Wednesday, March 23, 2011

#85 A Night at the Opera (1935)

Anyone who knows me well knows that I have a terrible habit of falling asleep in movies. Well, I had to restart this one three times because I kept trying to watch it while I was sleepy. Oops.

Everyone has heard of the Marx brothers, but this was the first time I had seen them in action. There were originally five Marx brothers who performed together in vaudeville, but by the time this movie was made, there were only three in the "group". Back in the early 1900's, it was the thing to make nicknames by attaching -O to the end of a name. Groucho was named for his disposition and his character is a witty, sneaky businessman; Chico (pronounced chick-o) was girl-crazy (chicks), and he does this weird half-Italian character; Harpo played the harp amazingly well and is goofy, but he never talks. I tried out Lindso and Travo for the rest of the night after I saw this. I don't think it really works for us.

After seeing this movie (and watching all of the extras on the DVD,) I began seeing this whole movie-watching experience as my own discovery of the history of pop culture. I enjoy seeing how much humor and entertainment has changed over the years, and while I've always been bored by the type of history I was taught in school (memorizing names and dates, mostly relating to wars), this type of history really appeals to me.

In some ways, like the strength of female characters in movies, we've progressed... in other ways, our vocabularies for one, we've regressed. I think about the reality shows we watch now for entertainment (I'm guilty of it, too), and the majority of it requires absolutely no thinking. All the shows on E! and Bravo are absolute crap... except of course "The Soup" that makes fun of it all.

This movie had so many clever one-liners that it was actually difficult for me to keep up. I'm not accustomed to needing to pay attention to every word. To get every joke, I'd need to see this movie at least another time or two.

Rating: 7/10

Big Names: Groucho, Chico, and Harpo Marx; Kitty Carlisle

Big Lines: I'm not sure, but is this a double entendre? I can't think of another way to take it. It's pretty intense for 1935....
Mrs. Claypool: Are you sure you have everything, Otis?
Mr. Driftwood: Well, I haven't had any complaints yet.

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