Trivia and Quotes
Trivia
 This was the Marx Brothers` first film with MGM. In preparation MGM sent them on a nationwide tour, performing potential bits live before current MGM films were shown. This opportunity for advance audience feedback is one reason this film became known as one of their best. Kitty Carlisle stated that, out of her decades of movie roles, co-starring with the Marx Brothers in this movie gained her the most recognition.
When the movie was to be edited for length, Allan Jones` song "Alone" was almost cut. Jones pleaded his case to producer Irving Thalberg, who replied, "The Marx Brothers know their comedy, and you know songs. I`ll keep it in." "Alone" went on to become the only hit song from a Marx Brothers film.
In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked this as the #85 Greatest Movie of All Time. It was the first inclusion of this film on the list.
Premiere voted this movie as one of "The 50 Greatest Comedies Of All Time" in 2006.
Kitty Carlisle initially refused to take the part when she was asked to mime to someone else`s voice. She won, and the song she performs, "Alone", later became her signature tune.
In exasperation after several attempts to have Groucho read one of his lines in the manner director Sam Wood had requested, Wood exclaimed, "I guess you just can`t make an actor out of clay." Groucho instantly responded, "Nor a director out of Wood."
Producer Irving Thalberg would often call people in for meetings, and then keep them waiting in his office for hours while he attended other meetings on the MGM lot. One day, during pre-production for "A Night at the Opera," Thalberg kept the Marx Brothers waiting for several hours in his secretary`s office, while he was in his own office making phone calls. When Thalberg`s secretary went home for the day, the brothers decided they`d had enough. They pushed the office file cabinets against Thalberg`s door, trapping the producer in his office. Afterwards, Thalberg kept his appointments with the Marx Brothers, but would often interrupt his meetings with them and step out to attend other meetings -- again keeping the brothers waiting for hours. One day, Thalberg came back from another meeting to find Groucho, Chico, and Harpo sitting in his office completely naked, and roasting potatoes on sticks in his office fireplace. Thalberg sat down with them, had a potato, and never missed or interrupted another meeting with the Marx Brothers.
An additional scene was cut from the picture in subsequent releases, and is now considered lost. The scene occurred just after the scene in the park when Rosa tells her friends she has been fired from the opera. The Marx Brothers, Rosa, and Ricardo hop on a passing fire engine, which takes them to the opera house. After lighting his cigar in the fire engine`s smokestack, Groucho comments, "This is the first car I`ve ever been in where the cigarette lighter actually works!"
During the stateroom scene, a girl appears at the door and asks, "Is my Aunt Minnie in here?" This is a reference to the Marx Brothers` famous stage mother, Minnie Marx.
The film was to have originally begun with each of The Marx Brothers taking turns roaring in lieu of Leo the Lion (MGM`s logo mascot); Harpo Marx was to have honked his horn.
When Driftwood (Groucho Marx) asks Fiorello if he knows what duplicates are, Fiorello says, "Sure, those five kids up in Canada". This is a reference to the very famous Dionne Quintuplets who were from Canada.
Harpo Marx did all his own stunts, including hanging from the ocean liner and swinging around the stage backdrops in the film`s climax. He later said it was a silly thing for a 47-year-old non-stuntman to have done.
According to MGM`s dialogue cutting continuity, the film originally began (after the opening credits) with the image of a "boat on canal." A superimposed title reads: "ITALY - WHERE THEY SING ALL DAY AND GO TO THE OPERA AT NIGHT." What follows is a musical number featuring bits and pieces from Leoncavallo`s "Pagliacci" performed by "everyday" Italians. A street sweeper sings part of the prologue ("Un nido di memorie...") as he greets a man who then hands out opera tickets to a group of children emerging from a store; the kids respond with "la-la-la-la-la, verso un paese strano." A "captain" comes down a set of steps, salutes a sentry, then bursts into "Vesti la giubba." There`s a lap dissolve to a hotel lobby, where a "baggage man" is rolling a trunk and crooning about "nettare divino" (divine nectar). He`s joined in song by a waiter who then enters the dining room, where he sings as he serves a man who also gets in a few notes. The waiter then crosses over to speak to Mrs. Claypool (Margaret Dumont), marking the beginning of the film in existing copies.
In Leonard Maltin`s commentary on the current DVD release, he states that there was a longer opening sequence. Starting with a title card that places the movie in Milan, Italy, there was then a musical number in which people on the street were "passing along" the melody line of a song, as in the Maurice Chevalier vehicle Love Me Tonight (1932). The song was followed into the restaurant where Mrs. Claypool was waiting for Otis B. Driftwood. Maltin says the scene was cut during World War II to remove references to Italy, and unfortunately, the main negative was cut as well, so the scene is now lost. This was why the stated running time of the movie was three minutes longer than it is now.
After disliking the original Stateroom Scene, the current scene was improvised on the spot.
A total of 15 people were in the famous stateroom scene: - Driftwood (1) - the stowaways Fiorello, Tomasso and Riccardo [who were in the trunk] (2-4) - two chambermaids (5-6) - an engineer who comes to turn off the heat (7) - a manicurist (8) - the engineer`s burly assistant (9) - a young woman looking for her Aunt and asking to use the phone (10) - a cleaning woman (11) - and four staff stewards bearing trays of food (12-15). - They all tumble out when Mrs. Claypool (Margaret Dumont) opens the door.
The song that Chico Marx plays on the piano during the party is "All I Do (Is Dream of You)" by Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed. It would later be better remembered for its inclusion in Singin` in the Rain (1952).
Sig Ruman makes his first of three appearances in Marx Brothers films.
A persistent rumor involves the presence of the Marx Brothers` father, `Sam Marx (II)` (aka "Frenchie"), in the film as the ship leaves dock. He is not in this film - he died in 1933. The rumor came about because he had a cameo in a similar scene in Monkey Business (1931).
Some of the stowaway jokes were recycled from the Marx Brothers` earlier film Monkey Business (1931)
The first Marx Brothers film made without brother Zeppo Marx, it started a new trend of Marx Brothers movies featuring a Zeppo-like supporting character who carries the love story and sings the song.
Sam Wood, freshman Marx Brothers director in this film, was a perfectionist. The scene in which Harpo Marx hangs from the rope was filmed so many times that Harpo`s hands became cut and swollen from the rope.
The opera performed as the movie`s climax is Giuseppe Verdi`s Il Trovatore.
In the scene where Harpo Marx, Chico Marx and Allan Jones are impersonating the three aviators in front of the mayor, Groucho turns around to speak to them in a "foreign language." What is actually being said is a direct response to the accusations of imposters, only the audio track is played backwards. The first time Groucho actually says, "Did you hear what he said? He said you were frauds and imposters!" which is then followed by Chico and Riccardo protesting loudly, "How can he say a thing like that?", "This is ridiculous," and other such comments.
The first storyline was about Groucho Marx as the producer of an opera. That story was dropped but appeared many times in Hollywood as a story idea - until `Mel Brooks (I)` made The Producers (1968) and got an Academy Award.
The famous "stateroom scene" was originally conceived as a way of getting a cheap laugh by having Groucho Marx, crowded out of his room, changing his pants in the corridor.
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