History Film / ANightAtTheOpera

* ChekhovsSkill: Tommaso (Harpo)'s rope-climbing and acrobatic skill.

* CartoonConductor: Once the boys pull a switch with the sheet music, Chico and Harpo start playing baseball in the orchestra pit while Groucho roams the audience shouting, "Popcorn! Peanuts!"

* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: A running gag in ''Film/ANightAtTheOpera'', during the stateroom scene:

* EmergencyImpersonation: Harpo, Chico and Jones gag three famous airmen and impersonate them. They are later required to give a speech. Bizarre quotes and hilarity ensues --[[TheSpeechless Harpo plays a mute]]-- and their PaperThinDisguise doesn't last for long.

* GettingTheBoot: The elevator man punts Driftwood down the stairs after Driftwood's firing.

* OverlyLongGag: Mr. Driftwood is apparently very hungry indeed!

* TapOnTheHead: Gottlieb, many many times, and once to the cop.

* AllPartOfTheShow: Gottlieb tries to invoke this by on going in costume when he and Henderson pursue Tomasso and Fiorello (also hiding in costume) onto the stage, but the hijinks that ensue flatten any hopes of this trope working.

* FamousNamedForeigner: Chico's stock Italian character is named Fiorello. Fiorello La Guardia was mayor of New York City at the time the movie was made.

-->'''Driftwood''': Of course, that's why I'm sitting here with you. Because you remind me of you. Your eyes, your throat, your lips! Everything about you reminds me of you. Except you. How do you account for that? ''(beat)'' If she figures that one out, she's good.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Driftwood is rude, abusive, screwy, cheap, thieving, and a ManipulativeBastard, but he sees to it the good guys prevail and that the lovers Riccardo and Rosa get their big break.

''A Night at the Opera'' is a 1935 Creator/MarxBrothers film, the first made in their switch from Paramount to MGM. After ''Film/DuckSoup'' wasn't as big a hit as their previous movies, the Marx Brothers were in a bit of a career downturn. MGM head Irving Thalberg though had a solution and felt their comedy would appeal more to women and audiences if they focused their chaos against [[ComedicSociopathy clear bad guys who deserved the mistreatment]] while also[[HappyEnding helping a young couple come together]]. ''Opera'' became the largest box-office hit of the Marx Brothers' filmography. Fans have debated for eighty years over whether this or ''Film/DuckSoup'' is the Marx Brothers' best film, but most agree it's one of the funniest movies ever.

''A Night at the Opera'' is a 1935 Creator/MarxBrothers film, the first made in their switch from Paramount to MGM. Promised a free rein but [[ExecutiveMeddling forced by producer Irving Thalberg]] to focus the chaos against [[ComedicSociopathy the bad guys who deserve the mistreatment]], ''Opera'' became the largest box-office hit of the Marx Brothers' filmography. Fans have debated for eighty years over whether this or ''Film/DuckSoup'' is the Marx Brothers' best film, but most agree it's one of the funniest movies ever.

--> '''Driftwood:''' You see that man over there eating spaghetti?"

-->'''Driftwood: '''You see that spaghetti? Now, behind that spaghetti is none other than Herman Gottlieb, director of the New York Opera Company. Do you follow me?
-->'''Mrs. Claypool: '''Yes.
-->'''Driftwood: ''' Well stop following me or I'll have you arrested!

* HarpoDoesSomethingFunny: As usual, a few examples of this, such as the breakfast sketch in Groucho's apartment.

* {{Fauxreigner}}: Chico and Groucho have this exchange about Italy.
-->Driftwood (Groucho): Well, things certainly seem to be getting better around the country.
-->Fiorello (Chico): Well, I wouldn't know about that; I'm a stranger here myself.

* ScriptSwap: Chico and Harpo swap the sheet music of an entire orchestra so that they all start playing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" in the middle of the opera.

-->'''Driftwood:''' You're willing to pay him a thousand dollars a night just for singing? Why, you can get a phonograph record of 'Minnie the Moocher' for 75 cents." (Pause) For a buck and a quarter, you can get Minnie.

* LogoJoke: In the trailer, the MGM lion was replaced by the Marx Brothers themselves, under the banner "Marx Gratia Marxes" (instead of "Ars Gratia Artis"), each taking turns miming the lion's roar. (When it was Harpo, his ever-present taxi-horn sounded instead.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC25_toTHss

* OvercomplicatedMenuOrder: Groucho, playing the shady social consultant Otis B. Driftwood and operating solely along the lines of the {{Rule of Funny}}, orders two to three portions of what seems to be everything on the menu in an illogical way, punctuating his selections after each item with an order for "two hard-boiled eggs" for the stowaways hiding in his stateroom.

--> '''Steward''' ''(writing down the order):'' . . . and two hard-boiled eggs.
--> '''Harpo's Horn:''' *HONK*

--> '''Harpo's Horn:''' HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK [[OverlyLongGag HONK HONK HONK HONK]]

* RefugeInAudacity: From the very first lines -
--> (For context, Driftwood is sitting with his back to Mrs Claypool, the woman he was supposed to have dinner with, having had dinner with another woman and the waiter has just given him the bill)
--> '''Driftwood:''' Nine dollars and forty-eight cents...?! This is an outrage! ''(throws the bill to the woman)'' If I were you, I wouldn't pay it! ''(walks away)''

--> '''Driftwood:''' Just the man I want to see! Gottlieb, these are the worst cigars I've ever smoked!\\

* TheRemake: ''Film/BrainDonors'', an all-but-the-name retelling of ''Opera''.
** All but the name and the opera, that is.

* SpiritualSuccessor: the following Creator/MarxBrothers film ''Film/ADayAtTheRaces'', shares a similar plot but with different characters and scenery (a rest home in need of rescue and a horse race to be won).

* [[StraightMan Straight Woman]]: Margaret Dumont as Mrs. Claypool, as always the prim foil to Groucho's antics.

''A Night at the Opera'' is a 1935 Creator/MarxBrothers film, the first made in their switch from Paramount to MGM. Promised a free rein but [[ExecutiveMeddling forced by producer Irving Thalberg]] to focus the chaos against [[ComedicSociopathy the bad guys who deserve the mistreatment]], ''Opera'' became the largest box-office hit of the Marx Brothers' filmography. Fans have debated for eighty years over whether this or ''DuckSoup'' is the Marx Brothers' best film, but most agree it's one of the funniest movies ever.

* ThisMeansWar: Used by Driftwood after the three fake airmen are confronted and leave. A ShoutOut to ''DuckSoup''

* TheShowMustGoOn: The confused and increasingly frustrated Lassparri keeps singing, even when the scenes behind and in front of him change rapidly.

* TheShowMustGoOn: Despite all the chaos on stage, the theatre crew and police still bend over backwards to avoid disrupting the show themselves, even when things are bad enough that logically they might as well simply and openly march out on stage to grab the brothers since it would not make any difference.
* TheShowMustGoWrong: ''[[UpToEleven And how]]''! The brothers throw the performance at the opera house into sheer and utter chaos, taking up a good portion of the movie with catastrophes on and off stage.

''A Night at the Opera'' is a 1935 MarxBrothers film, the first made in their switch from Paramount to MGM. Promised a free rein but [[ExecutiveMeddling forced by producer Irving Thalberg]] to focus the chaos against [[ComedicSociopathy the bad guys who deserve the mistreatment]], ''Opera'' became the largest box-office hit of the Marx Brothers' filmography. Fans have debated for eighty years over whether this or ''DuckSoup'' is the Marx Brothers' best film, but most agree it's one of the funniest movies ever.

* SpiritualSuccessor: the following MarxBrothers film ''Film/ADayAtTheRaces'', shares a similar plot but with different characters and scenery (a rest home in need of rescue and a horse race to be won).

!!This film is associated with the following tropes (if you dare!):

* TheCastShowOff: The scene on the boat where Chico plays the piano? That's not dubbed in. He was actually that good. (In the vaudeville days, he used to play the piano ''blindfolded.)''
** Kitty Carlisle had previously sung opera onstage for real, and Allan Jones, while not classically trained, was a genuinely talented singing star of the day. And of course, Harpo playing the harp.

* {{Gaslighting}}: When the team finally reaches America, they move beds from one room to the other to anger the detective and drive him batty.

-->'''Driftwood''': Why that's the fire escape. And that's a table, and this is a room, and there's the door and I wish you'd use it. I... [[GrandHotel I vant to be alone.]]

* MuggedForDisguise: After Tomasso bonks Gottleib on the head ''again'', Driftwood takes his tux to get into the opera.

--> '''Harpo's Horn:''' ''honk''
--> '''Driftwood:''' ...and one goose egg.

''A Night at the Opera'' is a 1935 MarxBrothers film, the first made in their switch from Paramount to MGM. Promised a free rein but [[ExecutiveMeddling forced by producer Irving Thalberg]] to focus the chaos against [[ComedicSociopathy the bad guys who deserve the mistreatment]], ''Opera'' became the largest box-office hit of the Marx Brothers' filmography. There's a fine debate over this or ''DuckSoup'' as the Marx Brothers' best film as well as one of the funniest movies ever. It was subsequently {{Homage}}d by the Zucker Brothers' movie ''Film/BrainDonors''.

Not to be confused with the 1975 Music/{{Queen}} album ''Music/ANightAtTheOpera'', which was named after the movie. (Or with the Music/BlindGuardian album, which was named after the Queen album.)