MULTIMEDIA-ENGLISH
A Night at the Opera -crowded cabin scene- (Marx Brothers)
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2:35
Video page URL
https://multimedia-english.com/videos/esl/a-night-at-the-opera-crowded-cabin-scene-marx-brothers-2491
Description

One of Marx Brothers most famous scenes, from the film "A Night at the Opera".

Transcript

- Well that's fine. If that steward is deaf and dumb, he'll never know you're in here.
- Why sure, that's all right...
- Yes?
- We've come to make up your room.
- Are those my hard boiled eggs?
- I can't tell until they get in the room. Come on in, girls, and leave all hope behind. But you've gotta work fast 'cause you've gotta get out in ten minutes...
- Hey, Tomasso. Wake up. They're gonna fix the beds...
- Say, I'd like two pillows on that bed there, huh?
- Hey, there's a slight misunderstanding here. I said the girls had to work fast - not your friend.
- He's still asleep...
- You know he does better asleep than I do awake?
- Yeah, he always sleeps that way. Now he's half asleep.
- Yes, he's half asleep and half nelson...
- Yes?
- I'm the engineer. I'm here to turn off the heat.
- Well, you can start right in on him.
- Wake up, Tomasso... Tomasso, we're gonna eat soon...
- You know, if it wasn't for Gottlieb, I wouldn't have got this room? Just hold him there a second...
- Did you want a manicure?
- No, come on in! I hadn't planned on a manicure, but I think on a journey like this, you ought to have every convenience you can get... Hey, listen, I'm getting the manicure. Get out of here, will ya?
- Did you want your nails long or short?
- You'd better make 'em short. It's getting kind of crowded in here. I don't know. This isn't the way I pictured an ocean voyage. I always visualized myself sitting in a steamer chair with a steward bringing me bouillon. You couldn't get any bouillon in here unless they brought it in through a keyhole.
- I'm the engineer's assistant.
- You know, I had a premonition you were going to show up. The engineer's right over there in the corner. You can chop your way right through... Say, is it my imagination or is it getting crowded in here?
- I've got plenty of room...
- Yes?
- Is my Aunt Minnie in here?
- Well, you can come in and prowl around if you wanna. If she isn't in here, you can probably find somebody just as good...
- Well, could I use your phone?
- Use the phone?! I'll lay ya even money you can't get in the room!
- How do you do?
- This boat will be in New York before you can get to that phone...
- I came to mop up.
- Just the woman I'm looking for. Come right ahead. You'll have to start on the ceiling. It's the only place that isn't being occupied... Tell Aunt Minnie to send up a bigger room, too, will ya?
- Stewards...
- Ah, come right in!
- Hey, Tomasso, the food! The food!
- I've been waiting all afternoon for you stewards...
- come on.
















Explanations

STEWARD= /stu:ə*d/a waiter or attendant on a ship or plane.

DEAF= /def/ who can't hear.

DUMB= /dʌm/ who can't speak. If a person can't hear and can't speak (permanently) is called "deaf and dumb", always in that order.

MAKE UP YOUR ROOM= Clean and tidy up your room, make your bed, etc.

LEAVE ALL HOPE BEHIND= A dramatic line which means, you're entering a terrible place and you'll never get out again. This sentence comes from Dante's Inferno. In Dante's book, at the entrance of Hell (the Inferno) there was a script carved in the stone reading 'Ye who enter here, leave all hope behind' [ye (old English) = you guys]. Of course, Groucho is using this sentence here in a humoristic way.

GOTTA= (coll.) got to, must.

CAUSE= (coll.) Because. (also spelled COZ in BrE and CUZ in AmE).

GONNA= (coll.) Going to.

FIX= repair; make right. If you fix the beds, you make the beds (tidy them up again).

PILLOW= A soft piece you use to rest your head on while you're sleeping.

SLIGHT= Very little, in a very small degree.

MISUNDERSTANDING= Something that wasn't understood correctly, so you got the wrong meaning or impression.

RIGHT IN= Right now, at this very moment.

HOLD HIM THERE= Make him wait there.

MANICURE= The act of clipping and embellishing your nails and fingers. If you do that to your toes it is called "pedicure".

CONVENIENCE= Something comfortable and maybe pleasurable; a thing or situation that makes your life easier and/or nicer.

YA= (coll.)  /jə/ (at the end of a sentence it sounds similar to /jʌ/ or even /jɑ/) You.

GET OUT OF HERE, WILL YA?= The question tag for an order is WILL YOU? In this case the verb WILL is not the auxiliary verb we use to form the future, but the modal verb which expresses volition (meaning more or less "want"):
- He's Spanish, isn't he?
- I can't do it, can I?
- Sit down, will you?
- Open the window, will you?


NAILS= The hard part covering the back of the tip of your fingers.

'EM= (coll.) them.

KIND OF= (coll.) more or less.

CROWED= /kraʊdɪd/ very full of people.

PICTURED= If you picture something you make a mental picture of it, you imagine it in a certain way.

VOYAGE= /vɔɪdʒ/ a journey by sea.

STEAMER= A boat who moves by the power of steam (boiling water).

BOUILLON= A French dish (broth).

UNLESS= If not.

KEYHOLE= The hole where you insert a key to open a door. It is also used sometimes to look through it and see what is happening behind a closed door (not with modern keyholes, of course, they won't let you see through).

PREMONITION= A presentiment of the future. If you have a premonition, you have a strong feeling that a certain thing is going to happen in the future.

SHOW UP= Appear, arrive.

RIGHT OVER THERE= We use RIGHT with expressions of place and time to emphasize, meaning "exactly": right here, right now.

CHOP= To cut by striking with a heavy sharp tool, such as an axe.

CHOP YOUR WAY RIGHT THROUGH= In the jungle the vegetation may be so thick that you can't advance. If you chop your way through, you move along using a big knife to cut the vegetation, so you move through the jungle by chopping. The word RIGHT is used to emphasize the expression of place (movement) "through" (see above).

SAY,= We sometimes start a sentence with SAY. It doesn't mean anything, it's only a way of announcing we're going to say something, so people are listening to us.
- Say, Mike! come here.

PLENTY= A lot, more than enough.

PROWL= To move carefully after a prey (like a hunter trying to kill a tiger).

JUST AS GOOD= Of the same value.

I'LL LAY YA EVEN MONEY= I'll bet you (even with money) that...
If you bet something using money, you are very sure something is (or is going to be) true, so sure that you risk money, and if you're not right, you lose your money.

HOW DO YOU DO?= In American English this is a formal greeting, meaning the same as "how are you?" or "how you doing?" (this is the meaning here). In British English this is a formal greeting too, but it means "nice to meet you" and it is used only the first time you meet a person.

MOP UP= Clean the floor using water.