"There ain't no Sanity Claus!"

In 1935 the country was in the midst of the Great Depression. The people had little relief. There seemed to be no room for laughter. That is, until MGM released their first Marx Brothers picture A Night at the Opera (1935).

Much like the rest of the country, by 1935 it appeared that the Marx Brothers had had it. They had been huge in vaudeville and on Broadway during the 1920s. They made a smooth transition into movies and did well making four pictures for Paramount. But their last one, Duck Soup (1933), hadn’t been as big a box office smash as all involved would have liked. This seems odd today as Duck Soup is always found in lists of the best comedies ever made, it is the one most commonly associated with the Marx Brothers. Although that might be the case today, in 1935 Groucho and his two brothers needed to find someone willing to take a chance on them. Those familiar with the Marx Brothers will know that there were four brothers who performed in the Paramount films. After receiving nothing more than straight-man parts, Zeppo decided to leave the group to become a successful Hollywood agent.

As would happen often in the future, the Marx Brothers got back into movies thanks to Chico. This time though Chico didn’t need the money to pay off some gambling debts. Instead he used his card playing skills to wow the most powerful man in Hollywood, Irving Thalberg. Both were avid bridge players and over a game one night, Chico explained to Thalberg that the Brothers were in need of work. Thalberg said the Brothers were funny, but that they hadn’t made a great picture yet. He believed he had what the Paramount pictures were missing: a plot.

A Night at the Opera has Thalberg’s fingerprints all over it. He believed that a story could be woven into the comedy routines of the Brothers. He told George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, the two screenwriters, to build the story around big blocks of comedy. The plot would carry the viewer from one block to the next. This is easily seen in the movie as some of the most famous routines of the Marx Brothers are present here. There are the famous contract scene, the stateroom scene, the movement of beds in the hotel room and the grand finale in the opera house. Thalberg also wanted the audience to have sympathy for the Brothers. This is why Harpo is beaten up in Lassparri’s dressing room and why Groucho loses his post with the opera company when Gottlieb arrives in New York. With the audience possessing a rooting interest, the Marx Brothers can become more than comedians – they become heroes.

A Night at the Opera was considered by Groucho to be the best picture done by the Marx Brothers. It is filled with comedy routines that have become classics, but it is more toned down than the Paramount movies. It has a story, but the appeal of the Marx Brothers was never the plot, it was always the comedy. This movie did save their career, but it was the last great Marx Brothers movie ever made. Midway through their next movie A Day at the Races (1937), Thalberg passed away. With him gone and a transformation already in place, the Marx Brothers could not change back to their Paramount zany days. They had to remain comedians restrained by a plot and their later movies suffered because of this.