The 1935 comedy “A Night at the Opera,” starring Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, and Harpo Marx, has been given the honor of being selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. A smash hit at the box office, “A Night at the Opera” was the first film the Marx Brothers made after Zeppo left the act, and the first film they made for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer after leaving Paramount Pictures.

There is a moment in the film when Groucho Marx, in the character Driftwood, says, “It’s all right. That’s that’s in every contract. That’s — that’s what they call a sanity clause.” Whereupon Chico Marx, in the character of Fiorello, snaps back: “You can’t fool me. There ain’t no Sanity Claus.”

Maybe Chico was right . . . there ain’t no “sanity clause” to this time of year. Eve…