The perfect combination of irreverent madcap off-the-cuff comedy and plot-focused storytelling. Smashed in the middle of these two career halves rests A Nigth at the Opera. There were still laughs in these later movies, but there’s good reason Groucho found lasting success in television than in films. As each entry went on, this formula gradually became stale, and by the time Go West came out, the shtick had pretty well played out. Without Zeppo, they relied on the talents of Allan Jones, Charles Drake, and Kenny Baker to fill in the musical voice talents or handsome lead. By this point, Zeppo had long left the group as he kept getting pushed out of the comedy and tossed into the thankless “love interest” role. These were movies that felt tightly scripted, less madcap, and far more focused on churning out the familiarity of predictable musical comedies than unleashing the brothers to do their thing. The jokes fly so fast you’re past the point of being confused about what’s going on.Īfter A Night at the Opera, you had plot and story-focused gems like A Day at the Races, and the charming At The Circus. You can walk into any one of these movies with twenty minutes left and start laughing because nothing that happened before really mattered or needed to make sense. These are movies where the plot is but a mere trapping to frame up the quick-witted hijinks of the brothers and find some way to showcase their musical talents for a brief moment. Before, you had the irreverent madcap comedies the likes of Monkey Business, Coconuts, and their absolute funniest film - Duck Soup. When you try and catalog the films of the Marx Brothers, I feel there’s a perfect linchpin point in their careers - before A Night at the Opera and after A Night at the Opera. Soon to be separated by an ocean and career - the Marx Brothers Groucho, Chico, and Harpo just might be able to help Rosa and Riccardo stay together and rescue the New York Opera Company from the stuffed shirts running it. For Rosa’s lover Riccardo (Allan Jones), success is elusive even though he’s the finest young talent of a generation. For Rosa Castaldi (Kitty Carlisle) success has found her on the stage as she’s been recruited to go to the famed New York Opera Company with star Rudolofo Lassparri (Walter Wolf King).
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