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

==Style change==
''A Night at the Opera'' began a new era for the Marx Brothers' style of comedy. Whereas their previous comedies at [[Paramount Pictures]] consisted of a constant barrage of jokes within a loosely plotted storyline, ''A Night at the Opera'' was calculated comedy. Producer [[Irving Thalberg]] insisted on a strong story structure, making the Brothers more sympathetic characters, interweaving their comedy with romantic plots and non-comic spectacular musical numbers. The targets of their mischief were largely confined to clear villains. Thalberg's logic was that the Marxes could get "twice the box office with half the laughs", believing their films would attract a wider audience.<ref name=stables>{{cite book |last=Stables |first=Kate |title=The Marx Bros. |publisher=Chartwell Books, Inc. |year=1992 |location=[[Secaucus, New Jersey]] |url=https://archive.org/details/marxbros0000stab/page/46/mode/2up?q=%22twice+the+box+office%22 |page=47 |isbn=978-1-8542-2377-7}}</ref> Groucho himself agreed with Thalberg's rationale. In his autobiography, ''Groucho and Me'', he wrote of the Marx Brothers' 13 films, "Two were far above average. Some of the others were pretty good. Some were deplorable. The best two were made by Thalberg"—a reference not only to ''A Night at the Opera'' but ''[[A Day at the Races (film)|A Day at the Races]]''.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sZiOk7VWkigC&q=%22the+best+two%22 |title=Groucho and me |isbn=978-0-6716-7781-7 |page=170 |access-date=2024-09-19|last1=Marx |first1=Groucho |year=1989 |publisher=Simon & Schuster}}</ref>

Another idea to which Thalberg consented, was that before filming would commence on an upcoming film, the Marx Brothers would try out the new material on the vaudeville stage, working on comic timing and learning which jokes and gags earned a laugh and which did not. Jokes were planted accordingly, so the laughs could be timed correctly.<ref name=stables/> What was to become the famous "stateroom" scene was nearly eliminated because it was not getting any laughs. One evening the Marx Brothers threw away the script and ad-libbed the whole scene. As a result, a weak scene was transformed into one of their all-time classics.{{Citation needed|date=January 2022}}

In ''A Night at the Opera'', each of the brothers' characters was refined: Groucho was somewhat less nonsensical, and less trouble; Chico became less of a scammer and gained ''some'' intelligence; Harpo became less mischievous and more sympathetic. The film dives straight into a plot and accompanying comedy, with every scene having a clear beginning, middle, and end. The end consisted of a grand finale in the traditional MGM musical fashion, something lacking from the brothers' Paramount efforts.<ref name=stables/>

''A Night at the Opera'' established a basic formula that was utilized in every subsequent film the Marx Brothers made at MGM:
* a friendship existing between the romantic couple and Chico
* establishing sympathy for Harpo
* Chico and Groucho going through an extensive verbal routine
* Harpo joining as Chico's partner (or brother)
* lush surroundings as a backdrop to the brothers' lunacy
* a key scene with all three Marxes
* a fall from grace
* a rebound on a grand scale in which everything is righted<ref name=stables/>