A Night at the Opera

1935

Action / Comedy / Music / Musical

18
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 90% · 71 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 90% · 10K ratings
IMDb Rating 7.8/10 10 36243 36.2K

marx brothers opera cross dressing whimsical farcical ridiculous

Plot summary

The Marx Brothers take on high society and the opera world to bring two lovers together. A sly business manager and two wacky friends of two opera singers help them achieve success while humiliating their stuffy and snobbish enemies.

Director

Edmund Goulding Photo
Edmund Goulding

Top cast

Sidney D'Albrook Photo
Sidney D'Albrook as Stagehand
William A. Boardway Photo
William A. Boardway as Backstage Guest
Chuck Hamilton Photo
Chuck Hamilton as Policeman
Paul Bradley Photo
Paul Bradley as Man on Dock
720p.BluRay 720p.WEB 1080p.BluRay 1080p.WEB
838.46 MB
988*720
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 31 min
Seeds 7
837.77 MB
1280*964
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 31 min
Seeds 8
1.52 GB
1472*1072
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 31 min
Seeds 20
1.52 GB
1424*1072
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 31 min
Seeds 18

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Hey_Sweden 8 / 10

...And two hard-boiled eggs.

Groucho Marx is in his element as slick, fast talking business manager Otis B. Driftwood, who spends his time playing up to arts patron Mrs. Claypool (classic Marx Bros. foil Margaret Dumont). When he sees that she's willing to pony up $1,000 a night to have pompous Lassparri (Walter Woolf King) sing, he wants a piece of the action. Circumstance soon throws him together with equally sly Fiorello (Chico) and goofy Tomasso (Harpo), as they become determined to help out young lovers & aspiring opera stars Rosa (Kitty Carlisle) and Ricardo (Allan Jones).Even if one is not a fan of the opera, they shouldn't let that dissuade them from checking out the Marx Bros. in their glory. Some buffs consider this their best film, and it certainly shows off their talents to memorable effect. Musical interludes do go on a bit long, but the quality of the comedy when it occurs is top notch. There are some truly great bits in here, like the "party of the first part" contract, the overcrowded (to say the least) stateroom sequence, and the frantic, farcical efforts of Otis, Fiorello, Tomasso, and Ricardo to pull the wool over the eyes of a suspicious inspector (Robert Emmett O'Connor) by moving beds from one room to another.Groucho is hilarious, as always. Very few entertainers in film history can fire off a one-liner as snappily as he does. Chico and Harpo have their wonderful moments, as well. (It's such a hoot when Harpo does a Spider-Man routine near the end.) Carlisle and Jones are extremely appealing, Dumont is once again a fine "straight woman", King is an appropriately snooty villain, Sig Ruman is superb as eternally frustrated Gottlieb, and O'Connor is likewise good as the antics of Otis and company take a toll on him.The pace isn't always consistent, but there is some enjoyable action and first rate stunt work. Overall, this is a solid comedy / musical that will appeal to any lover of this era in cinema.Eight out of 10.
Reviewed by mark.waltz 10 / 10

Nuts on a high note.

The Marx Brothers ended their Paramount contract with "Duck Soup" which is debatably considered their best film along with "A Night at the Opera" which began their tenure at MGM. Both are terrific in their own way, although "A Night at the Opera" has a bit too much high brow music included which may date it a bit. The premise has Groucho aiding wealthy matron Mrs. Claypool (Margaret Dumont) into getting into society by being an opera sponsor. Kindly opera diva Kitty Carlisle can't stand her hideously nasty leading man Walter Woolf King who is initially seen abusing wardrobe assistant Harpo. A duet of "Alone" with unknown singer Allan Jones makes Carlisle try to push for him to join the New York City Opera, and Groucho arranges for Jones to stowaway. Of course with Ms. Dumont aboard the ship, this leads to the famous scene of Groucho's stateroom being overcrowded with hysterical results, and an equally insane opera sequence in the end where King gets his just rewards and Jones and Carlisle to get together.There are so many incredible moments in this that are not plot related but they are so deliciously funny that they don't slow the film down at all. A big production number ("It's a Wonderful World", sung partly in Italian) performed by Allan Jones is as lavish as anything that MGM did in their musical department and gets even better when Chico (as Jones' agent) plays a very amusing version of "All I Do is Dream of You" which leads into Harpo's harp performance.Like in "Monkey Business", Chico and Harpo are stowaways along with Allan Jones who has stepped in for the retired Zeppo, and once again, they've got a very funny way of getting off the ship without being caught. This leads to villain Walter Woolf King going out of his way to get them arrested and thus prevent Jones fron taking over. But the Marx Brothers and their pals have ways of getting out of a jam, taking down the snobs in the process. This is classic farce at its best, and even with dated material, it still stands the test of time.
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