In this, the first Marx brothers picture to feature only Groucho, Chico and Harpo, the trio helps (?) two young lovers to flourish in love and in the opera world, preferably in a different order. Actually, preferably one without the other. Groucho, playing, Otis B. Driftwood, is hired by a forlorn upper-class aspirer to help her break into aristocratic society, but he favors to charm and insult her off and on. At the last opera performance of the season in Italy, of Pagliacci, Groucho meets Chico, who is the best friend and manager of an opera singer who yearns for his big break and who is in love with peer opera singer Kitty Carlisle. However, his dreams are overtaken by the star of the opera, Lassparri, a vainglorious bore who wants notoriety and Kitty Carlisle both for himself. Groucho signs the longing young singer to a contract, thinking he is signing Lassparri, who in the meantime is signed for the New York opera by a pompous entrepreneur. It could might be the best bit in the movie: Chico says in his embellished Italian accent, "Hey, wait, wait. What does this say here, this thing here?" Groucho: "Oh, that? Oh, that's the usual clause, that's in every contract. That just says, uh, if any of the parties participating in this contract are not in their right mind, the entire agreement is automatically nullified." "Well, I don't know..." "It's all right. That's, in every contract. That's what they call a sanity clause." "Ha! You can't fool me. There ain't no Sanity Clause!"
Although Chico and his client are not allowed to follow the ensemble to New York, they stow away on the ship, along with Harpo, a dresser fired by Lassparri. Once in New York, the stowaways are chased by the police as illegal aliens, and it all leads to a climactic comeuppance for all the stuffed shirts when the Marx brothers wreck the opening night performance of Il Trovatore by hurtling it into complete anarchy and making a last-chance shot for both of the idealistic young lovers to be the new hits of the opera world.
Yes, the picture is indeed fun, but allow me to slaughter a sacred cow here and say that it's deeply weakened by all that schmaltzy Metro-Goldwyn-Mayerism. The Marx brothers were ultimately an anti-authoritarian presence that let off a lot of steam with shock value, warrantless aggravation, mean-spiritedness and pranks. Early studio-era MGM never did seem to understand that spectacle, romance and song-and-dance are indeed a curse to some films. Forgive me. I know how many purist toes I might've just stomped, but I have to be honest here, or there's no point in me writing this. Am I really the only one who fast- forwards over the maudlin interruptions to essentially pare it down simply to the hard-boiled eggs, the stateroom scene, Sanity Clause and the actual sabotaging of the opera? Duck Soup, on the other hand, is hilarious from beginning to end.
Although Chico and his client are not allowed to follow the ensemble to New York, they stow away on the ship, along with Harpo, a dresser fired by Lassparri. Once in New York, the stowaways are chased by the police as illegal aliens, and it all leads to a climactic comeuppance for all the stuffed shirts when the Marx brothers wreck the opening night performance of Il Trovatore by hurtling it into complete anarchy and making a last-chance shot for both of the idealistic young lovers to be the new hits of the opera world.
Yes, the picture is indeed fun, but allow me to slaughter a sacred cow here and say that it's deeply weakened by all that schmaltzy Metro-Goldwyn-Mayerism. The Marx brothers were ultimately an anti-authoritarian presence that let off a lot of steam with shock value, warrantless aggravation, mean-spiritedness and pranks. Early studio-era MGM never did seem to understand that spectacle, romance and song-and-dance are indeed a curse to some films. Forgive me. I know how many purist toes I might've just stomped, but I have to be honest here, or there's no point in me writing this. Am I really the only one who fast- forwards over the maudlin interruptions to essentially pare it down simply to the hard-boiled eggs, the stateroom scene, Sanity Clause and the actual sabotaging of the opera? Duck Soup, on the other hand, is hilarious from beginning to end.