Watch A Night at the Opera Online
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 |
Watch A Night at the Opera Online.
Movie Title: A Night at the Opera A Night at the Opera is available for streaming or downloading. |
The 1935 comedy A NIGHT AT THE OPERA is a grab bag of a movie that includes physical gags, verbal gags, a romantic subplot, backstage intrigue, an operatic aria, an explain dance number, stunts, absurdity, and sentimentality. The main attraction is, of course, the patented zaniness of The Marx Brothers — the acerbic Groucho, the still Harpo, and the dim-witted Chico — whose current effect of comedy is often edgy, subversive, and even surreal and other-worldly. Count me as one of those who thinks that such style of comedy loses some edge in A NIGHT AT THE OPERA, where the humorous trio seem out of station in a methodical state, realistic settings, and among ordinary people. These mundane elements are also, surprisingly, inviting enough to often upstage the comedians. Groucho’s usual anti-establishment stance also seems softened in order to give device to crowd-pleasing sentimentality. The Marx Brothers, like Jacques Tati, are creators of their have funny universes, and that’s where they need to inhabit, such as in the whimsical delight DUCK SOUP, the Brothers’ previous film, where their presence is more dominant. With that said, A NIGHT AT THE OPERA does have some of most memorable gags in the Brothers’ history. A verbal confusion with Santa Claus, a shrimp room small with 15 people, mixing opera with baseball, and Harpo’s stunts with the ropes are some of the highlights.
The novel Warner DVD of A NIGHT AT THE OPERA is encoded for Station 1 and 4, and has a cleaner video transfer than I expected considering the age of the film. Obviously, a video restoration has been done, as were the cases for many of new Warner DVDs of ancient movies. The unique mono audio is splendid, achieve for some age-related hisses in the background. There are some jarring momentary losses of frames in a few places, such as in the scene of Groucho riding a carriage early in the movie. However, I noticed these “jumps” in older video versions as well. Both English subtitles and closed captioning are explain for the film’s dialogs. The lyrics to the songs “Alone” and Cosi-Cosa” are also captioned, but not subtitled. During the Verdi opera sequence, the caption simply says “[Singing in Italian].” French and Spanish subtitles are also provided, but, of course, many of the wordplays are simply lost in translation (”C’est ce qu’on appelle une clause ’sanitaire’.”) None of the supplements on the disc are subtitled or captioned, however.
Leonard Maltin provides an consuming and informative audio commentary for the film. He points out that the film was gash for its 1948 re-release (the version obsolete for this DVD) in order to hold all references to Italy, which fought against America in WWII. The unusual opening was supposed to be a musical number showing people in Milan singing, thereby establishing the setting of the film. Although wishing to avoid analyzing the film, Maltin does try to elucidate some of the ingenious touches in the amusing gags. In the well-known stateroom scene, he points out the arrangement Groucho talks at honest the accurate moments and all the people seem oblivious to the status are what obtain the scene silly. He praises the expansive pantomimic skills of Harpo, and thoughtfully suggests that although he might have been a big mute film star, his talent really belongs in a sound world. He gives his thoughts on Chico’s patently erroneous Italian accent. He also laments that in the age of political correctness, Marx Brothers’ films may seem passé. He says although there seems to be improvisations, the dialogs are often so intricately constructed that improvisations are often not possible. He also recounts a few anecdotes, such as the Brothers’ showing up naked in producer Irving Thalberg’s office at one time.
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The disc includes a typical half-hour making-of featurette “Remarks on Marx, which is consuming, for me, mainly for the few minutes of appearance by Kitty Carlisle, who recalls how she was originally not allowed to issue with her philosophize. A 20-minute musical short from 1937, “Sunday Night at the Trocadero,” is included, and it features performances by Connee Boswell, The Brian Sisters, George Hamilton and his “Music Box Music” Orchestra, and a cameo by Groucho. The audio quality is so dreadful on this share that I can only hear every other word. An funny ten-minute short “How to Sleep” from 1935, starring Robert Benchley, is also point to, as well as the theatrical trailer for A NIGHT AT THE OPERA. There is also a 5-minute TV appearance by Groucho in which he also recalls the naked incident in Thalberg’s office.
Many have argued that A NIGHT AT THE OPERA is the Marx Brother’s finest film, pointing out that it combined the best of the Brother’s comedy with the biggest and boldest in MGM production values. Personally, while I really like the film, I wouldn’t quite keep it in the top slot. Any of the sequences containing the Marx Brothers themselves are gold, but I derive that I’m not as enamored with the romantic subplot and singing as other reviewers have been (notably Leonard Maltin in this DVD’s commentary) . Unexcited, arguing about which one of the comely films is actually the best is a itsy-bitsy pointless. This is a stout movie, regardless with how it compares to the others.
The biggest thing this film has going for it (outside of the fantastic Marx Brothers themselves, of course) is the large production values that MGM splashed out on. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, it’s nice to have some mountainous colossal sets for the Brothers to clown around in (Harpo’s stunt double swinging through the rafters is titanic), but all things considered, I consider I capture the tongue-in-cheek send-up of the stout dance numbers (as done in DUCK SOUP) to the production dances which are played straight here.
Margaret Dumont is underused, which is a shame since her dignified outrage usually accounted for colossal laughs. She gets a capable scene at the beginning, and a handful of opportunities to eye exasperated later in the film, but she isn’t the constant presence that she had been in other films.
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Still, while I can seize out a few flaws here and there, this is overall a hilarious and fun movie. Remarkable of what is considered classic Marx Brothers material is from this film: the too-many-people-in-the-stateroom scene, the Marxian deconstruction of a right contract (if anyone thinks that “‘The party of the first part’ shall be known in this contract as ‘the party of the first part’” isn’t realistic, then I can explain you exquisite print I’ve received from credit card companies that are even more tautological than that), and, of course, the vast finale wherein the three brothers completely ruin an opera-in-progress.
The DVD also contains an all-new documentary, which features (among other people) co-star Kitty Carlisle, who is amazingly involving for being in her 90s, and Dom DeLuise, who talks a lot about food and appears to have been interviewed in the middle of making breakfast (no, I’m not definite why he’s here) . This is mostly a talking heads interview documentary and there’s not a whole lot of trace modern material or trivia, but it is nice to explore some differing perspectives on things. The account of how Groucho got his name contradicts the epic given on the commentary track, and Carlisle refutes the old-fashioned wisdom that states that Margaret Dumont didn’t come by any of the jokes Groucho was bouncing off her.
A short except from a 1961 broadcast of “The Hy Gardner Explain” (who? ) reveals Groucho recounting the record of he and his brothers stripping naked and roasting potatoes in the office of Irving Thalberg after the notorious producer kept them waiting once too long. I trust you will like the account, because it’s told a whopping three times during the course of these DVD extras. Shockingly, none of the tellings blatantly contradict each other.
Two shorts have been included as extras, though I’m not positive I understand their relevance. Robert Benchley’s HOW TO SLEEP won the Academy Award in 1935 for Best Short Subject/Comedy, and it’s certainly inviting enough. As for the other short, SUNDAY NIGHT AT THE TROCADERO, well, I’m baffled. I can’t manufacture heads or tails of it. Location in a nightclub, a Hollywood talent scout is visiting this ritzy affair. Numerous song and dance people are attempting auditions, while the club’s doorman is trying to trace by doing very dreadful celebrity impersonations (it didn’t abet that half the time I didn’t explore the name of the person he was impersonating or the name of the person people actually plan he was doing) . Cameos by stars of the day abound by having the camera chop to different tables and a stammer over shouting, “Hey, study! It’s Bob Has-been!” (or whoever) . It isn’t helped by the fact that most of the careers of these minor celebrities ended soon after the shoot, so for me I was watching cattle call of anonymous hotshots. I couldn’t figure out why these people were appearing as themselves. Was the audience supposed to enjoy that these people really hang out at this fictional locale? Groucho Marx (out of character and costume) has a three-second cameo where he looks as confused as I felt.
I’m wary of commentaries performed by people who weren’t actually born when the film they’re talking about was made, but Leonard Maltin does a magnificent job here. He relates a lot of anecdotes about the Marx Brothers, points out how the script is layering the subplots, and relates a lot of trivia that I had never heard before (for example, the only surviving print is actually an edited version made during WWII when all references to Italy have been removed, which explains why the film bizarrely never tells you were the first scenes are station) . He even gets into the fun, shouting “What a twit!” when the tainted opera singer refuses to voice on the cruise-liner for free.
Although the DVD of A NIGHT AT THE OPERA is included in “The Marx Brothers Collection” box site, it is also available for individual sale. Although I slightly buy A DAY AT THE RACES (also out on DVD now), I couldn’t recommend anyone not purchase up this film. For Marx novices, there’s a broad movie. For Marx aficionados, there’s informational material that may be enjoyed. In any event, the powers that be have given a substantial film an suited treatment on the DVD format.
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