All the Secrets of the Universe and Some Really Important Stuff Too!
Nor does God whisper through the trees. His voice is not to be mistaken. When men hear it they fall to their knees and their souls are riven and they cry out to Him and there is no fear but only wildness of heart that springs from such longing.
Cormac McCarthy
The Marx Brothers have the reputation for producing some of the funniest movies of the 1930s and 1940s. This is in some ways deserved but it is by no means justified for all of their films. In addition, no one would claim that the entirety of any of the movies is consistently funny. After all, the number of people who would laugh through a three-minute harp solo is extremely small, probably zero.
But I consider A Night at the Opera their best effort. For that reason, I’ll start with a review of it and if I decide to tackle any of the others it will involve comparing them to the qualities of A Night at the Opera.
The story starts out in Italy with Otis B. Driftwood (Groucho Marx) trying to convince the wealthy widow Mrs. Claypool (Margaret Dumont) to donate $200,000 to the New York Opera in order to cement her place in high society. With the money, the opera company’s director Herman Gottlieb, can sign a famous Italian tenor Rodolfo Lassparri for the upcoming season production of Il Trovatore. There is a love triangle between the soprano Rosa Castaldi, an unknown but brilliant tenor, Ricardo Baroni and the villainous Lassparri.
Tomasso (Harpo Marx) and Fiorello (Chico Marx) work to get Ricardo Baroni signed by Driftwood to the New York Opera instead of Lassparri but fail and the two of them are forced to stow away along with Baroni on the steam ship heading for New York. Driftwood hides them in his closet sized stateroom and this gives rise to one of the funniest scenes in the movie when a troop of cleaning, maintenance and wait staff along with other miscellaneous persons end up crowding into the stateroom with the Marx Brothers and eventually explode out into the ship corridor when Mrs. Claypool opens the door. This scene contains one of Groucho’s trademark wisecracks. With about ten people already in the room a knock comes on the door and Groucho opens it to discover a young woman.
Groucho – Yes?
Girl – Is my Aunt Minnie in here?
Groucho – You can come in and prowl around if you want to. If she isn’t in here, you can probably find somebody just as good.
Girl – Could I use your phone?
Groucho – Use the phone? I’ll lay you even money you can’t get in the room.
The whole plot including the love story is a thin pretext for the Marx Brothers to sow chaos everywhere they go. The climax of the movie is the opera opening night and the three brothers doing everything imaginable to sabotage Lassparri’s performance and provide Baroni with an opportunity to sing as the lead tenor in his place. Harpo (or more likely his stunt double) ends up performing swashbuckling acrobatics in the manner of Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and eventually kidnaps Lassparri right off the stage to allow the climactic aria duet to be sung by Baroni and Castaldi.
And just as it looks like the brothers will be carted off to jail by the NYPD, Baroni blackmails Gottlieb into hiring himself, Castaldi, Driftwood, Fiorello and Tomasso and calling off the police in exchange for Baroni and Castaldi agreeing to perform an encore that is being thunderously demanded by the overjoyed audience.
This absurd story line is actually one of the tighter Marx Brother movie plots. Their movies were sort of like a variety show out of vaudeville. In between dramatic scenes you would get Chico playing the piano or Harpo playing the harp. And most of the movies had several comic songs sung by Groucho. In this movie there is also a number of songs and arias sung by the Baroni and Castaldi characters. So, depending how you feel about songs in a movie will decide whether you can tolerate any Marx Brothers movie at all.
As indicated initially I like this movie. That is not to say I wouldn’t prefer to cut out the harp solo. And that is not saying all the comedy routines are equally successful for me. But taking the whole movie together I would call A Night at the Opera a funny movie. And I would say, compared to many of the Marx Brothers movies, the personalities of the brothers are much less obnoxious than they typically are. And it is notable that the production values for this movie produced by MGM are much higher than their previous movies for Paramount. If you are already a fan of the Marx Brothers and have never seen “A Night at the Opera” then I can unreservedly recommend this movie for you. For everyone else, especially those born in the 21st century your mileage may vary.
All progressions from a higher to a lower order are marked by ruins and mystery and a residue of nameless rage.
Cormac McCarthy
Do you know what happens with people who cannot govern themselves? That’s right. Others come in to govern for them.
Cormac McCarthy
“Spellbound” is the second book in this series. Obviously since I am reviewing this second volume, I enjoyed the first installment “Hard Magic” (see my review of it here).
In this story the main characters Jake Sullivan and Faye Vierra are once again swept along in the cataclysmic ricochets of real magic altering the world of the early 20th century. It’s 1933 and FDR is coming into office and one of his priorities is dealing with the ‘Actives.” This is the term for humans that have major magical powers. This includes “Brutes” who are inhumanly strong, “Travelers” who can teleport, “Healers” who can cure almost any disease or injury and numerous other special types. In the first book we learned how the Japanese had harnessed Actives as a spearpoint for their war machine in Asia. And we met Jake and Faye. Now they are veteran “knights” in the Grimnoir Society, sworn to use their powers to protect the innocent and destroy those using magic for evil.
But forces within the United States government are conspiring to discredit the Grimnoir and turn the American public against the Actives through a series of false flag operations. This book is the story of the Grimnoir fighting against that operation. But it also builds on the conflict with the Japanese Iron Guard, (enhanced military Actives) from the first book and then clarifies the nature of the forces that had originally unleashed magic into the world and how that will threaten the whole world in the very near future.
Okay, so that’s the setup. Larry Correia is a very good story teller. He paints a very rich picture with his characters and the action of the plot. Even the villains are well written and the story is peppered with historical personages like J Edgar Hoover and Buckminster Fuller who are adapted to fill their roles in this alternate universe. Each chapter begins with a quote from some person, mostly historical, saying something that illustrates how real magic has impacted the alternate universe of the story.
I find this alternate world very entertaining. The Jake Sullivan character is one of Correia’s competent man heroes. He is a brawler who has been treated badly by the world but refuses to abandon the good. Even his enemies have learned to respect his abilities and this allows him to form alliances that otherwise would be impossible. Faye is a powerfully gifted “Traveler” who possess abilities that far exceed what other Actives can do. She is also a very young woman from a sheltered small-town environment who is still trying to figure out how she fits into this strange world she finds herself in.
These two characters are the twin focuses around which the other characters and the plot revolve. The whole story is a straight forward action adventure. There are plenty of good guys, bad guys and even some good bad guys and bad good guys. It’s a combination of Buck Rodgers, The Untouchables and H. P. Lovecraft with some film noir thrown in for good measure. If that sounds like something you might like then pick up the first book Hard Magic and start at the beginning. If you’ve already read it then know that the series is still getting better in book two, Spellbound.
Sorry for the posting drought but it couldn’t be helped. I have off for the next week and had to pay the piper for it. In other words the day job. In addition, nothing grabbed my attention enough that I had to write. The waking world has taken on a strange dream-like or nightmarish quality that disorients the chronicler. What formerly would have been astounding events has now become mundane. More riots? Sure. Statues toppled? Check. Cities burned? Are there still any un-burned? Supreme Court outrages? Whatever.
I just finished Spellbound, the second volume in Larry Correia’s Grimnoir series. I’ll write up the review but right upfront I’ll say it’s very good. I’ve always liked his Monster Hunter books but this historical urban fantasy is even better. I’ll rave about it soon in a post but now I’ve got to get the third volume on order to see how it turns out.
Believe it or not, I haven’t done my taxes yet. Actually this is my signature move. I always wait until the deadline. It’s a family tradition. But this year my laziness has actually driven me to take advantage of one of the tax services to prepare my forms. I can only imagine how painful this will be. But they say suffering is good for the soul.
A week off in July is the high point of my New England year. It is the least likely place in the calendar for snow and full of the things that are most likely to make me smile. There are lightning bugs (or fireflies if you like), fireworks, watermelon, barbecue, ninety degree days, dragonflies, butterflies even a swimming pool if I want. I might even find a preying mantis in my garden. I can spend hours trying to get a good shot of a hummingbird or a fox or a tiny golden bee. I can watch favorite old movies way into the night and make believe I’m a kid again.
So forgive me if I’m a little delinquent here at the site. I’m sure to have some good stuff this week.
“If I had my way, I’d remove January from the calendar altogether and have an extra July instead.”
Roald Dahl
