Ben Oliver

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film

A Night at the Opera

You can’t fool me! There ain’t no Sanity Claus!
23 May 2020

A music manager does what it takes to get work for his client, an opera singer.

I’ve been whinging about the Marx brothers but I’m glad I gave them another chance. A Night at the Opera is hilarious, despite being coated in buckets of sickly MGM gloss and pointless musical numbers.

This is less bombastic than what we’ve seen so far, and better for it. It’s like when the radio is turned up too loud; the song can be great, but sometimes you need to turn the volume down a little to really hear it.

Perhaps aficionados will say that liking this over Duck Soup is heresy. Well burn me at the stake, A Night at the Opera is the only Marx Bros. film I’d recommend so far.

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