Review of A Night at the Opera (1935) by Tom A — 29 Nov 2008

One of the best Marx Brothers movies, second only to Duck Soup. Plot is nonsense that exists only to allow them to destroy grand opera. Unlike the wall-to-wall anarchy of Duck Soup (which was a box office failure for Paramount), MGM imposed a love story (Kitty Carlisle and Allan Jones, filling in the Zeppo role), musical numbers, and more of a plot (the Bros. connive to replace evil Walter Woolf King with good-guy Jones as the lead in an opera). Thus it was their biggest hit. But these impositions are tolerable because Carlisle and Jones are charming, the songs are not horrible ("Alone" became a hit song at the time) and plot moves forward quickly. Also the comedy bits are priceless: the Party of the First Part contract; the crowded stateroom scene; the Bros. moving furniture around to confuse a policeman; the climactic chase during the final opera; so many classic lines of dialogue. And the whole thing works because it is a pleasure seeing the supreme comic anarchists of cinema destroying such a staid and pretentious institution. Hilarous.

Unfortunately, the DVD is disappointing: there's a clumsy documentary about the film (with bizarre interviews with Dom Deluise); some really horrible shorts (one of which inexplicably won an Academy Award); and a boring commentary track by Mr. Old-Tyme Movie Guy Leonard Maltin.