Which 1935 Marx Brothers comedy was their first film for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer?

Which 1935 Marx Brothers comedy was their first film for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer? A Night at the Opera was their first MGM film.

Released in 1935, the comedy starred Groucho, Chico, and Harpo Marx, with Zeppo no longer part of the act. It followed the brothers’ departure from Paramount Pictures and began a five-film contract with MGM.

Producer Irving Thalberg helped reshape their screen formula. Instead of relying almost entirely on anarchic comic destruction, the MGM films gave the brothers clearer stories and more sympathetic roles. In this film, Groucho and Chico help an aspiring opera singer, while Harpo contributes his usual silent chaos.

The film was directed by Sam Wood and written by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, from a story by James Kevin McGuinness. Its famous cramped-stateroom sequence became one of the Marx Brothers’ signature routines. A common mix-up is A Day at the Races, which was their second MGM film, released in 1937. A Night at the Opera was also selected for the National Film Registry in 1993.