Editing Marx Brothers (section)

===MGM, RKO, and United Artists===
[[File:Marx Brothers 1946.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|''[[A Night in Casablanca]]'' (1946)]]
[[File:Sam Wood and Marx Brothers A Day at the Races.jpg|thumb|left|The Marx Brothers on the ''A Day at the Races'' set with [[Sam Wood]]]]

On March 11, 1933, the Marx Brothers founded a production company, the "International Amalgamated Consolidated Affiliated World Wide Film Productions Company Incorporated, of North Dakota".<ref>{{cite web |author1=[[Hollywood Reporter]] Archives |title=Today in 1933 |url=https://twitter.com/thrarchives/status/1237761781595901952 |website=@THRArchives |publisher=Twitter |access-date=August 21, 2022 |language=en |date=March 11, 2020 |quote=Today in 1933: The Marx Brothers launch a production company named the "International Amalgamated Consolidated Affiliated World Wide Film Productions Company Incorporated, of North Dakota" |archive-date=August 21, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220821060612/https://twitter.com/thrarchives/status/1237761781595901952 |url-status=live }}</ref>

After expiration of the Paramount contract Zeppo left the act to become an agent. He and brother Gummo went on to build one of the biggest talent agencies in Hollywood, working with the likes of [[Jack Benny]] and [[Lana Turner]]. He later became an engineer and inventor.{{sfn|Louvish|2000|p=360}}Groucho and Chico did radio, and there was talk of returning to Broadway. At a [[Contract bridge|bridge]] game with Chico, [[Irving Thalberg]] began discussing the possibility of the Marxes joining [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]]. They signed, now billed in films before the title as "Groucho — Chico — Harpo — Marx Bros", with the same ordering in the cast list.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Coniam |first1=Matthew |title=The Annotated Marx Brothers: A Filmgoer's Guide to In-Jokes, Obscure References and Sly Details |date=February 19, 2015 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-9705-8 |page=118 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2oyoBgAAQBAJ |language=en}}</ref>

Unlike the free-for-all scripts at Paramount, Thalberg insisted on a strong story structure that made the brothers more sympathetic characters, interweaving their comedy with romantic plots and non-comic musical numbers, and targeting their mischief-making at obvious villains. Thalberg was adamant that scripts include a "low point", where all seems lost for both the Marxes and the romantic leads. He instituted the innovation of testing the film's script before live audiences before filming began, to perfect the comic timing, and to retain jokes that earned laughs and replace those that did not. Thalberg restored Harpo's harp solos and Chico's piano solos, which had been omitted from ''Duck Soup''.

[[File:Marx Brothers 1948 (cropped).jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.4|The Three Marx Brothers{{br}}''photo by [[Yousuf Karsh]], 1948'']]
The first Marx Brothers/Thalberg film was ''[[A Night at the Opera (film)|A Night at the Opera]]'' (1935), a satire on the world of opera, where the brothers help two young singers in love by throwing a production of ''[[Il Trovatore]]'' into chaos. The film, including its famous scene where an absurd number of people crowd into a tiny stateroom on a ship, was a great success. It was followed two years later by an even bigger hit, ''[[A Day at the Races (film)|A Day at the Races]]'' (1937), in which the brothers cause mayhem in a sanitarium and at a horse race. The film features Groucho and Chico's famous "Tootsie Frootsie Ice Cream" sketch. In a 1969 interview with [[Dick Cavett]], Groucho said that the two movies made with Thalberg were the best that they ever produced. Despite the Thalberg films' success, the brothers left MGM in 1937; Thalberg had died suddenly on September 14, 1936, two weeks after filming began on ''A Day at the Races'', leaving the Marxes without an advocate at the studio.

After a short experience at [[RKO]] (''[[Room Service (1938 film)|Room Service]]'', 1938), the Marx Brothers returned to MGM and made three more films: ''[[At the Circus]]'' (1939), ''[[Go West (1940 film)|Go West]]'' (1940) and ''[[The Big Store]]'' (1941). Prior to the release of ''The Big Store'' the team announced they were retiring from the screen. Four years later, however, Chico persuaded his brothers to make two additional films, ''[[A Night in Casablanca]]'' (1946) and ''[[Love Happy]]'' (1949), to alleviate his severe gambling debts.<ref>{{Cite video|title=Groucho & Cavett.|last=Marx|first=Groucho|date=December 28, 2022|publisher=PBS|url=https://www.pbs.org/video/groucho-cavett-uxozhl|access-date=December 29, 2022|archive-date=December 29, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221229160514/https://www.pbs.org/video/groucho-cavett-uxozhl/|url-status=live}}</ref> Both pictures were released by [[United Artists]].