His Movie Review: A Night at the Opera (1935)

Why he watched it: Classic comedy

His rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

His review:  One of those classic comedies that I’ve never seen. I’ve seen scenes from various Marx Brothers’ movies, but never watched from beginning to end. I expected to enjoy this much more than other classic comedies, particularly The Three Stooges. Unlike most men (so I’m told), I don’t find slaps in the face or pratfalls to be funny. I come from the Monty Python world of humor, where the physical humor is funny because it is so absurd. A slapping another man in the face with a fish. What is that? Funny. Pokes in the eye? Not funny?

Unfortunately, I wasn’t as charmed as I wanted to be. I didn’t find Groucho’s attempts to freeload off others, while mocking them, to be that funny overall. I appreciated Harpo’s physical skills, I didn’t find he antics any funnier. I found that I appreciated Chico the most–his character was more about snappy dialogue and banter with Groucho, without belittling people. I liked the famous scene with Groucho and Chico ‘negotiating’ a contract, but the more famous scene of too many people in a stateroom on the ships wasn’t that amusing. The fact that the movie devolves into a extend site gab at the opera didn’t help.

It didn’t quite work for me, but I appreciate why so many others have enjoyed this movie. I still plan to watch Duck Soup, to make sure I’ve given that classic a chance. Hopefully I’ll find more laughs.