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1h 36m / Not Rated / ComedyThe Marx Brothers (in their first feature without Zeppo) star in their first MGM picture and one of their biggest hits, a send-up of stodgy society culture and high-brow showbiz. Groucho is Otis B. Driftwood, business manager to a rich dowager who he convinces to make a major donation to the New York Opera Company. Meanwhile, romantic entanglements backstage lead to Driftwood accidentally signing the wrong person to a contract, kicking off a feature-length procession of hijinks, mayhem and comedy at the pace of a barrel rolling downhill.
In hindsight, all decisions fall into one of two categories: bad, or obvious. And the ‘30s were a time of tremendous disruption in the movie business, which meant a lot of decisions were getting made. The brothers adapting their successful Broadway acts to film seems obvious. The studios wanted them. Film moving to sound seems obvious, and the Marx brothers were a perfect all-talking act. But both decisions were precarious, and surrounded by examples of catastrophic failure. Even after it worked, coming off of the success of movies like Animal Crackers, Horse Feathers and Duck Soup, negotiating a new contract with a new studio and pushing for movies that were more plot-driven with clearer character arcs is precisely the kind of decision that destroys careers. But it turned the brothers from a pretty successful comedy act to a pillar of movie comedy for a generation. When a risk pays off, it doesn’t seem risky.
Tampa Theatre played A Night at the Opera on its opening in November 1935, with a supporting program including “Dr. M. Sayle Taylor’s ‘Voice of Experience’”,a Hal Roach comedy short called Twin Triplets, and the Paramount news reel. That means our screening would have included the now-lost footage of an opening on an Italian canal boat with a brief medley of well-known opera themes and a few other Italian jokes.
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Tampa Theatre, 711 N Franklin St,Tampa, Florida, United States
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