A Night at the Opera is a 1935 American comedy film starring the Marx Brothers (Groucho, Harpo and Chico), and featuring Kitty Carlisle, Allan Jones, Margaret Dumont, Sig Ruman, and Walter Woolf King.

It was the first of five films the Marx Brothers made under contract for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer after their departure from Paramount Pictures, and the first after Zeppo left the act.

The film was written by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind from a story by James Kevin McGuinness, with additional uncredited dialogue by Al Boasberg.

One of MGM's biggest hits at the 1935 box office, A Night at the Opera was selected in 1993 for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

At a restaurant in Milan, Italy, wealthy widow Mrs. Claypool has apparently been stood up for dinner by her business manager, Otis B. Driftwood.

During a hero's welcome in New York, the stowaways are exposed as frauds and they flee, hiding out in Driftwood's hotel room while pursued by police sergeant Henderson.

Driftwood, Fiorello, and Tomasso decide to seek revenge by sabotaging the opera company's opening night performance of Il trovatore with various antics, climaxing with the abduction of Lassparri from the stage, forcing Gottlieb to substitute Ricardo in his place.

Mrs. Claypool and the audience clearly prefer Ricardo over Lassparri, and the latter is booed and hit with an apple after he is untied and attempts to return to the stage.

True to its title, the film includes adaptations of some real opera scenes from I Pagliacci and Il Trovatore, featuring the Miserere duet sung by Kitty Carlisle and Allan Jones.

[5] 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]!"

In their Paramount films, the brothers' characters were much more anarchic: they attacked almost anybody who was so unfortunate as to cross their paths whether they deserved it or not, albeit comically.

Thalberg and George S. Kaufman spent days in the editing room, adjusting the timing to match the rhythm of a stage performance.

[7] The film originally was to have begun with each of the Marx Brothers taking turns roaring instead of 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.

[8][9] 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.

Both Groucho and Harpo stated this as fact in their memoirs,[14][15] and film critic Leonard Maltin repeats it in the DVD commentary.

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.

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.

[citation needed] 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 end consisted of a grand finale in the traditional MGM musical fashion, something lacking from the brothers' Paramount efforts.

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.

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."

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.

"[24] 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.

"[25] 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.