A Night at the Opera was the Marx Brothers’ first film for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and it gave Groucho his most famous contract scene.
A Night at the Opera was released in 1935, directed by Sam Wood. Groucho played Otis B. Driftwood, a promoter who tried to help two young singers, Rosa and Ricardo, played by Kitty Carlisle and Allan Jones, against the wishes of the opera company and its star, Lassparri. Chico and Harpo played Driftwood’s helpers, Fiorello and Tomasso.
The film’s most famous scene was the stateroom scene, in which Driftwood’s tiny cabin filled, person by person, until it was packed with people, including a maid, an engineer and a manicurist. Another famous scene was the contract scene, in which Driftwood and the opera manager, played by Sig Ruman, tore clauses out of a contract until almost nothing was left.
A Night at the Opera was a great success, and it showed that the Marx Brothers could work within a more structured story without losing their anarchy. The opera itself, Il Trovatore, was performed seriously at the end, while the brothers disrupted it from the wings, in a combination of high culture and low comedy that became their trademark at MGM.