- Whether or not it is also their best film, A Night at the Opera certainly contains some of the funniest and most famous gags that the Marx Brothers ever put on screen. I could watch Groucho and Chico tear up contracts all day, but even that brilliant scene is eclipsed by the ordering of two hard-boiled eggs (honk), make that three hard-boiled eggs, and their subsequent delivery into the most crowded stateroom imaginable. Add in the goofy beard-stealing subplot, Harpo's surprisingly waterlogged speech, and the insane trapeze act chase at the film's end, and you have a very entertaining film.
- A Night at the Opera was the Brothers' first project with MGM and, along with A Day at the Races, one of their two great films from that era. This was also their first film that did not feature Zeppo, although the substitution of Allan Jones as the musically-inclined straight man is hardly an improvement. As usual, the serious musical numbers are deadly boring, especially when compared to Chico and Harpo deploying their usual array of tuneful tricks. Margaret Dumont contributes the usual amusing reactions, and Kitty Carlisle has a minor role as an opera singer/love interest, but let's face it: you're not watching a Marx Brothers film to see them.
