A Night at the Opera (1935)

Director:

Sam Wood
(more)

Writers:

George S. Kaufman (screenplay) and
Morrie Ryskind (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

15 November 1935 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Music | Musical

Tagline:

Don't miss it! The funniest picture ever made!

Plot:

A sly business manager and two wacky friends of two opera singers help them achieve success while humiliating their stuffy and snobbish enemies.

Plot Keywords:

Opera | Stage | Marx Brothers | Stowaway | Opera Singer

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Groucho Marx	...	Otis B. Driftwood
Chico Marx	...	Fiorello
Harpo Marx	...	Tomasso
Kitty Carlisle	...	Rosa
Allan Jones	...	Ricardo
Walter Woolf King	...	Lassparri (as Walter King)
Sig Ruman	...	Gottlieb (as Siegfried Rumann)
Margaret Dumont	...	Mrs. Claypool
Edward Keane	...	Captain
Robert Emmett O'Connor	...	Henderson (as Robert Emmet O'Connor)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Enrique Acosta	...	Nightclub Guest (uncredited)
Harry Allen	...	Doorman (uncredited)
Sam Appel	...	Dungeon Guard (uncredited)
King Baggot	...	Dignitary (uncredited)
Marion Bell	...	Singer (uncredited)
Edna Bennett	...	Maid (uncredited)
Stanley Blystone	...	Ship's Officer (uncredited)
Al Bridge	...	Immigration Inspector (uncredited)
Loie Bridge	...	Ship Passenger (uncredited)
Lorraine Bridges	...	Louisa (uncredited)
Ettore Campana	...	Bit in 'I Pagliacci' (uncredited)
Nina Campana	...	Bit in 'I Pagliacci' (uncredited)
Jack Chefe	...	Opera Spectator (uncredited)
Ruth Cherrington	...	Opera Spectator (uncredited)
Alex Chivra	...	Shipboard Cook (uncredited)
Martin Cichy	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Gino Corrado	...	First Porter (uncredited)
Gennaro Curci	...	Doorman (uncredited)
Sidney D'Albrook	...	Stagehand (uncredited)
Olga Dane	...	Azucena in "Il Trovatore" (uncredited)
Bill Days	...	Singer in Chorus (uncredited)
Mario Dominici	...	Ship Passenger (uncredited)
Mike Donovan	...	Cop (uncredited)
Jay Eaton	...	Aviator (uncredited)
Manuel Emanuel	...	Bit in 'I Pagliacci' (uncredited)
Ruth Fanchon	...	Dancer (uncredited)
Adolph Faylauer	...	Opera Spectator (uncredited)
Antonio Filauri	...	Bit in 'I Pagliacci' (uncredited)
Harry Fleischmann	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Bess Flowers	...	Ship Passenger (uncredited)
Otto Fries	...	Otto - Elevator Operator (uncredited)
Bud Geary	...	Stagehand (uncredited)
Alexander Giglio	...	Bit in 'I Pagliacci' (uncredited)
Billy Gilbert	...	Passenger Asking Fiorello Not to Play Piano (uncredited)
William Gould	...	Police Captain (uncredited)
Julia Griffith	...	Opera Spectator (uncredited)
George Guhl	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Jonathan Hale	...	Stage Manager in Opera Box Who Announces Gottlieb's Disappearance (uncredited)
Ben Hall	...	Stagehand (uncredited)
Chuck Hamilton	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Eddie Hart	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Oscar 'Dutch' Hendrian	...	Stagehand (uncredited)
Lew Hicks	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Luther Hoobyar	...	Ruiz (uncredited)
Art Howard	...	Opera Spectator (uncredited)
Rodolfo Hoyos	...	Count di Luna (uncredited)
George Irving	...	Committeeman (uncredited)
Selmer Jackson	...	Committeeman (uncredited)
Gwen Lee	...	Driftwood's Dining Companion (uncredited)
Jack 'Tiny' Lipson	...	Engineer's Assistant (uncredited)
Wilbur Mack	...	Committeeman (uncredited)
Tandy MacKenzie	...	Tenor in 'Di quella pira' (uncredited)
Tom Mahoney	...	Police Sergeant (uncredited)
Fred Malatesta	...	Stagehand (uncredited)
Jerry Mandy	...	Second Porter (uncredited)
Alphonse Martell	...	Ship Officer / Opera Spectator (uncredited)
Francisco Marán	...	Opera Doorman (uncredited)
Charles McAvoy	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Frank McClure	...	Manager's Assistant (uncredited)
Tom McGuire	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Edmund Mortimer	...	Dignitary (uncredited)
James C. Morton	...	Opera Spectator (uncredited)
Field Norton	...	Manager's Assistant (uncredited)
Alex Novinsky	...	Ship Passenger (uncredited)
Wedgwood Nowell	...	Ship Passenger (uncredited)
William H. O'Brien	...	Stagehand (uncredited)
William J. O'Brien	...	Opera Spectator (uncredited)
Inez Palange	...	Maid (uncredited)
Claude Payton	...	Police Captain (uncredited)
Alexander Pollard	...	Committee Man (uncredited)
Russ Powell	...	Carriage Driver (uncredited)
Purnell Pratt	...	Mayor (uncredited)
Hal Price	...	Stagehand (uncredited)
Rita	...	Dancer (uncredited)
Ronald R. Rondell	...	Opera Spectator (uncredited)
Milton Royce	...	Ship Passenger / Opera Spectator (uncredited)
Rubin	...	Dancer (uncredited)
Alexander Schoenberg	...	Opera Spectator (uncredited)
Earl Seaman	...	Undetermined Role (uncredited)
Rolfe Sedan	...	Aviator (uncredited)
Evelyn Selbie	...	Fortune Teller (uncredited)
Bruce Sidney	...	Ship Passenger / Opera Spectator (uncredited)
Phillips Smalley	...	Committeeman (uncredited)
Stephen Soldi	...	Ship's Steward (uncredited)
Leo Sulky	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Ludovico Tomarchio	...	Bit in 'I Pagliacci' (uncredited)
Harry Tyler	...	Sign Painter (uncredited)
Ellinor Vanderveer	...	Shipboard Dinner Party Guest / Opera Spectator (uncredited)
Harry 'Zoup' Welsh	...	Ship's Steward (uncredited)
Leo White	...	Aviator (uncredited)
James J. Wolf	...	Ferrando in 'Il Trovatore' (uncredited)
Frank Yaconelli	...	Engineer (uncredited)

Directed by
Sam Wood
Edmund Goulding		(uncredited)

Writing credits
George S. Kaufman		(screenplay) and
Morrie Ryskind		(screenplay)
James Kevin McGuinness		(from a story by)
Al Boasberg		(additional dialogue) uncredited
Bert Kalmar		draft (uncredited)
Buster Keaton		uncredited
Robert Pirosh		draft (uncredited)
Harry Ruby		draft (uncredited)
George Seaton		draft (uncredited)

Produced by
Irving Thalberg	....	executive producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Herbert Stothart

Cinematography by
Merritt B. Gerstad		(photographed by)

Film Editing by
William LeVanway		(film editor)

Art Direction by
Cedric Gibbons

Makeup Department
Robert J. Schiffer	....	makeup artist (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Lesley Selander	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Art Department
Ben Carré	....	associate art director (as Ben Carre)
Edwin B. Willis	....	associate art director
Harry Albiez	....	props (uncredited)

Sound Department
Douglas Shearer	....	recording director
James Brock	....	sound mixer (uncredited)
William Steinkamp	....	sound re-recordist (uncredited)
Michael Steinore	....	sound editor (uncredited)

Stunts
Chuck Hamilton	....	stunts (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Bill Allen	....	electrician (uncredited)
Pop Arnold	....	key grip (uncredited)
Al Lane	....	second camera operator (uncredited)
Floyd Porter	....	gaffer (uncredited)
William Riley	....	second camera operator (uncredited)
Cliff Shirpser	....	assistant camera (uncredited)
Frank Tanner	....	still photographer (uncredited)
Arnold Webster	....	grip (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Dolly Tree	....	wardrobe

Music Department
Wayne Allen	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Paul Lamkoff	....	vocal coach (uncredited)
Paul Marquardt	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Charles Maxwell	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
M.J. McLaughlin	....	music recordist (uncredited)
Leonid Raab	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Paul Taylor	....	vocal coach: chorus (uncredited)
Jack Virgil	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Harold Zweifel	....	orchestrator (uncredited)

Other crew
Chester Hale	....	dances
Howard Dietz	....	publicist (uncredited)
George S. Kaufman	....	dialogue director (uncredited)
Enrico Ricardi	....	whistling double: Harpo Marx (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (presents) (controlled by Loew's Incorporated)

Distributors

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1935) (USA) (theatrical)
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1936) (France) (theatrical)
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1936) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1948) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1962) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Chapel Distribution (1997) (Australia) (theatrical)
• Criterion Collection, The (USA) (laserdisc)
• Warner Home Video (2009) (Canada) (DVD) (4 film collection)
• Warner Home Video (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (2005) (USA) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (2009) (USA) (DVD) (4 film collection)
• Warner Home Vídeo (2004) (Brazil) (DVD)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

96 min | USA:91 min (1948 re-release)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Italian

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Finland:S | UK:U | USA:Approved (certificate #1613) | South Korea:12 (2004) | Sweden:Btl | West Germany:12 | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | Netherlands:14 (original rating) (1936) | USA:TV-G | USA:Not Rated

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

The opera performed as the movie's climax is Giuseppe Verdi's Il Trovatore.

Goofs:

Continuity: Lasspari's hat is off his head on the ship. But in the next shot when people are asking him to sing, his hat is back on.

Quotes:

Henderson:Am I crazy or are there only two beds in here?
Otis B. Driftwood:Now which question do you want me to answer first Henderson?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in 50 Films to See Before You Die (2006) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Alone

Marx Bros. Masterpiece

Though some claim that either HORSE FEATHERS OR DUCK SOUP was the greatest Marx Brothers opus, A NIGHT AT THE OPERA has to be Marxdom's signature film. The witticisms and riotous madcap from playwright George Kaufman (THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER; YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU) is evident everywhere in the some of the team's finest composition of wit and physical comedy.

After taking over MGM studios in the 1930's, big-wig Irving Thallberg pulled the Marx Bros. aside and told them, "You know, you guys are missing only one thing in your pictures: you never help anybody." After OPERA, the Marx Brothers' scripts always revolved around either an attempt to get a romantic couple together or became an effort to save an institution from going under, i.e., THE BIG STORE; A DAY AT THE RACES; HORSE FEATHERS; THE BIG CIRCUS.

Margaret Dumont is established once and for all as Groucho's perfect romantic staple and a Marx Bros. movie just doesn't seem right without her. Sig Rumond appears to have been created in a Marx Brothers comedy factory and serves sensationally as the urbane Marx antagonist vying for Dumont's favors, though upended time and time again by Groucho. A young Kitty Carlisle and Allen Jones provide the romance and music--though many audiences never realize how fine an operatic voice Carlisle had in those days.

So many hilarious and classic routines fill A NIGHT AT THE OPERA that the movie offers itself as a study in Komedy 101: the unforgettable "contract" bit between Chico and Groucho (Chico can't read). As they try to sign an agreement about the rights to manage singer Allen Jones, they tear clause after clause off the paper until Chico finally asks: "What's this?" "Oh," replies Groucho, "that's just a sanity clause." Chico bursts out laughing. "Oh, you canna' fool me; there ain't' no sanity Klaus!..." The crowded state room scene where Groucho, Chico, and Hapro stow-away in a tiny cubicle and the shoebox crams with more and more people until Mrs. Claypool (Dumont) opens the door and everyone spills out...The hotel scene where Detective Henderson tries to nail the brothers for stowing-away and everyone races back and forth between suites, furniture is switched, and Henderson is left wondering if he's nuts...

But it is the film's finale during a live performance at the New York opera house that is perhaps the comedy team's grandest movie climax. The police, still after Harpo for stowing away, try to arrest him during a live performance. He breaks through the theater's backstage, swings over the proscenium like a trapeze artist, and, at one point, tears off the dress of one of the singers. "Well, now we're finally getting somewhere!" Groucho opines from the audience.

What a shame A NIGHT AT THE OPERA is not on television more often. Young people should be treated to comedy as it once was when laughter depended upon uproarious wit and a brand of physical comedy perfected by comedians through years of refining their craft in vaudeville.

A NIGHT AT THE OPERA is nothing less than an American comedy classic.

Trivia: Maragaret Dumont appeared with Groucho on THE Hollywood PALACE television show in 1965 and the couple did a brief repartee from GROUCHO's famous Captain Spaulding routine. The next day Dumont passed away...Her last film was in 1964 in the star-studded WHAT A WAY TO GO...Always playing a haughty spinstress with money, Dumont was, in fact, a millionairess in real life and commuted between Hollywood and London....Few realize what a fine operatic singer Kitty Carlisle was in the 1930's. In the 1950's and '60's she was a regular panelist on television quiz shows such as I'VE GOT A SECRET...She was also married to playwright Moss Hart who collaborated with George Kaufman on YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU, THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER, and many other plays. YOU CAN'T won the Pulitzer Prize...Allen Jones was the father of popular singer Jack Jones...Groucho said that it was while hanging out of an airplane in A NIGHT IN CASABLANCA (1946) that he finally realized the brothers had pretty much reached the end of the line in movies...The last picture in which all three brothers appeared was THE STORY OF MANKIND in 1957. Groucho played the part of Sir Isaac Newton...Groucho wrote many books: MEMOIRS OF A MANGY LOVER and LETTERS FROM GROUCHO...Harpo Marx also wrote his own autobiography: HARPO SPEAKS--a fine expose of the brothers' early years and the many stage shows they did perfecting their mayhem...When the stock market crashed in 1929, Groucho lost every dime he had: about $250,000...In the 1950's Groucho hosted his own television quiz show,YOU BET YOUR LIFE and both Harpo and Chico made surprise appearances...Chico was a lifetime gambler and would bet on anything...MINNIE'S BOYS, a stage play about the influence of Marx mother Minnie, was pretty much a flop in the 1970's...One of the all-time great quotations about the Marx Brothers came from playwright George Kaufman who, after watching the comedy team tear apart his script on stage in the early years, observed: "I could have sworn I just heard one of the original lines from the play."...Groucho was self-conscious about his lack of formal education and once had the chance to meet poet T.S. Eliot. He read many of Eliot's works and boned up on literature. When the two men did finally meet, all Eliot wanted to talk about was A NIGHT AT THE OPERA...One of Groucho's final performances just before he died was at Carnegie Hall in New York and it was a smashing success. He was accompanied by pianist Marvin Hamlisch...Film critic James Agee once said that the worst thing the Marx Brothers ever did was still better than everybody else...

Dennis Caracciolo