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

===Critical reception===
====Contemporary reviews====
''A Night at the Opera'' was banned in Budapest.<ref name="variety-122-1936-04_0052">{{cite news |title=Banned in Budapest |url=https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/variety122-1936-04_0052 |access-date=7 July 2023 |magazine=Variety |date=April 1, 1936 |page=52}}</ref>

Contemporary reviews were positive. [[Andre Sennwald]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' wrote, "If 'A Night at the Opera' is a trifle below their best, it is also considerably above the standard of laughter that has been our portion since they quit the screen. George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind have given them a resounding slapstick to play with and they wield it with maniacal delight."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9A05E6D6163CE53ABC4F53DFB467838E629EDE |title=Three of the Four Marx Brothers in 'A Night at the Opera,' at the Capitol |last=Sennwald |first=Andre |author-link=Andre Sennwald |date=December 7, 1935 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=December 20, 2021 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20161230005230/http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9A05E6D6163CE53ABC4F53DFB467838E629EDE |archive-date=2016-12-30 |url-status=unfit}}</ref> "The comedy material is always good and sometimes brilliant", reported ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]''.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Boyum |editor1-first=Joy Gould |title=Film as film: Critical Responses to Film Art |date=1971 |page=307 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/filmasfilmcritic0000boyu/page/285/ |access-date=April 12, 2022 |chapter=Joe Bigelow, Variety (December 11, 1935)}}</ref> "This should be a laugh fest with all types of audiences", wrote ''[[Film Daily]]''.<ref>{{cite news |date=October 17, 1935 |title=Reviews of the New Films |journal=[[Film Daily]] |location=New York |page=4 }}</ref> "This is a good Marx Brothers film, good as any they have done", wrote [[John Mosher (writer)|John Mosher]] in ''[[The New Yorker]]''. "It may not be new or surprising, but it's quick and funny."<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Mosher |first=John |author-link=John Mosher (writer) |date=December 14, 1935 |title=The Current Cinema |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |pages=116–117}}</ref>

====Retrospective reviews====
The film holds a 97% "fresh" score at [[Rotten Tomatoes]] based on 69 reviews, with an average rating of 8.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Watermelons may go out of season, but in ''A Night at the Opera'', the Marx Brothers' daffy laughs are never anything less than uproariously fresh." Ken Hanke calls it "hysterical, but not up to the boys' [[Paramount Pictures|Paramount]] films." Mark Bourne concurs: "[The Marx Brothers] still let the air out of stuffed shirts and barbecue a few sacred cows, but something got lost in all that MGMness when the screen's ultimate anti-authoritarian team starting working the [[Andy Hardy]] side of the street."<ref name="rotten tomatoes">{{cite web| title=A Night at the Opera| website=Rotten Tomatoes| url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1015002-night_at_the_opera/| access-date=2020-11-20| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080919020608/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1015002-night_at_the_opera/| archive-date=September 19, 2008| url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Roger Ebert]] admitted that, while ''A Night at the Opera'' "contains some of their best work", he "fast-forward[ed] over the sappy interludes involving Kitty Carlisle and Allan Jones."<ref name="Ebert">{{cite news |last=Ebert |first=Roger |authorlink=Roger Ebert |url=http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20000709/REVIEWS08/7090301/1023 |title=Duck Soup |newspaper=[[Chicago Sun-Times]] |via=[[Rogerebert.com]] |date=July 9, 2000 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050310124935/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20000709%2FREVIEWS08%2F7090301%2F1023 |archive-date=2005-03-10 |url-status=dead |access-date=August 18, 2021}}</ref> Danel Griffin says: "''A Night at the Opera'' is funny, but this is NOT the Marx Brothers, and their earlier style is so sorely missed that the film falls flat. The main problem with ''A Night at the Opera'' is the obvious lack of the Marx Brothers' trademark anarchy. What distinguished them in their [[Paramount Studios|Paramount]] films from all other comedians was their thumb-biting indictment of society."<ref name="Griffin">{{cite web |url=http://uashome.alaska.edu/~dfgriffin/website/nightattheopera.htm |title=Danel Griffin's review of ''A Night at the Opera'' at "Film as Art" |website=Uashome.alaska.edu |date=1935-11-15 |access-date=2013-12-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120723042427/http://uashome.alaska.edu/~dfgriffin/website/nightattheopera.htm |archive-date=July 23, 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

The film is recognized by [[American Film Institute]] in these lists:
* 1998: [[AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies]] – Nominated<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.afi.com/Docs/100Years/movies400.pdf |title=AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies Nominees |access-date=2016-07-17}}</ref>
* 2000: [[AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs]] – #12<ref>{{cite web |title=AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs |url=http://www.afi.com/Docs/100Years/laughs100.pdf |website=[[American Film Institute]] |access-date=2016-07-17}}</ref>
* 2005: [[AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes]]:
** Otis B. Driftwood: "It's alright, that's in every contract. That's what they call a sanity clause."
:: Fiorello: "You can't fool me! There ain't no Sanity Claus."
:: – Nominated<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.afi.com/Docs/100Years/quotes400.pdf |title=AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes Nominees |access-date=2016-07-17}}</ref>
* 2006: [[AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals]] – Nominated<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.afi.com/Docs/100Years/musicals_ballot.pdf |title= AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals Nominees |access-date=2016-07-17}}</ref>
* 2007: [[AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition)]] – #85<ref>{{cite web |title=AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) |url=http://www.afi.com/Docs/100Years/100Movies.pdf |website=American Film Institute |access-date=2016-07-17}}</ref>