Gable appears without his moustache, and Laughtons bee-stung lips flutter with harsh discipline. In between are a number of nominal subplots, though in the end the film is perhaps most memorable as an early high-water mark for the art of production design. GC-Q
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1930s
A NIGHT AT THE OPERA (1935)
U.S. (MGM) 96m BW
Language: English / Italian
Director: Sam Wood
Producer: Irving Thalberg
Screenplay: James Kevin McGuinness, George S. Kaufman
Photography: Merritt B. Gerstad
Music: Nacio Herb Brown, Walter Jurmann, Bronislau Kaper, Herbert Stothart
Cast: Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, Kitty Carlisle, Allan Jones, Walter Woolf King, Sig Ruman, Margaret Dumont, Edward Keane, Robert Emmett OConnor
I was very young, not much more than ten years old, when I walked into a cinema in France to watch A Night at The Operaor, more precisely, was sent there by some adult who knew as little as I did about the Marx Brothers. At my age, reading the subtitles was still rather difficult, especially when this jumping character with a moustache and a cigar was shouting words to the audience like a crazy machine gun. But I had very little time to worry about this problem: I was lying on the floor, laughing so hard, so irrepressibly, and, if I may say, so absolutely that I spent most of the movie on the ground between the seats. Since then I have had the pleasure of seeing A Night at the Opera again, several times, along with the rest of the Marx Brothers work. I am aware of both the continuity and the variations in their movies, and have been amazed by the brilliance of their performances. But I still feeldeep inside as well as on my skinthe incredible power of invention and transgression conveyed by this particular film.
More than the central scenes, like the crowd gathering in the ship cabin, A Night at the Opera remains such a strong and dazzling comedy thanks to its most elementary momentsa single word or gesture performed with an incredible sense of rhythm. There is much to say about the way the transgressive weapons of the three brothers initiate a crisis in the spectacle of an opera. The fourth brother, straight-man Zeppo, is useless in this process. Grouchos overflow of words and distortion of his body, Harpos unnatural silence and childlike power of destruction, Chicos virtuosity and foreign ethosall serve to disturb an opera based on a loathing of art, greed, and corruption. These elements do exist, and they are definitely interesting, but they come after this more obvious characteristic. A Night at the Opera was, and remains, a damn funny film. J-MF
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1930s
THE 39 STEPS (1935)
G.B. (Gaumont British) 86m BW
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Producer: Michael Balcon, Ivor Montagu
Screenplay: Charles Bennett, from novel by John Buchan
Photography: Bernard Knowles
Music: Jack Beaver, Hubert Bath
Cast: Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll, Lucie Mannheim, Godfrey Tearle, Peggy Ashcroft, John Laurie, Helen Haye, Frank Cellier, Wylie Watson, Gus McNaughton, Jerry Verno, Peggy Simpson
After several tentative early steps and a few small breakthroughs, The 39 Steps was the first clear creative peak in Alfred Hitchcocks British period and arguably marked the first fully successful film in the directors rapidly deepening oeuvrestarting at the end of the silent era, by the time of The 39 Steps he had already directed eighteen films. After the pictures financial and critical success, Hitchcock further solidified his reputation as a master filmmaker by embarking on a nearly unparalleled streak of compelling and entertaining thrillers that would stretch for several decades. And, indeed, many of his most popular filmsNorth by Northwest (1959), for oneclearly have their roots in this early highlight.
Among its many noteworthy achievements, The 39 Steps introduced one key Hitchcock first: the notion of the wrong man, the innocent bystander accused, pursued, or punished for a crime he didnt commit. (The wrong-man theme was one the director would return to again and again, most overtly in his 1956 film The Wrong Man.) Richard Hannay (Robert Donat), a Canadian on holiday in England, meets a woman who is later murdered under mysterious circumstances. It seems he has stumbled into a spy plot involving something called the 39 Steps, and he feels that with this knowledge only he can save the day. Handcuffed to an unwilling female accomplice (Madeleine Carroll), Hannay must simultaneously evade capture by the police and an archvillain with a missing finger in hot pursuit and reveal the titular mystery before its too late.
In traditional Hitchcock fashion, the revelation of what the 39 Steps actually areand indeed the entire spy plotis almost peripheral to the flirtatious interplay between the two leads. Literally chained to one another in a teasing mockery of marriage, Donat and Carroll pack their quarrelsome exchanges with little innuendoeswhen the chase leaves time for a breather, of coursemorphing the espionage thriller into the unlikeliest of love stories. The film, like their relationship, plays out in a rush, a nonstop string of action sequences and chase scenes punctuated by witty dialogue and riveting suspense. JKl