A Night at the Opera

Arts patron Mrs. Claypool (Margaret Dumont) intends to pay pompous Opera Star Lassparri $1,00 per performance. Hey, maybe that's why they call it grand opera! This is grand comedy, too, as Groucho, Chico, and Harpo cram a ship's stateroom and more with wall-to-wall gags, one-liners, musical riffs and two hard-boiled eggs -- all while skewering Lassparri's schemes and helping two young hopefuls (Kitty Carlisle and Allan Jones) get a break. to save the opera, our heroes must first destroy it. They must also gain ocean passage as stowaways, pull the wool (if not the beards) over the eyes of city hall, shred legal mumbo-jumbo down to a sanity clause, pester dowager Claypool and unleash so much glee that many say this is the best Marx Brothers movie. Seeing is believing.

• comedy
• musical