Movie · 1935 · Comedy, Music · 1h 31m · NR · English
Curator score: 8.1/10 (33K ratings)
Don't miss it! The funniest picture ever made!
Overview
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.
Ratings
Curator score: 8.1/10
Letterboxd: 3.90/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 97%
TMDB: 7.4/10
Director
Sam Wood
Production
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Cast
Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, Kitty Carlisle, Allan Jones, Sig Ruman, Walter Woolf King, Robert Emmett O'Connor, Margaret Dumont, Edward Keane, Evelyn Selbie, Purnell Pratt, Jonathan Hale, Otto Fries, Gino Corrado, Bess Flowers, Chuck Hamilton, Frank McLure, William H. O'Brien, George Irving
Curator Review
Verdict
A fast, polished Marx Brothers showcase that pairs anarchic comic invention with a more streamlined studio-era structure. The opera setting gives the gags a classy target, and the film builds to one of the great comic finales of the 1930s.
Best for
classic comedy fans
viewers who like rapid-fire verbal and physical gags
fans of pre-Code and early studio-era Hollywood
people curious about the Marx Brothers at their most polished
audiences who enjoy satire of high society and pretension
Skip if
you need a plot-driven comedy with emotional depth
you dislike old Hollywood pacing or vaudeville-style humor
you prefer subtle, character-based comedy
opera or musical performance scenes are a turnoff
Overview
A Night at the Opera is the Marx Brothers at their most refined without losing the essential chaos. The film trims some of the rougher edges of their earlier work, but it compensates with cleaner construction, sharper set pieces, and a wonderfully escalating sense of absurdity. The jokes are still gloriously unruly; they just arrive in a more elegant package.
Worth noting
What makes it endure is the contrast between the brothers’ gleeful sabotage and the pomp of the opera world around them. The movie knows exactly how silly prestige can look when it is punctured by pure comic instinct. Even when the romantic subplot slows things down, the film keeps finding new ways to turn social decorum into a punchline.
Bottom line
The finale is the payoff everyone remembers, but the pleasure is in the accumulation: the verbal sparring, the musical interruptions, the physical business, and the way the brothers keep exposing the vanity of everyone who takes themselves too seriously. It is a classic for a reason, and one of the best entry points to the Marx Brothers.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Timcop (4.5★) · 679 likes
"Did you order a manicure?"
"No. Come on in."
Will Sloan (5★) · 423 likes
These guys are out of control.
Matt J. (4★) · 298 likes
I think there was some kind of story in here somewhere, but I was too busy being entertained by the antics of the brothers to notice or care. As with all their films, a plot is just an excuse to string together the jokes that make up their schtick; and what a wonderful schtick it is.
demi adejuyigbe · 278 likes
harpo sun, groucho moon, groucho rising
Jordan Beaumont Anderson (5★) · 201 likes
Groucho - Level 20 Wrathful OpportunistResistant To: Questions, ScruplesWeak Against: Women's Legs, Close Examination
Chico - Level 20 Greedy MoronResistant To: Social Cues, Understanding StuffWeak Against: Reading, Hats
Harpo - Level ? Hungry AlienResistant To: Polite Society, Object PermanenceWeak Against: Public Speaking, Bedtime
1936 · Comedy · 1h 35m · NR · Curator 9.2/10 (28.7K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, Pure Flix, FlixFling, IndieFlix, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Another sharp class comedy that turns wealthy manners into a target for elegant chaos.