You're willing to pay him a thousand dollars a night just for singing? Why, you can get a phonograph record of Minnie the Moocher for 75 cents. And for a buck and a quarter, you can get Minnie.
A Night at the Opera was the first Marx Brothers' movie that I owned (on VHS). This allowed multiple viewings, which is really a necessity with the rapid-fire dialogue spewed by Groucho and the subtle cues from Harpo. This has become my favorite of the Marx brothers' movies, and, I believe, their most accessible. All the gags are still there, but this film has a much more coherent storyline. Many critics of the day bashed the brothers for not giving the audience something to root for. A Night at the Opera definitely finds the solution for this problem as the brothers stowaway on a steamship (much like in Monkey Business) to reunite two opera singing lovers.
The musical numbers in this film are treats on their own, and seque flawlessly into more ridiculous piano and harp from Chico and Harpo. Highlights include the classic scene in the picture above (stuffing 20 people into a 1 person stateroom), Groucho and Chico "writing" a contract for the protaganist hero, and the climactic opera in which Harpo swings from the stage like Tarzan, Chico plays baseball in the orchestra pit, and Groucho tries to woo the opera's owner.
If my Marx brothers posts have gotten you interested, this is probably the best place to start...
Have never seen this movie... maybe I will have to see if they have it on Netflix.
ReplyDelete