
A Night at the Opera
Directed by Sam Wood
1935
The stateroom scene is the most crowded two minutes in comedy: MGM insisted the Marx Brothers carry a love plot, and they demolished it from the inside anyway.
★ 6.2

The stateroom scene is the most crowded two minutes in comedy: MGM insisted the Marx Brothers carry a love plot, and they demolished it from the inside anyway.

Three of its actors were nominated for Best Actor in the same year, and the supporting categories were created the next: Charles Laughton's Captain Bligh remains the definition of a tyrant.

Dublin in 1922, shot entirely on a fogged soundstage: John Ford won his first directing Oscar for it, and a slow-witted man sells out a friend for twenty pounds.