Oooh i've been so remiss is keeping up with the movies i've seen.....luckily i've only watched one movie to report on.......and that's the next movie in Chicago Outdoor Film Festival series, the Marx Brothers movie "A Night at the Opera". This is only the 2nd Marx Brothers movie i've seen but i was amazed at how incredibly musically talented the Marx Brothers were....especially Chico and Harpo Marx......I was so impressed with their playing when they crashed the "lower-class" party on the boat.....I'm starting to become quite the fan of the Marx Brothers!
The movie itself was pretty funny...the premise being that up-and-coming opera starlet, Rosa was in love with an unknown opera singer, Ricardo but is pursued by a famous opera star, Rodolfo who helps Rosa with her career with the understanding that there be "appropriate romantic" gratitudes with him even though he knows Rosa is in love with Ricardo......Rodolfo is such a jerk!
Anyway, Groucho Marx is helping a "noveau riche" widow try and "enter" society while Chico and Harpo are trying to help Ricardo find a way to go with Rosa for her big debut in New York. The Marx Brothers end up helping each other other as their purposes cross and hilarity ensues. There's the scene when the contracts are first being hashed out between Groucho and Chico which is pretty funny and lots of deadpanning from Groucho....then there's Groucho's cabin quarters and all the ppl who need to or are invited in.....not to mention the insane-ness during the big finale where the lovers are given a chance to perform together while the Marx Brothers are running around both behind the stage and on stage avoiding the theater manangers, police, and various others wanting them for one reason or another....
Funny and poignant and the music was amazing...not just the piano playing by Chico and the harp by Chico which were amazing and so beautiful but the singing by Kitty Carlisle who played Rosa and Allan Jones who played Ricardo was so beautiful. Gave me such a new appreciation for opera.....
And the story was pretty well played out with the characters fairly well developed even though the emphasis was on the Marx Brothers who had taken what would normally have been supporting characters roles. The purpose and the love between the lovers was real and believable and the machinations of Rodolfo authentic in how he used his influence to get what he wanted. The widow and the theater manager both fairly small roles but conveyed with a surprising degree of understanding and multi-dimensionalism by the actors that portrayed them.
If nothing else this movie is worth a rental for the music.......and for what's become my favorite couple of lines in the movie where Grocho Marx hilariously remarks on the famous aviators traveling by boat.
