NFR Project: ‘A Night at the Opera’
Dir: Sam Wood
Scr: George S. Kaufman, Morrie Ryskind, Al Boasberg
Pho: Merritt B. Gerstad
Ed: William LeVanway
Premiere: Nov. 15, 1935
91 min.
MGM ruined the Marx Brothers.
Not a popular opinion, as A Night at the Opera is often considered their best film. No, no, not so; that distinction goes to Duck Soup. Why? Because that film cut out the corny romantic/musical subplot found in their first two films, The Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers.
Let’s backtrack. The Marx Brothers’ first two films were based on stage shows. It was customary then for a romantic subplot, featuring a singing ingenue and a lead boy, to take the stage to provide relief from and variety to the evening’s entertainment. In their first two films, the musical interludes remain. In Monkey Business, Horse Feathers, and Duck Soup the comedy got more filmic and less stagebound; filler was no longer needed.
When the brothers left Paramount for MGM, they came under the sway of wunderkind producer Irving Thalberg, who had his own ideas on how to present them. First, they got rid of Zeppo. Then, they turned the remaining three brothers into something akin to magical helpers, who advance a plot concerning two young singers in love.
What did this mean? It meant that show-stopping sequences of music and singing infest the story of Opera. Instead of being able to mock and question everything around them, as they do in best films, the Marx Brothers are forced to do the one thing they don’t do well – take things seriously. They are tamed; they are no longer dangerous; they are castrated.
The emphasis on musical sequences, except for those that highlight Harpo an Chico, slows down the film immeasurably. In addition, the logic-twisting verbal comedy of Groucho and Harpo’s surreal improvisations are here replace by simple slapstick, often as not executed by stunt men. Thalberg didn’t trust the essence of the group’s success – its ability to confidently refute reality.
The story is in some respects a typical one. Here Groucho is Otis P. Driftwood, a shady musical promoter who seeks to exploit the rich and oblivious Mrs. Claypool (the always-wonderful Margaret Dumont). He signs an up-and-coming young tenor, and schemes to get him onto the New York Opera stage. This he does after a bunch of misadventures and unlikely plot development. It’s very contrived.
Individual sequences stand out. The “party of the first part” contract sketch, the stateroom scene, and the manic destruction of an opera performance are all fine, and stand out from the general lassitude of the rest of the movie.
In the end, the film was a huge success. Some Marx Brothers was better than none. But the quality of the scripts they were given would continue to slip. There would be notable moments of brilliance, but the bold anarchic quality of their best work was over.
The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: Ruggles of Red Gap.
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