A Night at the Opera
Une Nuit à l'opéra
Sam Wood/Marx Brothers
Otis Driftwood works at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. An opportunist, he suggests that a rich widow, Mrs Claypool, should invest in the opera house. The Director suggests that they should hire the cantankerous and money-grabbing tenor Lasspari. The Milanese singer makes sail for New York accompanied by the beautiful Rosa, who, for her part, dreams only of Riccardo Baroni, an unknown tenor, who is the rival of her companion. The Marx Brothers are also on board ship. They will be responsible for the maddest night the New York opera has ever seen. Riots and panic ensue with Harpo, Chico and Groucho, even when the situation is desperate, the worst is still to come...
With : Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, Kitty Carlisle, Allan Jones, Walter Woolf King, Sig Ruman, Margaret Dumont
Screenplay : George S. Kaufman, Morrie Ryskind (sur une histoire de James Kevin McGuinness)
Image : Merritt B. Gerstad
Sound : Douglas Shearer
Editing : William LeVanway
Decors : Cedric Gibbons, Edwin B. Willis, Ben Carr
Costumes : Dolly Tree
Music : Herbert Stothart
Screenplay : George S. Kaufman, Morrie Ryskind (sur une histoire de James Kevin McGuinness)
Image : Merritt B. Gerstad
Sound : Douglas Shearer
Editing : William LeVanway
Decors : Cedric Gibbons, Edwin B. Willis, Ben Carr
Costumes : Dolly Tree
Music : Herbert Stothart
Production : MGM -Metro Goldwyn Mayer
Distribution: Les Grands Films Classiques
Distribution: Les Grands Films Classiques
A Night at the Opera had several re-writes, in which the film's producer, Irving Thalberg, also intervened. At the end of the day, he decided to send the Marx Brothers back on stage, to test the reaction of audiences to their new gags. The scriptwriters went as far as timing the length of the laughter in the theatres. Although the method exhausted the team, it enabled A Night at the Opera to be the Marx Brothers' greatest success. And since it bore fruit, Thalberg decided to continue with the next film. Chico, Harpo, Groucho, Gummo and Zeppo started their careers at an early age on the stage, their first cinema success Cocoanuts was an adaptation of one of their shows.