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A Night at the Opera (film)
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==Plot== At a restaurant in [[Milan, Italy]], wealthy widow Mrs. Claypool has apparently been stood up for dinner by her business manager, Otis B. Driftwood. After she discovers him dining with another woman and seated directly behind her, Driftwood joins Mrs. Claypool and soon introduces her to Herman Gottlieb, director of the New York Opera Company, also dining at the restaurant. Driftwood has arranged for Mrs. Claypool to invest $200,000 in the opera company, allowing Gottlieb enough money to engage Italian [[tenor]] Rodolfo Lassparri, the "greatest tenor since [[Enrico Caruso|Caruso]]". Backstage at the opera house, chorister Ricardo Baroni hires his best friend Fiorello to be his manager. Ricardo is in love with the [[soprano]], Rosa Castaldi, who is also being courted by Lassparri. Driftwood arrives backstage and finds Lassparri attacking Tomasso, his [[Dresser (theatre)|dresser]]; Tomasso knocks Lassparri unconscious by hitting him over the head with a mallet. Fiorello appears and introduces himself to Driftwood as the manager of the "greatest tenor in the world". Driftwood believes Fiorello is referring to Lassparri (who is still lying unconscious at their feet) and unwittingly signs Ricardo to a contract. Soon, Driftwood, Mrs. Claypool, Rosa, Lassparri and Gottlieb all set sail from Italy to New York aboard an ocean liner. After bidding farewell to Rosa at the pier, Ricardo, Fiorello, and Tomasso stow away inside Driftwood's [[Trunk (luggage)|steamer trunk]]. After being discovered, Driftwood attempts to get the three of them to leave before Mrs. Claypool arrives in his stateroom for a rendezvous. Fiorello refuses to leave until the trio have eaten, and eventually Driftwood's very small stateroom is crowded with an assortment of people. (See ''[[#Stateroom|Stateroom scene]]'' below.) Later, Lassparri spots the three stowaways among the Italian immigrants on the ship, and they are caught and thrown into the brig. They escape with Driftwood's help and are able to sneak into the country by posing as three famous bearded aviators,<ref group=n>The nationality of the aviators is never identified. In ''The Annotated Marx Brothers: A Filmgoer's Guide to In-Jokes, Obscure References and Sly Details'' (2015, McFarland, {{ISBN|978-0786497058}}), Matthew Coniam points out that the omission seems to have been intentional, in order to avoid an obvious lampoon of the Italian fascist aviator [[Italo Balbo]], and that in the newspaper caption that follows they are identified as the "Santopoulos Brothers", suggesting that they may be Greek. (pp. 124-125)</ref> who are traveling aboard the ship. During a hero's welcome in New York, the stowaways are exposed as frauds and they flee, hiding out in Driftwood's hotel room while pursued by police sergeant Henderson. Meanwhile, Rosa and Ricardo are reunited when he climbs through the window of her hotel room. Lassparri appears, and after a physical altercation with Ricardo, both Rosa and Driftwood are fired from the opera company by Gottlieb. Driftwood, Fiorello, and Tomasso decide to seek revenge by sabotaging the opera company's opening night performance of ''[[Il trovatore]]'' with various antics, climaxing with the abduction of Lassparri from the stage, forcing Gottlieb to substitute Ricardo in his place. Ricardo accepts on the condition Rosa substitutes for the female lead as well. Mrs. Claypool and the audience clearly prefer Ricardo over Lassparri, and the latter is booed and hit with an apple after he is untied and attempts to return to the stage. The film ends with Driftwood and Fiorello negotiating another contract as Rosa and Ricardo sing an encore.
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