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Features
Actors: Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, Kitty Carlisle, Allan Jones
Directors: Edmund Goulding, Sam Wood
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC
Language: English, Italian
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number of discs: 1
Rating: 
Studio: Warner Home Video
DVD Release Date: May 4, 2004
Run Time: 91 minutes
Average Customer Review:
  (60 customer reviews)
Reader Reviews
The 1935 comedy A NIGHT AT THE OPERA is a grab bag of a movie that includes physical gags, verbal gags, a romantic subplot, backstage intrigue, an operatic aria, an elaborate dance number, stunts, absurdity, and sentimentality. The main attraction is, of course, the patented zaniness of The Marx Brothers -- the acerbic Groucho, the mute Harpo, and the dim-witted Chico -- whose unique brand of comedy is often edgy, subversive, and even surreal and other-worldly. Count me as one of those who thinks that such style of comedy loses some edge in A NIGHT AT THE OPERA, where the comic trio seem out of place in a methodical plot, realistic settings, and among ordinary people. These mundane elements are also, surprisingly, engrossing enough to often upstage the comedians. Groucho's usual anti-establishment stance also seems softened in order to give way to crowd-pleasing sentimentality. The Marx Brothers, like Jacques Tati, are creators of their own comic universes, and that's where they need to inhabit, such as in the whimsical delight DUCK SOUP, the Brothers' previous film, where their presence is more dominant. With that said, A NIGHT AT THE OPERA does have some of most memorable gags in the Brothers' history. A verbal confusion with Santa Claus, a tiny room cramped with 15 people, mixing opera with baseball, and Harpo's stunts with the ropes are some of the highlights. The new Warner DVD of A NIGHT AT THE OPERA is encoded for Region 1 and 4, and has a cleaner video transfer than I expected considering the age of the film. Obviously, a video restoration has been done, as were the cases for many of recent Warner DVDs of old movies. The original mono audio is fine, save for some age-related hisses in the background. There are some jarring momentary losses of frames in a few places, such as in the scene of Groucho riding a carriage early in the movie. However, I noticed these "jumps" in older video versions as well. Both English subtitles and closed captioning are present for the film's dialogs. The lyrics to the songs "Alone" and Cosi-Cosa" are also captioned, but not subtitled. During the Verdi opera sequence, the caption simply says "[Singing in Italian]." French and Spanish subtitles are also provided, but, of course, many of the wordplays are simply lost in translation ("C'est ce qu'on appelle une clause 'sanitaire'.") None of the supplements on the disc are subtitled or captioned, however. Leonard Maltin provides an engaging and informative audio commentary for the film. He points out that the film was cut for its 1948 re-release (the version used for this DVD) in order to remove all references to Italy, which fought against America in WWII. The original opening was supposed to be a musical number showing people in Milan singing, thereby establishing the setting of the film. Although wishing to avoid analyzing the film, Maltin does try to elucidate some of the ingenious touches in the comical gags. In the famous stateroom scene, he points out the way Groucho talks at just the right moments and all the people seem oblivious to the situation are what make the scene funny. He praises the great pantomimic skills of Harpo, and thoughtfully suggests that although he might have been a great silent film star, his talent really belongs in a sound world. He gives his thoughts on Chico's patently fake Italian accent. He also laments that in the age of political correctness, Marx Brothers' films may seem passé. He says although there seems to be improvisations, the dialogs are often so intricately constructed that improvisations are often not possible. He also recounts a few anecdotes, such as the Brothers' showing up naked in producer Irving Thalberg's office at one time. The disc includes a typical half-hour making-of featurette "Remarks on Marx, which is interesting, for me, mainly for the few minutes of appearance by Kitty Carlisle, who recalls how she was originally not allowed to sing with her voice. A 20-minute musical short from 1937, "Sunday Night at the Trocadero," is included, and it features performances by Connee Boswell, The Brian Sisters, George Hamilton and his "Music Box Music" Orchestra, and a cameo by Groucho. The audio quality is so poor on this piece that I can only hear every other word. An amusing ten-minute short "How to Sleep" from 1935, starring Robert Benchley, is also present, as well as the theatrical trailer for A NIGHT AT THE OPERA. There is also a 5-minute TV appearance by Groucho in which he also recalls the naked incident in Thalberg's office.
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A Night at the Opera
List Price: $19.98
Available from Amazon
Price: $17.99
Updated on 11-28-2008.
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