fans of the Marx Brothers are split as to whether the carefully crafted "A Night at the Opera" is better than or inferior to the manic and chaotic Paramount features. I find myself in full agreement with the two most knowledgeable Marx Brothers fans of them all, Groucho and Harpo. Both say in print that "A Night at the Opera" is the best film they ever made.

The Marx Brothers spent the first half of their careers in small-time vaudeville. In fact they never made it into the big-time vaudeville circuit with such mega-stars as W.C. Fields, Eddy Cantor and Fanny Brice. Being the Marx Brothers, they made the wildly unlikely jump from vaudeville obscurity to Broadway hit with a show called (for no good reason that Groucho could ever recall) "I'll Say She Is". Their next hit show was "The Coconuts", which Paramount filmed during the day in New Jersey while they performed at night on New York's Great White Way.

The Brothers never forgot or lost faith in their vaudeville roots. They did not create their comedy, they forged it before live audiences, seeking shades of nuance or timing by direct experience. In the expansive Hollywood of Thalberg's day, MGM not only understood the Brothers' ways, it put them on the road to test out their comic paces. Many years ago, when this film first showed up on televison, my father told me that he had seen the Brothers do the stateroom scene at (I think) the Golden Gate Theater in San Francisco. He remarked that the staged scene had been rather different from the filmed version. Alas, I did not think to ask him what the differences were. Ah, well, I was young and foolish then.

So much for the Marx Brothers, now to the opera part of "A Night at the Opera". Believe it or not, much of the material in the movie is not all that exaggerated:

- Lassparri, the tenor-villain is portrayed as a self-centered womanizer. In our own time, a rather well-known tenor has certainly been accused of treating female choristers as though they were part of his harem.

- Famous soprano A, not so many years ago, famously ejected slightly less famous soprano B from her assigned dressing room at the Metropolitan Opera because B's room was a few steps closer to the stage than A's.

- The wonderful Margaret Dumont portrays Mrs. Claypool as a wealthy woman who turns her money into artistic clout and becomes the object of pursuit by both charlatan (Groucho) and impresario (Sig Ruman). The old Metropolitan Opera House was originally built because the previous building did not have the requisite number of boxes to seat all the aspiring Mrs. Claypools in sufficient glory.

- The misadventures of Sig Ruman's choleric impresario are not so very different from those of Giulio Gatti-Cazzaza, general manager of the Metropolitan Opera during the glory days of Caruso, McCormack and Ferrar. The latter two, for example, were often profitably teamed by Gatti-Cazzaza as the doomed lovers in "Carmen", despite the inconvenient fact that they actively despised each other. And Gatti-Cazzaza had it easy in comparison with the fabulously harried Colonel Mapleson, who spent years on the road with troupe after troupe of operatic misfits and oddballs.

Kitty Carlisle, who plays Rosa, was actually a star of middling magnitude at the Met. As movie actors go, she sings extraordinarily well, although I would not have cast her as the formidable Leonora in "Il trovatore" [note the correct spelling and capitalization, you non-opera fans.] Kitty Carlisle Hart is one of those wonderful creatures whose existence has made the world a better place. When last I caught sight of her, she was as radiant as ever and had become in the real artistic life of New York what Mrs. Claypool had only aspired to.

Allan Jones (father of crooner Jack Jones) was a tenorish baritone or maybe a baritonal tenor whose real strength was in operetta. He gets through what are, in fact, the relatively easy portions of the killer role of Manrico with considerable grace.

Some Amazon reviewers have indulged in hand-wringing about all the music introduced into the film at the expense of the Brothers. Except for the operatic material, Kitty Carlisle's only song is a pleasant operetta-ish duet with Jones called "Alone". Jones has just one more, "Cosi Cosa", a big song and dance production number filled with comic bits for the Brothers.

Finally, the opera:

"Il trovatore" is recognized by opera buffs as simultaneously one of the most thrilling masterpieces ever composed and one of the silliest things ever to be put on stage--all this before the Marx Brothers ever took a hand. Without the Marxist interpretation, the "Il trovatore" production shown on the screen would probably have been rated as pretty good with an adequate (but no more) soprano, excellent production values for the gypsy chorus scene and a crackling good tenor--not Jones but the villain, Lassparri. I've never been able to find out who he was, but whoever dubbed in the singing voice of Lassparri was a tenor of the first rank. (Aureliano Pertile, maybe?) I am always a little disappointed that when he storms back onto the stage to make a comeback, he is booed off before he gets out more than the words "Mal reggendo--"

Thalberg knew his business. The Marxes knew theirs. This is their joint masterpiece and one of the greatest comedies ever made.

HONK!--and two boiled eggs.

I personally feel this movie is a little overrated, but overrated in that while I don't think it's their greatest or funniest movie, I don't think it's their worst or unfunniest either (far from it, in fact). This was their penultimate truly great film, though with their move to MGM and away from Paramount, you can see a plot is starting to take more precedence over crazy anarchic antics, along with supporting players starting to assume more of a role in the story, along with the dreaded romantic/musical subplot. The brothers were slowly starting to lose their edge with this move to making movies that may have had more of a plot but half the laughs, as Irving Thalberg told them he wanted to do. Although I know they regarded the first two they made at MGM, before he died, as the best they ever made, so it's not like they lost their edge or began their decline and loss of creative control overnight. Although at least here the lovers involved in the subplot really belong there and are a full part of the plot, instead of feeling like boring pointless appendages slowing down an otherwise good movie. And since they're both singers, the musical numbers don't seem superfluous like they do in too many of their other MGM films (although "Cosi-Cosa" is one I could easily skip ever hearing again). Our sympathy with Rosa and Riccardo is established right away, so the viewer really cares for them instead of feeling annoyed whenever they're onscreen taking time away from the comedy. Allan Jones was also the best pseudo-Zeppo they ever worked with by far, although I've read that the three of them really missed their baby brother while they were making this film and wished he'd stayed in the act and been able to make that film with them. Unlike most of their later MGM films, too, here we really have a feeling that the bad guys are really bad and need to be defeated, not just boring generic villains you don't really get a feel for the true meanness of, of their need to be defeated and humiliated, wishing they'd never been born. We know right from the first time we encounter him in the second scene that Rodolfo is cruel, mean, and evil (I can barely watch the scene where he's beating Harpo, first hitting him with a stick and then whipping him, and then a few scenes later roughs him up again), and deserves exactly what he gets at the end.

The extras are hit and miss; the mini-documentary is quite good, but could have been better-served being a bit longer and more in-depth. The audio commentary is also nice; I'm not a big fan of audio commentaries, but they're interesting to listen to at least once, and can clear up confusion about a certain dated reference, shed some light on an in-joke, or just provide interesting tidbits about the movie you might not have found out anywhere else. The mood of the commentary is very informal and friendly instead of overly serious and scholarly. The rest of the extras are alright, but the shorts aren't really related to the movie apart from showing the kind of thing that might have been shown back in 1935 before the main feature began.