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Send Above Image as a Why A Duck? Postcard
MGM - 1935
Story by James Kevin McGuiness. Screenplay by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind. Directed by Sam Wood. Produced by Irving Thalberg. Supporting Cast: Kitty Carlisle, Allan Jones, Walter King, Siegfried Rumann, Margaret Dumont, Edward Keane, and Robert Emmet O'Connor.;
This was the Marxes' first film after leaving Paramount (well, after being pushed out). MGM producer Irving Thalberg took the boys under his wing to produce two of their greatest films (the other being "A Day At The Races"). Thalberg's contention was that, although the Marx Brothers' movies were funny, you couldn't "build insanity on insanity." He proposed an actual story for the brothers to work against. He figured that there may be only half as many laughs in a picture, but the films would give the audience something to care about. His hunch was obviously correct, as "A Night At The Opera" was the Marx Brothers' biggest grossing film (more than doubling the take from "Duck Soup" two years earlier). Although the brothers had difficulty with the way he handled business, Groucho proclaimed that Irving Thalberg was the only man he would truly call a "genius." Thalberg asked the Marx brothers whom they would like to write the picture, and of course they chose their two favorite writers, Kaufman and Ryskind.
In this picture, Otis B. Driftwood (Groucho) tries to introduce Mrs. Claypool (Margaret Dumont) into society by arranging for her to donate $200,000 to the New York Opera Company. The company's director, Mr. Gottleib (Siegfried Rumann) decides to use the dough to sign Rudolf Lassparri, one of Italy's most well-respected tenors.
Trying to keep his finger in the pie, Driftwood sets out to sign Lassparri himself, only to wind up signing Ricardo Baroni (Allan Jones) through his "manager," Fiorello (Chico), by mistake (check out a transcription of this scene, made available through the generosity of Angela Toma, at The Contract). Add to this Rosa (Kitty Carlisle), the mutual love interest of Baroni and Lassparri, and you have a thoroughly entertaining film. This movie contains the now infamous "stateroom" scene.
This was the Marx Brothers' first picture following the departure of Zeppo. Many purists contend that their movies just weren't the same without him. You be the judge.
Thanks to Flapjack for supplying the graphic for this page.
©1995-2006, Frank M. Bland
The pages under www.marx-brothers.org/whyaduck were originally created by Frank Bland for his site www.whyaduck.com. Frank did kindly give me permission to use the contents of his site.
If you find text referring to "I" or "me" on pages under www.marx-brothers.org/whyaduck, this will usually refer to Frank.
