A Night at the Opera

Experience the greatest films from Hollywood’s Golden Age back on the big screen, every week at The Loft Cinema! 
 
The Marx Brothers are at it again as they take on high society as only Groucho, Chico and Harpo can in this riotous comedy of operatic proportions!  In A Night at The Opera (the Marx Brothers’ first film for MGM after their departure from Paramount, and their first film as a trio following Zeppo’s departure from the act), wealthy arts patron Mrs. Claypool (Margaret Dumont) intends to pay pompous opera star Rodolfo Lassparri big bucks to perform for the New York Opera Company.  Hey, maybe that’s why they call it grand opera! This is grand comedy, too, as Groucho, Chico, and Harpo cram a ship’s stateroom and more with wall-to-wall gags, one-liners, musical riffs and two hard-boiled eggs — all while skewering Lassparri’s schemes and helping two young hopefuls (Kitty Carlisle and Allan Jones) get a break.  And in order to save the opera, our heroes must first destroy it. They must also gain ocean passage as stowaways, pull the wool (if not the beards) over the eyes of city hall, shred legal mumbo-jumbo down to a sanity clause, pester dowager Claypool and unleash so much anarchic glee that this is one night at the opera you’ll never forget! (Dir. by Sam Wood, 1935, USA, 96 mins., Not Rated)