Main Cast: Marx Brothers, Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, Allan Jones, Leonard Ceeley, Maureen O'Sullivan, Margaret Dumont
Release Year: 1937
Country: US
Run Time: 111 minutes
Plot
A Day at the Races was the Marx Brothers' follow-up to their incomparable A Night at the Opera. Groucho Marx is cast as Hugo Z. Hackenbush, a veterinarian who passes himself off as a human doctor when summoned by wealthy hypochondriac Emily Upjohn (Margaret Dumont) to take over the financially strapped Standish Sanitarium. Chico Marx plays the sanitarium's general factotum, who works without pay because he has a soft spot for its owner, lovely Judy Standish (Maureen O'Sullivan). Harpo Marx portrays a jockey at the local racetrack, constantly bullied by the evil Morgan (Douglass Dumbrille), who will take over the sanitarium if Judy can't pay its debts. After several side-splitting routines--Chico selling Groucho tips on the races, Chico and Harpo rescuing Groucho from the clutches of femme fatale Esther Muir, all three Marxes conducting a lunatic "examination" of Margaret Dumont--the fate of the sanitarium rests on a Big Race involving Hi-Hat, a horse belonging to the film's nominal hero, Allan Jones. Virtually everything that worked in "Opera" is trotted out again for "Races", including a hectic slapstick finale wherein the Marxes lay waste to a public event. What is missing here is inspiration; perhaps this is due to the fact that MGM producer Irving Thalberg, whose input was so essential to the success of "Opera", died during the filming of "Races". Even so, Day at the Races made more money than any other previous Marx Brothers film--the result being that MGM, in the spirit of "they loved it once", would continue recycling Races' best bits for the studio's next three Marx vehicles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
The follow-up to A Night at the Opera (arguably the Marx Brothers's best film), A Day at the Races falls a little short of the mark in comparison with Opera, but is still lunatic fun of a high order. The boys are in fine form here, performing difficult routines with such skill that they come across as effortless (and are all the more enjoyable therefore). Several classic routines -- including "tutsi-fruitis," in which Chico keeps conning Groucho into buying racing tip books, a riotous medical exam, and a wallpapering sequence -- make the film memorable, as does the extended race finale, which manages to be both terribly funny and moderately tense. Aside from the routines, the strength of the script lies in its cohesiveness and coherence, qualities often lacking in other Marx efforts. As indicated, the brothers are their usual hilarious selves. What's surprising is how animated Margaret Dumont gets to be in this film. Although the score's big ballad is no great shakes, its two production numbers -- one of which features an outrageous art deco set incorporating lily pad tables and fountains and an impressive Vivian Fay dance routine - are memorable. The other is simpler, but packs an even greater wallop: Ivie Anderson and the Crinoline Choir performing "All God's Children Got Rhythm," a number which occasionally veers close to racial insensitivity, but which is saved by Anderson's radiant vocalizing and the gospel wails of the choir, as well as some snappy jitterbugging. Races would be the last of the Marx Brothers' classic films; while follow-ups like Room Service have some wonderful moments, they lack the sparkle found in the boys' best work. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
The plot revolves around Hugo Z. Hackenbush (Groucho), who is a veterinarian illegally employed as the medical director of the Standish Sanitarium, which is owned by Judy Standish (O'Sullivan). One of things they have to do to save the sanitarium from developers is to keep Mrs. Upjohn (Dumont) as a patient. She, of course, insists on being treated only by Dr. Hackenbush. To try to expose Groucho as a fraud, the bad guys call in Dr. Steinberg, played by Siegfried Rumann (also known as Sig Ruman), who was also Groucho's nemesis in A Night at the Opera and A Night in Casablanca. Exterior sequences were filmed at Santa Anita Park.
The film uses this plot as the framework around which to organize a series of skits. Among them is the "Tutsi Fruitsy Ice Cream" skit, often considered one of the funniest scenes in the movie[citation needed], in which Chico gives Groucho a tip on a horse, but all in code, so that Groucho has to buy book after book from Chico to decipher the code.
Another skit involves Chico and Harpo trying to interrupt a frame job involving Groucho's seduction by a femme fatale (Esther Muir). In the end, failing to dissuade Groucho from his interest in the woman, they end up disrupting the frame-up by concealing themselves under layers of wallpaper, using a bucket perched on Harpo's head to hold the paste.
Music
The songs in the movie, by Bronislaw Kaper, Walter Jurmann, and Gus Kahn, are "Tomorrow Is Another Day,"and "All God's Chillun Got Rhythm" (which also featured Ivie Anderson and other members of Duke Ellington's orchestra). Two more songs were filmed but cut. One, "Dr. Hackenbush", was sung by Groucho about what a great doctor he is ("No matter what I treat them for they die from something else"). The other, "A Message From The Man In The Moon", is missing from the main part of the film but shows up in the titles and is "reprised" by Groucho for the big, happy ending. The DVD release includes a recently rediscovered audio recording of the song, performed by Allan Jones.
"Cosi Cosa" (instrumental version at the race track)
Afterword
In My life with Groucho: A son's eye view, Arthur Marx relates that in his latter years Groucho increasingly referred to himself by the name Hackenbush.
Elisabeth Buxbaum: Veronika, der Lenz ist da. Walter Jurmann – Ein Musiker zwischen den Welten und Zeiten. Mit einem Werkverzeichnis von Alexander Sieghardt. Edition Steinbauer, Wien 2006, ISBN 3-902494-18-2
Arthur Marx, My life with Groucho: A Son's eye view, PAN, 1991, ISBN 0330311328
Double Speed •Excuse My Dust •The Dancin' Fool •Sick Abed •What's Your Hurry? •A City Sparrow •Her Beloved Villain •Her First Elopement •The Snob •Peck's Bad Boy •The Great Moment •Under the Lash •Don't Tell Everything •Her Husband's Trademark •Her Gilded Cage •Beyond the Rocks •The Impossible Mrs. Bellew •My American Wife •Prodigal Daughters •Bluebeard's Eighth Wife •His Children's Children •The Next Corner •Bluff •The Female •The Mine with the Iron Door •The Re-Creation of Brian Kent •Fascinating Youth •One Minute to Play •Rookies •A Racing Romeo •The Fair Co-Ed •The Latest from Paris •Telling the World •So This Is College •It's a Great Life
