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A Night at the Opera (film)
Encyclopedia
A Night at the Opera is a 1935 American comedy film starring Groucho Marx
, Chico Marx
and Harpo Marx
, and featuring Kitty Carlisle
, Allan Jones, Margaret Dumont
, Sig Ruman
, and Walter Woolf King
. It was the first film the Marx Brothers
made for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
after their departure from Paramount Pictures
, and the first after Zeppo
left the act. The film was adapted by George S. Kaufman
, Morrie Ryskind
, Al Boasberg
(uncredited), and Buster Keaton
(uncredited) from a story by James Kevin McGuinness
. Most of the physical gags were wholly lifted from Keaton's 1932 film Speak Easily
. It was directed by Sam Wood
.
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; and previously in AFI%27s 100 Years... 100 Laughs 2000 showing, at number 12.
world. Otis B. Driftwood (Groucho Marx) is hired by widowed socialite
hopeful Mrs. Claypool (Margaret Dumont
) to help her break into high society, but he instead alternately woos and insults her. At the last opera performance of the season in Italy
, of Pagliacci
, Otis meets Fiorello (Chico Marx
), 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, Lassparri (Walter Woolf King
), an egotistical man who wants fame—and Rosa—for himself. Otis signs Riccardo to a contract, thinking he is signing Lassparri (because Fiorello said he was the manager of the best opera singer in the world, making Otis think Ricarrdo was Lassparii); Lassparri, meanwhile, is signed for the New York opera by the manager of the opera company, 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, hiding in Otis's trunk, along with another of Fiorello's friends, Tomasso (Harpo Marx
), a dresser
who got fired by Lassparri (after he caught Tommaso wearing his costumes). In New York, to protect their identities, the three stowaways pretend to be three famous aviator
s. They are forced to make a speech, however, since Harpo is mute, he fails to do so, causing people to get suspicious. Tommaso's identity is quickly revealed when his fake beard falls off. They hide in Otis's apartment after escaping. Otis finds out from a newspaper that the stowaways are being pursued by the police for entering the country illegally. 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 of Il trovatore
by throwing it into total chaos. With the police and Gottlieb after him, Tommaso turns off the lights. While the lights are off, Lassparri and Otis end up in a box. Tommaso pulls the box up before the lights turn on. Finding that Lassparri has disappeared, Gottlieb desperately asks Riccarrdo and Rosa to sing. As they finish singing, the box Otis and Lassparri are in drops to the ground. Lassparri tries to perform, only to be booed by the audience. Riccardo and Rosa once again sing.
The film ends with Otis and Fiorello telling Gottlieb that because they signed the contract, they get ten percent each from the profit Ricarrdo and Rosa make from singing.
This continues until Fiorello and Tomasso have ordered about a dozen hard-boiled eggs and Driftwood 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 Driftwood'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.
The scene starts with Driftwood finding out that Fiorello, Tomasso, and Riccardo Baroni managed to sneak onto the boat by stowing away in his steamer trunk. Fiorello and Tomasso have to hide out 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 are: Driftwood, Fiorello, Tomasso, Baroni, two cleaning ladies who make up the bed, a manicurist, a ship's engineer and his assistant, a girl looking for her aunt, a maid ("I come to mop up." "You'll have to start on the ceiling.") and four waiters with trays of food (prompting Driftwood'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.
scene between Driftwood and Fiorello ("the party of the first part ..."):
In an interview with Richard J. Anobile in The Marx Brothers Scrapbook, Groucho said he was so appalled by an early draft of the script—which was reportedly written by Burt Kalmar and Harry Ruby
—that he screamed, "Why fuck around with second-rate talent? Get Kaufman and Ryskind [to write the screenpay]!"
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 anarchic
: they attacked anybody who was so unfortunate to cross their paths whether they deserved it or not, albeit comically. 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. It helped that the film contained some of what fans consider to be the brothers' funniest routines. These routines were honed on stage
, as the brothers performed the new material on the road before filming began.
However, according to Oscar Levant
, the first preview was a "disaster", with "hardly a laugh" as 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 nine minutes was cut from the running time, and the result was a hit.
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 specialties), such as the song Alone
, with the departure of the steamship, and the song Cosi Cosa with the Italian
buffet
and dancing.
Kitty Carlisle and Allan Jones
, who were both trained in classical singing, sing for themselves in the movie. Walter Woolf King
was also trained in classical singing, but he was a baritone
, and the music for his character in Il trovatore was written for a tenor
. His aria, Di quella pira
, was sung by New York Metropolitan tenor Tandy MacKenzie.
(MGM's logo mascot); Harpo Marx was to have honked his horn. For reasons unexplained, this unique, amusing opening was not utilized for the actual film, although it would turn up years later in a re-release trailer.
According to MGM's dialogue cutting continuity and Leonard Maltin
's audio commentary on the current DVD release, the film originally began (after the opening credits) with the image of a "boat on canal." A superimposed title reads: "ITALY - WHERE THEY SING ALL DAY AND GO TO THE OPERA AT NIGHT." What follows is a musical number featuring bits and pieces from Leoncavallo's Pagliacci
performed by "everyday" Italians. A street sweeper sings part of the prologue ("Un nido di memorie...") as he greets a man who then hands out opera tickets to a group of children emerging from a store; the kids respond with "la-la-la-la-la, verso un paese strano" (from "Stridono lassù"). A "captain" comes down a set of steps, salutes a sentry, then bursts into "Vesti la giubba
". There's a lap dissolve
to a hotel lobby, where a "baggage man" is rolling a trunk and crooning about "nettare divino" (divine nectar). He's joined in song by a waiter who then enters the dining room, where he sings as he serves a man who also gets in a few notes. The waiter then crosses over to speak to Mrs. Claypool (Margaret Dumont), marking the beginning of the film in existing copies. Maltin stated the scene was cut during World War II to remove references to Italy, and unfortunately, the main negative was cut as well, so the scene is now lost.
This, along with several other small cuts made at about the same time, was why the stated running time of the film (95 minutes) was three minutes longer than it is currently.
A persistent rumor concerning A Night at the Opera involves the presence of the Marx Brothers' father Sam Marx
(also known as "Frenchy") on the ship and also on the dock waving goodbye. Both Groucho and Harpo stated this rumor in their memoirs, and even Leonard Maltin reiterates it in the DVD commentary. However, this rumor cannot be true, because Sam Marx had died in 1933, during pre-production of Duck Soup—two years before A Night at the Opera was released. The rumor came about because Frenchy had had a similar cameo appearance in the Marx Brothers' earlier film Monkey Business
. Incidentally, part of the concept of having the Marx Brothers as stowaways on a ship was recycled from Monkey Business. Also, there is a reference to the Marx Brothers' mother Minnie Marx
during the stateroom scene, in which a woman asks: "Is my Aunt Minnie in here?"
When Groucho Marx's and Margaret Dumont's characters are boarding the ocean liner, Dumont asks Groucho, "Do you have everything, Otis?", to which Groucho replies "Well, I haven't had any complaints yet." In two different interviews with Dick Cavett on The Dick Cavett Show - Comic Legends DVD, Groucho claimed that exchange of dialogue was banned in a majority of states when the film was released because it was too suggestive, although the number of states varied with different tellings of the story.
s, Driftwood 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, then reversed and dubbed over the scene in post-production.
consisted of a constant barrage of zany, free-for-all jokes sandwiched in between something resembling a plot, A Night at the Opera was calculated comedy. Producer Irving Thalberg
insisted on a strong story structure, making the Brothers more sympathetic characters, interweaving their comedy with romantic plots and non-comic spectacular musical numbers. The targets of their mischief were largely confined to clear villains. Thalberg's logic was that the Marxes could get "twice the box office with half the laughs," believing their films would attract a wider audience.
Another idea of Thalberg's was that before filming would commence on an upcoming picture, the Marx Brothers would try out its material on the vaudeville stage, working on comic timing and learning what earned a laugh and what did not. He was keen to plant gags accordingly so the laughs could be timed correctly.
In A Night at the Opera, the Brothers' characters were refined. Groucho made more sense, and less trouble. Chico gained intelligence, and Harpo regressed into more of a child. The film dives straight into a plot and accompanying comedy, with every scene having a definitive beginning, middle, and end. The end consisted of a grand finale in traditional MGM musical fashion, something lacking from the Brothers' Paramount efforts, which would consist of gag upon gag without a satisfactory payoff.
Perhaps most notably, A Night at the Opera established a formula that would be used for every subsequent film the Marx Brothers made at MGM:
. Internet reviews take a revisionist approach and suggest that the film is "a very funny movie slowed down by MGM’s expensive production values and idiotic songs." Ken Hanke calls it "hysterical, but not up to the boys’ Paramount
films." Mark Bourne concurs: "[The Marx Brothers] still let the air out of stuffed shirts and barbecue a few sacred cows, but something got lost in all that MGMness when the screen's ultimate anti-authoritarian team starting working the Andy Hardy side of the street."
Roger Ebert
admits that, while A Night at the Opera "contains some of their best work," he "fast-forward[s] over the sappy interludes involving Kitty Carlisle and Allan Jones. In Duck Soup there are no sequences I can skip; the movie is funny from beginning to end."
Danel Griffin says: "A Night at the Opera is funny, but this is NOT the Marx Brothers, and their earlier style is so sorely missed that the film falls flat. The main problem with A Night at the Opera is the obvious lack of the Marx Brothers’ trademark anarchy. What distinguished them in their Paramount films from all other comedians was their thumb-biting indictment of society.
American Film Institute
Lists
Sanity clause
General
Groucho Marx
Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx was an American comedian and film star famed as a master of wit. His rapid-fire delivery of innuendo-laden patter earned him many admirers. He made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born...
, Chico Marx
Chico Marx
Leonard "Chico" Marx was an American comedian and film star as part of the Marx Brothers. His persona in the act was that of a dim-witted albeit crafty con artist, seemingly of rural Italian origin, who wore shabby clothes, and sported a curly-haired wig and Tyrolean hat.As the first-born of the...
and Harpo Marx
Harpo Marx
Adolph "Harpo" Marx was an American comedian and film star. He was the second oldest of the Marx Brothers. His comic style was influenced by clown and pantomime traditions. He wore a curly reddish wig, and never spoke during performances...
, and featuring Kitty Carlisle
Kitty Carlisle Hart
Kitty Carlisle was an American singer, actress and spokeswoman for the arts. She is best remembered as a regular panelist on the television game show To Tell the Truth. She served 20 years on the New York State Council on the Arts. In 1991, she received the National Medal of Arts from President...
, Allan Jones, Margaret Dumont
Margaret Dumont
Margaret Dumont was an American comedic actress. She is remembered mostly for being the comic foil to Groucho Marx in seven of the Marx Brothers films...
, Sig Ruman
Sig Ruman
Sig Ruman was a German-American actor known for his comic portrayals of pompous villains.-Life and career:...
, and Walter Woolf King
Walter Woolf King
Walter Woolf King was an American singer, performer, and film actorBorn in San Francisco, California, King started singing for a living at a young age and sang mostly in churches. He made his Broadway theatre debut in 1919, and developed a reputation as a baritone in musical comedies and other...
. It was the first film the Marx Brothers
Marx Brothers
The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act, originally from New York City, that enjoyed success in Vaudeville, Broadway, and motion pictures from the early 1900s to around 1950...
made for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
after their departure from Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
, and the first after Zeppo
Zeppo Marx
Herbert Manfred "Zeppo" Marx was an American film star, musician, engineer, theatrical agent and businessman. He was the youngest of the five Marx Brothers. He appeared in the first five Marx Brothers feature films, from 1929 to 1933, but then left the act to start his second career as an...
left the act. The film was adapted by George S. Kaufman
George S. Kaufman
George Simon Kaufman was an American playwright, theatre director and producer, humorist, and drama critic. In addition to comedies and political satire, he wrote several musicals, notably for the Marx Brothers...
, Morrie Ryskind
Morrie Ryskind
Morrie Ryskind was an American dramatist, lyricist and writer of theatrical productions and motion pictures, who became a conservative political activist later in life.-Biography:...
, Al Boasberg
Al Boasberg
Al Boasberg was a American comedy writer in vaudeville, radio, and film, as well as being a film director....
(uncredited), and Buster Keaton
Buster Keaton
Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...
(uncredited) from a story by James Kevin McGuinness
James Kevin McGuinness
James Kevin McGuinness was an American screenwriter and film producer. He wrote for 36 films between 1927 and 1950. He wrote for The New Yorker magazine.He was born in Ireland and immigrated to New York in 1904...
. Most of the physical gags were wholly lifted from Keaton's 1932 film Speak Easily
Speak Easily
Speak Easily is a 1932 American comedy film starring Buster Keaton, Jimmy Durante, and Thelma Todd, and directed by Edward Sedgwick. The studio also paired Keaton and Durante as a comedy team during this period in The Passionate Plumber and What! No Beer? Keaton later used many of the physical...
. It was directed by Sam Wood
Sam Wood
Samuel Grosvenor "Sam" Wood was an American film director, and producer, who was best known for directing such Hollywood hits as A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, and The Pride of the Yankees...
.
In 1993, A Night at the Opera was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
by the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". It is also included in the 2007 update of AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies
The first of the AFI 100 Years… series of cinematic milestones, AFI's 100 Years…100 Movies is a list of the 100 best American movies, as determined by the American Film Institute from a poll of more than 1,500 artists and leaders in the film industry who chose from a list of 400 nominated movies...
, at number 85; and previously in AFI%27s 100 Years... 100 Laughs 2000 showing, at number 12.
Plot
In A Night At the Opera, the Marx brothers help two young lovers to succeed in love as well as in the operaOpera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
world. Otis B. Driftwood (Groucho Marx) is hired by widowed socialite
Socialite
A socialite is a person who participates in social activities and spends a significant amount of time entertaining and being entertained at fashionable upper-class events....
hopeful Mrs. Claypool (Margaret Dumont
Margaret Dumont
Margaret Dumont was an American comedic actress. She is remembered mostly for being the comic foil to Groucho Marx in seven of the Marx Brothers films...
) to help her break into high society, but he instead alternately woos and insults her. At the last opera performance of the season in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, of Pagliacci
Pagliacci
Pagliacci , sometimes incorrectly rendered with a definite article as I Pagliacci, is an opera consisting of a prologue and two acts written and composed by Ruggero Leoncavallo. It recounts the tragedy of a jealous husband in a commedia dell'arte troupe...
, Otis meets Fiorello (Chico Marx
Chico Marx
Leonard "Chico" Marx was an American comedian and film star as part of the Marx Brothers. His persona in the act was that of a dim-witted albeit crafty con artist, seemingly of rural Italian origin, who wore shabby clothes, and sported a curly-haired wig and Tyrolean hat.As the first-born of the...
), 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, Lassparri (Walter Woolf King
Walter Woolf King
Walter Woolf King was an American singer, performer, and film actorBorn in San Francisco, California, King started singing for a living at a young age and sang mostly in churches. He made his Broadway theatre debut in 1919, and developed a reputation as a baritone in musical comedies and other...
), an egotistical man who wants fame—and Rosa—for himself. Otis signs Riccardo to a contract, thinking he is signing Lassparri (because Fiorello said he was the manager of the best opera singer in the world, making Otis think Ricarrdo was Lassparii); Lassparri, meanwhile, is signed for the New York opera by the manager of the opera company, Herman Gottlieb (Sig Ruman
Sig Ruman
Sig Ruman was a German-American actor known for his comic portrayals of pompous villains.-Life and career:...
).
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, hiding in Otis's trunk, along with another of Fiorello's friends, Tomasso (Harpo Marx
Harpo Marx
Adolph "Harpo" Marx was an American comedian and film star. He was the second oldest of the Marx Brothers. His comic style was influenced by clown and pantomime traditions. He wore a curly reddish wig, and never spoke during performances...
), a dresser
Dresser (theater)
A dresser is a theatrical stagehand who is involved with maintaining costume quality at each performance. They are hired by either the director, producer, or wardrobe supervisor. They report directly to the wardrobe supervisor and are usually paid by the hour....
who got fired by Lassparri (after he caught Tommaso wearing his costumes). In New York, to protect their identities, the three stowaways pretend to be three famous aviator
Aviator
An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...
s. They are forced to make a speech, however, since Harpo is mute, he fails to do so, causing people to get suspicious. Tommaso's identity is quickly revealed when his fake beard falls off. They hide in Otis's apartment after escaping. Otis finds out from a newspaper that the stowaways are being pursued by the police for entering the country illegally. 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 of Il trovatore
Il trovatore
Il trovatore is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play El Trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez. Cammarano died in mid-1852 before completing the libretto...
by throwing it into total chaos. With the police and Gottlieb after him, Tommaso turns off the lights. While the lights are off, Lassparri and Otis end up in a box. Tommaso pulls the box up before the lights turn on. Finding that Lassparri has disappeared, Gottlieb desperately asks Riccarrdo and Rosa to sing. As they finish singing, the box Otis and Lassparri are in drops to the ground. Lassparri tries to perform, only to be booed by the audience. Riccardo and Rosa once again sing.
The film ends with Otis and Fiorello telling Gottlieb that because they signed the contract, they get ten percent each from the profit Ricarrdo and Rosa make from singing.
Stateroom scene
Driftwood 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. Fiorello insists on getting something to eat ("We getta food or we don't go"). So Driftwood calls a steward ("I say, Stew") and orders dinner.
Driftwood: And two medium-boiled eggs.
Fiorello: (inside room): And two hard-boiled eggs.
Driftwood: And two hard-boiled eggs.
Tomasso: (inside room): (honk)
Driftwood: Make that three hard boiled eggs.
The scene starts with Driftwood finding out that Fiorello, Tomasso, and Riccardo Baroni managed to sneak onto the boat by stowing away in his steamer trunk. Fiorello and Tomasso have to hide out 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 are: Driftwood, Fiorello, Tomasso, Baroni, two cleaning ladies who make up the bed, a manicurist, a ship's engineer and his assistant, a girl looking for her aunt, a maid ("I come to mop up." "You'll have to start on the ceiling.") and four waiters with trays of food (prompting Driftwood'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.
Contract scene
The contractContract
A contract is an agreement entered into by two parties or more with the intention of creating a legal obligation, which may have elements in writing. Contracts can be made orally. The remedy for breach of contract can be "damages" or compensation of money. In equity, the remedy can be specific...
scene between Driftwood and Fiorello ("the party of the first part ..."):
Fiorello: Hey, wait, wait. What does this say here, this thing here?
Driftwood: 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.
Fiorello: Well, I don't know...
Driftwood: It's all right. That's, that's in every contract. That's, that's what they call a sanity clause.
Fiorello: Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! You can't fool me. There ain't no Sanity ClauseSanta ClausSanta Claus is a folklore figure in various cultures who distributes gifts to children, normally on Christmas Eve. Each name is a variation of Saint Nicholas, but refers to Santa Claus...
!
Cast
- Groucho MarxGroucho MarxJulius Henry "Groucho" Marx was an American comedian and film star famed as a master of wit. His rapid-fire delivery of innuendo-laden patter earned him many admirers. He made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born...
as Otis B. Driftwood - Harpo MarxHarpo MarxAdolph "Harpo" Marx was an American comedian and film star. He was the second oldest of the Marx Brothers. His comic style was influenced by clown and pantomime traditions. He wore a curly reddish wig, and never spoke during performances...
as Tomasso - Chico MarxChico MarxLeonard "Chico" Marx was an American comedian and film star as part of the Marx Brothers. His persona in the act was that of a dim-witted albeit crafty con artist, seemingly of rural Italian origin, who wore shabby clothes, and sported a curly-haired wig and Tyrolean hat.As the first-born of the...
as Fiorello - Kitty Carlisle as Rosa Castaldi
- Allan Jones as Ricardo Baroni
- Margaret DumontMargaret DumontMargaret Dumont was an American comedic actress. She is remembered mostly for being the comic foil to Groucho Marx in seven of the Marx Brothers films...
as Mrs. Claypool - Siegfried Rumann as Herman Gottlieb
- Walter Woolf KingWalter Woolf KingWalter Woolf King was an American singer, performer, and film actorBorn in San Francisco, California, King started singing for a living at a young age and sang mostly in churches. He made his Broadway theatre debut in 1919, and developed a reputation as a baritone in musical comedies and other...
as Rodolfo Lassparri - Robert Emmett O'Connor as Sergeant Henderson
- Edward Keane as The Captain
- Purnell PrattPurnell PrattPurnell Pratt was an American film actor. He appeared in 114 films between 1914 and 1941.He was born in Bethel, Illinois and died in Hollywood, California.-Selected filmography:* On with the Show...
as The Mayor
Production
Harry Ruby
Harry Ruby was a Jewish American songwriter and screenwriter.After failing in his early ambition to become a professional baseball player,...
—that he screamed, "Why fuck around with second-rate talent? Get Kaufman and Ryskind [to write the screenpay]!"
At the suggestion of producer Irving Thalberg
Irving Thalberg
Irving Grant Thalberg was an American film producer during the early years of motion pictures. He was called "The Boy Wonder" for his youth and his extraordinary ability to select the right scripts, choose the right actors, gather the best production staff and make very profitable films.-Life and...
, the film marked a change of direction in the brothers' career. In their Paramount films, the brothers' characters were much more anarchic
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
: they attacked anybody who was so unfortunate to cross their paths whether they deserved it or not, albeit comically. 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. It helped that the film contained some of what fans consider to be the brothers' funniest routines. These routines were honed on stage
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
, as the brothers performed the new material on the road before filming began.
However, according to Oscar Levant
Oscar Levant
Oscar Levant was an American pianist, composer, author, comedian, and actor. He was more famous for his mordant character and witticisms, on the radio and in movies and television, than for his music.-Life and career:...
, the first preview was a "disaster", with "hardly a laugh" as was the second. Thalberg and George S. Kaufman
George S. Kaufman
George Simon Kaufman was an American playwright, theatre director and producer, humorist, and drama critic. In addition to comedies and political satire, he wrote several musicals, notably for the Marx Brothers...
spent days in the editing room, adjusting the timing to match the rhythm of a stage performance. About nine minutes was cut from the running time, and the result was a hit.
Opera
True to its title, the film actually includes adaptations of some real operaOpera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
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 specialties), such as the song Alone
Alone (1935 song)
Alone is a popular musical number, first performed by Allan Jones and Kitty Carlisle in the 1935 Marx Brothers film A Night At The Opera.The lyrics were written by Arthur Freed, with music by Nacio Herb Brown....
, with the departure of the steamship, and the song Cosi Cosa with the Italian
Italian cuisine
Italian cuisine has developed through centuries of social and political changes, with roots as far back as the 4th century BCE. Italian cuisine in itself takes heavy influences, including Etruscan, ancient Greek, ancient Roman, Byzantine, Jewish and Arab cuisines...
buffet
Buffet
A buffet is a system of serving meals in which food is placed in a public area where the diners generally serve themselves. Buffets are offered at various places including hotels and many social events...
and dancing.
Kitty Carlisle and Allan Jones
Allan Jones
Allan Jones was an American actor and singer. For many years he was married to actress Irene Hervey; their son is American pop singer Jack Jones.-Life and career:...
, who were both trained in classical singing, sing for themselves in the movie. Walter Woolf King
Walter Woolf King
Walter Woolf King was an American singer, performer, and film actorBorn in San Francisco, California, King started singing for a living at a young age and sang mostly in churches. He made his Broadway theatre debut in 1919, and developed a reputation as a baritone in musical comedies and other...
was also trained in classical singing, but he was a baritone
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
, and the music for his character in Il trovatore was written for a tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
. His aria, Di quella pira
Di quella pira
Di quella pira is a popular tenor aria sung by Manrico in Act 3, Scene 2 of Giuseppe Verdi's opera, Il trovatore.-Setting:...
, was sung by New York Metropolitan tenor Tandy MacKenzie.
Subsequent re-editing
The film was to have originally begun with each of the Marx Brothers taking turns roaring in lieu of Leo the LionLeo the Lion
Leo the Lion may refer to:* Leo the Lion , the mascot of Hollywood film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer* Leo the Lion , an anime series by Osamu Tezuka; the sequel to Kimba the White Lion...
(MGM's logo mascot); Harpo Marx was to have honked his horn. For reasons unexplained, this unique, amusing opening was not utilized for the actual film, although it would turn up years later in a re-release trailer.
Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin is an American film and animated film critic and historian, author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives.-Personal life:...
's audio commentary on the current DVD release, the film originally began (after the opening credits) with the image of a "boat on canal." A superimposed title reads: "ITALY - WHERE THEY SING ALL DAY AND GO TO THE OPERA AT NIGHT." What follows is a musical number featuring bits and pieces from Leoncavallo's Pagliacci
Pagliacci
Pagliacci , sometimes incorrectly rendered with a definite article as I Pagliacci, is an opera consisting of a prologue and two acts written and composed by Ruggero Leoncavallo. It recounts the tragedy of a jealous husband in a commedia dell'arte troupe...
performed by "everyday" Italians. A street sweeper sings part of the prologue ("Un nido di memorie...") as he greets a man who then hands out opera tickets to a group of children emerging from a store; the kids respond with "la-la-la-la-la, verso un paese strano" (from "Stridono lassù"). A "captain" comes down a set of steps, salutes a sentry, then bursts into "Vesti la giubba
Vesti la giubba
"Vesti la giubba" is a famous tenor aria from Ruggero Leoncavallo's 1892 opera Pagliacci. "Vesti la giubba" is the conclusion of the first act, when Canio discovers his wife's infidelity, but must nevertheless prepare for his performance as Pagliaccio the clown because "the show must go on".The...
". There's a lap dissolve
Lap dissolve
A lap dissolve is a technical term in film editing, most often used in the United States, applying to the process whereby the fading last shot of a preceding scene is superimposed over the emerging first shot of the next scene, so that, for a few moments, both shots are seen simultaneously...
to a hotel lobby, where a "baggage man" is rolling a trunk and crooning about "nettare divino" (divine nectar). He's joined in song by a waiter who then enters the dining room, where he sings as he serves a man who also gets in a few notes. The waiter then crosses over to speak to Mrs. Claypool (Margaret Dumont), marking the beginning of the film in existing copies. Maltin stated the scene was cut during World War II to remove references to Italy, and unfortunately, the main negative was cut as well, so the scene is now lost.
This, along with several other small cuts made at about the same time, was why the stated running time of the film (95 minutes) was three minutes longer than it is currently.
A persistent rumor concerning A Night at the Opera involves the presence of the Marx Brothers' father Sam Marx
Sam Marx
Samuel Marx, born Simon Marx , was the husband of Minnie Marx, and father of the Marx Brothers.He was born in Mertzwiller, Alsace, France in 1859, and he died on May 10, 1933 in Los Angeles, California. He met Minnie in New York where he was working as a dance teacher. They married in 1884 and had...
(also known as "Frenchy") on the ship and also on the dock waving goodbye. Both Groucho and Harpo stated this rumor in their memoirs, and even Leonard Maltin reiterates it in the DVD commentary. However, this rumor cannot be true, because Sam Marx had died in 1933, during pre-production of Duck Soup—two years before A Night at the Opera was released. The rumor came about because Frenchy had had a similar cameo appearance in the Marx Brothers' earlier film Monkey Business
Monkey Business (1931 film)
Monkey Business is a 1931 comedy film. It is the third of the Marx Brothers' released movies, and the first not to be an adaptation of one of their Broadway shows. The film stars the four brothers: Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, and Zeppo Marx, and screen comedienne Thelma Todd. It is...
. Incidentally, part of the concept of having the Marx Brothers as stowaways on a ship was recycled from Monkey Business. Also, there is a reference to the Marx Brothers' mother Minnie Marx
Minnie Marx
Miene Schönberg Marx was the mother and manager of the Marx Brothers, wife of Sam Marx, and the sister of vaudeville star Al Shean...
during the stateroom scene, in which a woman asks: "Is my Aunt Minnie in here?"
When Groucho Marx's and Margaret Dumont's characters are boarding the ocean liner, Dumont asks Groucho, "Do you have everything, Otis?", to which Groucho replies "Well, I haven't had any complaints yet." In two different interviews with Dick Cavett on The Dick Cavett Show - Comic Legends DVD, Groucho claimed that exchange of dialogue was banned in a majority of states when the film was released because it was too suggestive, although the number of states varied with different tellings of the story.
Hungarian rediscovery
In 2008, a film student reported that the Hungarian National Film Archive possesses a longer print of the film. While the print does not contain the opening musical number, it does contain several excised lines referencing Italy that had been cut upon the film's re-release in the 1940s. With the opening number still missing, it may be that this scene was cut after its original preview screenings during the 1930s rather than during its re-release, as previously thought. However, the discovery of the Hungarian print has not yet been independently verified, and Warner Brothers, who owns the rights to the film, has not indicated that any restoration is forthcoming.Hidden material
In the scene where the three stowaways are impersonating Russian aviatorAviator
An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...
s, Driftwood 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, then reversed and dubbed over the scene in post-production.
Musical numbers
- "Di Quella Pira" (from Il trovatore)
- "Miserere" (from Il trovatore)
- "AloneAlone (1935 song)Alone is a popular musical number, first performed by Allan Jones and Kitty Carlisle in the 1935 Marx Brothers film A Night At The Opera.The lyrics were written by Arthur Freed, with music by Nacio Herb Brown....
" (Nacio Herb BrownNacio Herb BrownNacio Herb Brown was an American writer of popular songs, movie scores, and Broadway theatre music in the 1920s through the early 1950s.-Biography:...
and Arthur FreedArthur FreedArthur Freed was born Arthur Grossman in Charleston, South Carolina. He was a Jewish American lyricist and a Hollywood film producer.- Biography :Freed began his career as a song-plugger and pianist in Chicago...
) - "Santa Lucia"
- "All I Do Is Dream of YouAll I Do Is Dream of You"All I Do Is Dream of You" is a popular song. The music was written by Nacio Herb Brown, the lyrics by Arthur Freed. The song was published in 1934. It was originally written for a 1934 film Sadie McKee. The first recording of the song was on April 23, 1934, by Dick Robertson and Angelo...
" - "Cosi-Cosa"
- "Take Me Out to the Ballgame"
- "Anvil ChorusAnvil ChorusThe Anvil Chorus is the English term for the Coro di zingari , a piece of music from Act 2, Scene 1 of Giuseppe Verdi's Il trovatore which depicts Spanish Gypsies striking their anvils at dawn – hence its English name – and singing the praises of hard work, good wine, and their Gypsy...
" (from Il trovatore) - "Stride la vampa" (from Il trovatore)
- "Di quella Pira" (from Il trovatore)
- "Miserere, Ah, Che La Morte" (From Il trovatore)
- "Stridono lassù" (from PagliacciPagliacciPagliacci , sometimes incorrectly rendered with a definite article as I Pagliacci, is an opera consisting of a prologue and two acts written and composed by Ruggero Leoncavallo. It recounts the tragedy of a jealous husband in a commedia dell'arte troupe...
)
Style change
A Night at the Opera began a new era for the Marx Brothers' style of comedy. Whereas their previous comedies at Paramount PicturesParamount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
consisted of a constant barrage of zany, free-for-all jokes sandwiched in between something resembling a plot, A Night at the Opera was calculated comedy. Producer Irving Thalberg
Irving Thalberg
Irving Grant Thalberg was an American film producer during the early years of motion pictures. He was called "The Boy Wonder" for his youth and his extraordinary ability to select the right scripts, choose the right actors, gather the best production staff and make very profitable films.-Life and...
insisted on a strong story structure, making the Brothers more sympathetic characters, interweaving their comedy with romantic plots and non-comic spectacular musical numbers. The targets of their mischief were largely confined to clear villains. Thalberg's logic was that the Marxes could get "twice the box office with half the laughs," believing their films would attract a wider audience.
Another idea of Thalberg's was that before filming would commence on an upcoming picture, the Marx Brothers would try out its material on the vaudeville stage, working on comic timing and learning what earned a laugh and what did not. He was keen to plant gags accordingly so the laughs could be timed correctly.
In A Night at the Opera, the Brothers' characters were refined. Groucho made more sense, and less trouble. Chico gained intelligence, and Harpo regressed into more of a child. The film dives straight into a plot and accompanying comedy, with every scene having a definitive beginning, middle, and end. The end consisted of a grand finale in traditional MGM musical fashion, something lacking from the Brothers' Paramount efforts, which would consist of gag upon gag without a satisfactory payoff.
Perhaps most notably, A Night at the Opera established a formula that would be used for every subsequent film the Marx Brothers made at MGM:
- opening scene with Groucho
- a friendship created between the romantic hero and Chico
- Chico and Groucho going through several verbal routines
- Harpo joining as Chico's partner
- lush surroundings as a backdrop to the Brothers' lunacy
- a fall from grace
- a rebound on a grand scale in which everything is righted
Reputation and legacy
A Night at the Opera is widely regarded as a classic and is arguably (along with Duck Soup) the Marx Brothers' most-recognized film. As of October 18, 2008, the film scores a 97% "fresh" rating at Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
. Internet reviews take a revisionist approach and suggest that the film is "a very funny movie slowed down by MGM’s expensive production values and idiotic songs." Ken Hanke calls it "hysterical, but not up to the boys’ Paramount
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
films." Mark Bourne concurs: "[The Marx Brothers] still let the air out of stuffed shirts and barbecue a few sacred cows, but something got lost in all that MGMness when the screen's ultimate anti-authoritarian team starting working the Andy Hardy side of the street."
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
admits that, while A Night at the Opera "contains some of their best work," he "fast-forward[s] over the sappy interludes involving Kitty Carlisle and Allan Jones. In Duck Soup there are no sequences I can skip; the movie is funny from beginning to end."
Danel Griffin says: "A Night at the Opera is funny, but this is NOT the Marx Brothers, and their earlier style is so sorely missed that the film falls flat. The main problem with A Night at the Opera is the obvious lack of the Marx Brothers’ trademark anarchy. What distinguished them in their Paramount films from all other comedians was their thumb-biting indictment of society.
American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
Lists
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 MoviesAFI's 100 Years... 100 MoviesThe first of the AFI 100 Years… series of cinematic milestones, AFI's 100 Years…100 Movies is a list of the 100 best American movies, as determined by the American Film Institute from a poll of more than 1,500 artists and leaders in the film industry who chose from a list of 400 nominated movies...
- Nominated - AFI's 100 Years... 100 LaughsAFI's 100 Years... 100 LaughsPart of the AFI 100 Years… series, AFI's 100 Years…100 Laughs is a list of the top 100 funniest movies in American cinema. A wide variety of comedies were nominated for the distinction that included slapstick comedy, screwball comedy, romantic comedy, satire, black comedy, musical comedy, comedy of...
- #12 - AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie QuotesAFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie QuotesPart of the AFI 100 Years... series, AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes is a list of the top 100 movie quotations in American cinema. The American Film Institute revealed the list on June 21, 2005, in a three-hour television program on CBS...
- Nominated:
- OTIS B. DRIFTWOOD: "It’s alright, that’s in every contract. That’s what they call a sanity clause."
- FIORELLO: "You can't fool me! There ain't no Sanity Claus."
- AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) - #85
In popular culture
Stateroom scene- The Belgian singer Jacques BrelJacques BrelJacques Brel was a Belgian singer-songwriter who composed and performed literate, thoughtful, and theatrical songs that generated a large, devoted following in France initially, and later throughout the world. He was widely considered a master of the modern chanson...
was inspired by the famous stateroom gag in the film when he wrote his song "Le Gaz" (1967) which depicts several men all crowding together in one room to meet a courtesanCourtesanA courtesan was originally a female courtier, which means a person who attends the court of a monarch or other powerful person.In feudal society, the court was the centre of government as well as the residence of the monarch, and social and political life were often completely mixed together...
"for the gas." - Cyndi LauperCyndi LauperCynthia Ann Stephanie "Cyndi" Lauper is an American singer, songwriter, actress and LGBT rights activist. She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the album She's So Unusual and became the first female singer to have four top-five singles released from one album...
featured a similar overcrowded stateroom gag in her music video for the song "Girls Just Want To Have FunGirls Just Want to Have Fun (song)"Girls Just Want to Have Fun" is a song written by Robert Hazard. It was the first major single released by singer Cyndi Lauper as a solo artist. It gained recognition as a feminist anthem, an award-winning video and a worldwide hit. It has been covered on either an album or in live concert by over...
". - Sting also recreated the overcrowded stateroom gag in his music video for the 1991 song "All This TimeAll This Time (Sting song)"All This Time" is a 1991 single by Sting. It was first released on Sting's 1991 album The Soul Cages. The song was the first single from album....
". - The Warner Bros. animated show AnimaniacsAnimaniacsSteven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs, usually referred to as simply Animaniacs, is an American animated series, distributed by Warner Bros. Television and produced by Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation. The cartoon was the second animated series produced by the collaboration of Steven...
also paid homage to the stateroom gag in the short "Hercule Yakko". - Though not one room, Mr. MomMr. MomMr. Mom is a 1983 American comedy-drama film directed by Stan Dragoti and written by John Hughes about a stay-at-home dad. The film stars Michael Keaton, Teri Garr, Jeffrey Tambor, Christopher Lloyd, and Martin Mull.-Plot:...
also paid an homage to the stateroom gag in its finale. - In the Disney Channel series The Suite Life of Zack and CodyThe Suite Life of Zack and CodyThe Suite Life of Zack & Cody is an American sitcom created by Danny Kallis and Jim Geoghan. The series premiered on Disney Channel on March 18, 2005 with 4 million viewers, making it the most successful premiere for Disney Channel in 2005. It was one of their first five shows available on the...
, a scene almost identical to the stateroom scene occurs in the Martins' closet. - An 8th season episode of SeinfeldSeinfeldSeinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...
titled "The PotholeThe Pothole"The Pothole" is the 150th episode of the sitcom Seinfeld. This was the 16th episode for the 8th season. It aired on February 20, 1997. This episode earned Andy Ackerman an Emmy Award for Outstanding Direction...
" 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. - Mystery writer Jeffrey Cohen paid tribute to the stateroom scene in his novel A Night at the Operation (2009). The book's title also parodies the name of the movie.
Sanity clause
- The British punk band The Damned used Chico's quote ("There ain't no sanity clause") as a title for a 1980 singleThere Ain't No Sanity Clause"There Ain't No Sanity Clause" was a single by The Damned.The song was a tongue-in-cheek rock song released with an eye on the lucrative Christmas market, but failed to chart.The single was the last new material to be released by the band on Chiswick...
. - Detective ComicsDetective ComicsDetective Comics is an American comic book series published monthly by DC Comics since 1937, best known for introducing the iconic superhero Batman in Detective Comics #27 . It is, along with Action Comics, the book that launched with the debut of Superman, one of the medium's signature series, and...
#826 pays homage to the film. In it the JokerJoker (comics)The Joker is a fictional character, a comic book supervillain published by DC Comics. He is the archenemy of Batman, having been directly responsible for numerous tragedies in Batman's life, including the paralysis of Barbara Gordon and the death of Jason Todd, the second Robin...
captures Tim DrakeTim DrakeTimothy "Tim" Drake is a superhero who appears in comic books published by DC Comics and in related media. The character was created by Marv Wolfman and Pat Broderick. From 1989 to 2009, he was known as Robin in the Batman comics, becoming the third character to take up the identity...
, the third RobinRobin (comics)Robin is the name of several fictional characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics, originally created by Bob Kane, Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson, as a junior counterpart to DC Comics superhero Batman...
, 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 ClausSanta ClausSanta Claus is a folklore figure in various cultures who distributes gifts to children, normally on Christmas Eve. Each name is a variation of Saint Nicholas, but refers to 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 BrothersMarx BrothersThe Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act, originally from New York City, that enjoyed success in Vaudeville, Broadway, and motion pictures from the early 1900s to around 1950...
film the gag is from, with Robin claiming it is from The Big StoreThe Big StoreThe Big Store is a Marx Brothers comedy film in which Groucho, Chico and Harpo work to save the Phelps Department Store, owned by Martha Phelps . Groucho plays her detective and bodyguard Wolf J...
. The Joker is distracted long enough for Robin to punch him out and escape. The Joker himself uses the line in The Killing JokeBatman: The Killing JokeBatman: The Killing Joke is an influential one-shot superhero graphic novel written by Alan Moore and drawn by Brian Bolland. First published by DC Comics in 1988, it has remained in print since then, and has also been reprinted as part of the trade paperback DC Universe: The Stories of Alan...
.
General
- The British rock group QueenQueen (band)Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1971, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury , Brian May , John Deacon , and Roger Taylor...
paid homage to this film by naming one of their most famous albumsA Night at the Opera (Queen album)A Night at the Opera is the fourth studio album by the British rock group Queen, released in November 1975. Co-produced by Roy Thomas Baker and Queen, A Night at the Opera was, at the time of its release, the most expensive album ever recorded...
after it. - The film's script is credited as the basis for the 1992 film Brain DonorsBrain DonorsBrain Donors is an American comedy movie released by Paramount Pictures, loosely based on the Marx Brothers comedy, A Night at the Opera...
, produced by David Zucker and Jerry ZuckerJerry Zucker (film director)Jerry Zucker is an American movie director known for his role in directing comedy spoof films, and the hit film Ghost....
of Airplane!Airplane!Airplane! is a 1980 American satirical comedy film directed and written by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker and released by Paramount Pictures...
and The Naked GunThe Naked GunThe Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! is a 1988 American comedy film that is the first in a The Naked Gun series of films starring Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley, George Kennedy, and O. J. Simpson...
fame. - At the end of the 1990 film The FreshmanThe Freshman (1990 film)The Freshman is a 1990 American crime comedy film starring Marlon Brando and Matthew Broderick, in which Brando parodies his portrayal of Vito Corleone in The Godfather....
, Rodolfo Lassparri is the alias used on Matthew BroderickMatthew BroderickMatthew Broderick is an American film and stage actor who, among other roles, played the title character in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Adult Simba in The Lion King film series, and Leo Bloom in the film and Broadway productions of The Producers.He has won two Tony Awards, one in 1983 for his...
's passportPassportA passport is a document, issued by a national government, which certifies, for the purpose of international travel, the identity and nationality of its holder. The elements of identity are name, date of birth, sex, and place of birth....
. - The German power metal band Blind GuardianBlind GuardianBlind Guardian is a German power metal band formed in the mid-1980s in Krefeld, West Germany. They are often credited as one of the seminal and most influential bands in the power metal and speed metal subgenres...
paid homage to this film by naming one of their albumsA Night at the Opera (Blind Guardian album)- Chart positions :Album – Billboard - Band :* Hansi Kürsch – lead and backing vocals* André Olbrich – lead, rhythm and acoustic guitars* Marcus Siepen – rhythm guitar* Thomas "Thomen" Stauch – drums & percussion...
after it.
See also
- List of United States comedy films
- "Cosi cosa" composers: Bronisław Kaper and Walter JurmannWalter JurmannWalter Jurmann was an Austrian-born composer of popular music renowned for his versatility who, after emigrating to the United States, specialized in film scores and soundtracks....