In mid-March 1932 Hecht signed a one-year agreement and became a contract choreographer and dance director for Paramount Pictures. Stories exist that it was his friend Busby Berkeley who helped him get in touch with the right people at Paramount, where the two are said to have worked on films together. Hecht's first assignment at Paramount was directing two dance ensembles in the Marx Brothers' college football comedy film "Horse Feathers". One of the numbers Hecht directed was "I'm Against It", a scene where Groucho Marx, playing Quincy Adams Wagstaff, is first installed as the new headmaster of Huxley College. Hecht trained Groucho alongside twenty elder actors, aged 61 to 77 years old, with naturally grown beards and dressed in academic gowns. Considering that his first known assignment at Paramount Pictures was a Marx Brothers film, it is quite possible that Hecht found his way to that studio through Nat Perrin, whom he had just worked with on "Lucky Day" and was Groucho's close friend and collaborator. Hecht was reported to have worked on additional Marx Brothers films, though no specific titles have surfaced to confirm this (i.e.: "Hecht worked on Marx Brothers films", in plural form). If he did work on additional Marx Brothers films, the only plausible ones that were made during the remainder of his first venture in Hollywood were "Duck Soup" at Paramount in 1933 and "A Night at the Opera" at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1935. The exact shooting dates for "Duck Soup" have not been established, but it is known to have been filmed during the summer of 1933, after Hecht's contract at Paramount had expired. It is always possible that the studio reached out to Hecht, though no screen credits were provided for the dance numbers (no screen credits were provided for "Horse Feathers" either). As for "A Night at the Opera", it was filmed at M-G-M Studio in the summer of 1935, during a time when Hecht was associated with the studio. However, the film gives screen credits to Chester Hale for the choreography. Whether Hale worked alone or if Hecht had any input in the film is unknown.