Editing A Night at the Opera (film) (section)

===Subsequent re-editing===
The film originally was to have begun with each of the Marx Brothers taking turns roaring instead of [[Leo the Lion (MGM)|Leo the Lion]] (MGM's iconic mascot); Harpo was to have honked his horn. This unique opening was created, but not used in the released film because MGM studio head [[Louis B. Mayer]] felt the parody would cheapen the respected trademark. It turned up years later, however, in a re-release trailer for the film.<ref name="IMDb">[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026778/trivia "A Night at the Opera"]. ''[[IMDb]]''.</ref><ref name="Louvish">{{cite book| first=Simon| last=Louvish| title=Monkey Business: The Lives and Legends of the Marx Brothers| publisher=[[Thomas Dunne Books]]| location=New York City| date=June 8, 2000| isbn=978-0-3122-5292-2| page=282| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LUDTxbB-ipoC&q=roar}}</ref>

According to MGM's dialogue cutting continuity and [[Leonard Maltin]]'s audio commentary on the DVD release, the film originally began (after the opening credits) with the image of a "boat on canal". A superimposed title read, "ITALY – WHERE THEY SING ALL DAY AND GO TO THE OPERA AT NIGHT", and was followed by a musical number featuring bits and pieces from Leoncavallo's ''[[Pagliacci]]'' performed by "everyday" Italians: a street sweeper sings part of the prologue ("Un nido di memorie...") as he greets a man who then hands out opera tickets to a group of children emerging from a store; the children respond with "la-la-la-la-la, verso un paese strano" (from "Stridono lassù"); a "captain" comes down a set of steps, salutes a sentry, then bursts into "[[Vesti la giubba]]"; then, a [[lap dissolve]] into a hotel lobby, where a "baggage man" is rolling a trunk and crooning about "nettare divino" ("divine nectar"); a waiter joins the baggage man in song, enters the dining room, and sings as he serves a man who for a few notes also sings; the waiter then crosses the dining room to speak to Mrs. Claypool (Margaret Dumont), marking the beginning of the film in existing copies.

In his commentary, Maltin repeats an assertion originally made by Glenn Mitchell in ''The Marx Brothers Encyclopedia'' that the scene was cut during World War II to remove references to Italy.<ref name="Mitchell">{{cite book| last= Mitchell| first=Glenn| title=The Mark Brothers Encyclopedia| publisher= BT. Batsford Ltd| year=1996| location=London| page=177| url=https://archive.org/details/marxbrothersency00glen/page/176/mode/2up?q=pagliacci| isbn=978-1-9031-1149-9}}</ref> However, according to MPAA records,<ref>{{cite web |title=A Night at the Opera, 1935 |url=http://digitalcollections.oscars.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15759coll30/id/9990/rec/1 |website=Margaret Herrick Library Digital Records |access-date=May 16, 2020}}</ref> the film was re-edited by MGM in 1938,<ref>{{cite web |title=A Night at the Opera, 1935 |url=http://digitalcollections.oscars.org/utils/ajaxhelper/?CISOROOT=p15759coll30&CISOPTR=9987&action=2&DMSCALE=15&DMWIDTH=351&DMHEIGHT=450&DMX=0&DMY=0&DMTEXT=&DMROTATE=0 |website=Margaret Herrick Library Digital Records |access-date=May 16, 2020}}</ref> prior to the war, because of complaints from the Italian government that it "made fun of Italian people".<ref>{{cite web |title=A Night at the Opera, 1935 |url=http://digitalcollections.oscars.org/utils/ajaxhelper/?CISOROOT=p15759coll30&CISOPTR=9986&action=2&DMSCALE=15&DMWIDTH=351&DMHEIGHT=450&DMX=0&DMY=0&DMTEXT=&DMROTATE=0 |website=Margaret Herrick Library Digital Records |access-date=May 16, 2020}}</ref> Unfortunately, the edits were made to MGM's master negative, and no prints of the original uncut version are known to survive.<ref name="Mitchell"/>
This notable cut, with several other small ones made at about the same time, is why the stated running time of the film (95 minutes) was three minutes longer than that of existing prints.<ref name="IMDb"/>

A persistent rumor concerning ''A Night at the Opera'' involves the presence of the Marx Brothers' father [[Sam Marx]] (also known as "Frenchy") on the ship and on the dock, waving goodbye. Both Groucho and Harpo stated this as fact in their memoirs,<ref name="Groucho">{{cite book| title=Groucho and Me| first=Groucho| last=Marx| publisher=Simon & Schuster| year=1989| isbn=978-0-6716-7781-7}}</ref><ref name="Harpo">{{cite book| first1=Harpo| last1=Marx| authorlink=Harpo Marx| first2=Roland| last2=Barber| orig-date=1961| title=Harpo Speaks!| url=https://archive.org/details/harpospeaks00marx/page/380/mode/2up?q=%22night+at+the+opera%22| publisher=Limelight Editions| location=New York| date=1986| isbn=978-0-8791-0036-0}}</ref> and film critic [[Leonard Maltin]] repeats it in the DVD commentary. But this could not have occurred, because Sam Marx had died in 1933, during pre-production of ''[[Duck Soup (1933 film)|Duck Soup]]'', two years before ''A Night at the Opera'' was released.<ref name="Louvish"/> The rumor arose because Frenchy had had such a cameo appearance in the Marx Brothers' earlier film ''[[Monkey Business (1931 film)|Monkey Business]]''. There is, however, a reference to the Marx Brothers' mother, [[Minnie Marx]], during the stateroom scene, in which a woman asks, "Is my Aunt Minnie in here?"<ref name="IMDb"/>

Part of the concept of casting the Marx Brothers as stowaways on a ship was recycled from ''Monkey Business''. As Groucho's and Margaret Dumont's characters are boarding the ocean liner, Dumont asks Groucho, "Are you sure you have everything, Otis?"; Groucho replies, "I've never had any complaints yet." In two different interviews with [[Dick Cavett]] on ''The Dick Cavett Show – Comic Legends'' DVD, Groucho claimed that that exchange of dialogue was banned in a majority of states when the film was released because it was too suggestive, although the number of states varied with different versions of the story.