A Night At The Opera

OPERA is their first film at MGM and the first without Zeppo. Producer Irving Thalberg had faith in the brothers but thought their films for Paramount lacked cohesive stories, structure and pacing. He wanted them to have enough time to work out their routines, so he prevailed upon them to take a 50-minute precis of the best scenes on the road. They toured four cities (including San Francisco) with writers George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind in the audience for 24 days and polished the gags until they were ready to film. One of the reasons for the film's popularity is that during this live process they worked out the timing on the jokes such that the audience laughter had died down before they used the next line. For the first time audiences could hear every joke the first time through.

Groucho, Chico, and Harpo join forces to disrupt the stuffy world of opera by wreaking havoc on the music, stage, and audience. Otis B. Driftwood (Groucho) tries to con rich Mrs. Claypool (Margaret Dumont, in fabulous form) into investing her money in an opera company, while Tomasso (Harpo) and Fiorello (Chico) join the fray and take it upon themselves to help advance the careers of two struggling young singers, Allan Jones and Kitty Carlisle--both begging for a stagehand to drop twin sandbags and kill the misery they subject an audience to.

The result was a huge success and the picture was a hit. Today it is fondly remembered for such classic comedy bits as Groucho and Chico drafting a contract and the stateroom scene. The hilarious climax where the brothers make a shambles of "Il Trovatore" was co-written by an uncredited Buster Keaton and uses many of the backstage gags from his silent hit "Spite Marraige".

Michael Heth

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