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A Night at the Opera (film)
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==Production== In an interview with Richard J. Anobile in ''The Marx Brothers Scrapbook'', Groucho said he was so appalled by an early draft of the script—which was apparently written by [[Bert Kalmar]] and [[Harry Ruby]]—that he shouted, "Why fuck around with second-rate talent, get Kaufman and Ryskind [to write the screenplay]!" <ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JmIrAQAAIAAJ&q=%22why+fuck+around%22 |title=The Marx Bros. scrapbook |isbn=978-0-5175-1546-4 |access-date=2013-12-25|last1=Marx |first1=Groucho |last2=Anobile |first2=Richard J. |year=1973 |publisher=Darien House}}</ref> At the suggestion of producer [[Irving Thalberg]], the film marked a change of direction in the brothers' career. In their Paramount films, the brothers' characters were much more [[anarchism|anarchic]]: they attacked almost anybody who was so unfortunate as to cross their paths whether they deserved it or not, albeit comically. Thalberg, however, felt that this made the brothers unsympathetic, particularly to female filmgoers. So in the MGM films, the brothers were recast as more helpful characters, saving most of their comic attacks for the villains. Though some Marx Brothers fans disliked these changes, Thalberg was vindicated when the film became a solid hit. It helped that the film contained some of what fans consider to be among the brothers' funniest and most memorable routines. These routines were carefully honed in a series of live [[Theatre|stage]] performances, as the brothers took to the road and performed the new material around the country before filming began. However, according to [[Oscar Levant]], the first preview of the finished film in [[Long Beach, California|Long Beach]] was a "disaster", with "hardly a laugh" as was the second. Thalberg and [[George S. Kaufman]] spent days in the editing room, adjusting the timing to match the rhythm of a stage performance. About nine minutes was cut from the running time, and the result was a hit.<ref>{{cite book| first=Oscar| last=Levant| title=The Unimportance of Being Oscar| url=https://archive.org/details/unimportanceofbe0000leva/page/92/mode/2up?q=%22night+at+the+opera%22| publisher=G.P. Putnam's Sons| year=1968| page=92| isbn=978-0-6717-7104-1}}</ref> ===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. ===Hungarian rediscovery=== In 2008, a film student reported that the Hungarian National Film Archive possesses a longer print of the film.<ref name="hungary">{{cite web| url=http://www.marx-brothers.org/marxology/opera.htm| last=Timphus| first=Stefan| title=A Night At The Opera: The Hungarian Discoveries| website=Marxology| access-date=2024-09-19}}</ref> While the print does not contain the opening musical number, it does contain several excised lines referencing Italy that had been cut sometime after the film's original release. With the opening number still missing, it may be that this scene was cut before the subsequent edits were made. However, the discovery of the Hungarian print has not yet been independently verified, and [[Turner Entertainment]], who owns the rights to the film, has not indicated that any restoration is forthcoming.
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