A Day at the Races (1937)
Grade: 65
"A Day at the Races" was the Marx Brothers seventh film, and the follow-up to their most successful film, "A Night at the Opera". Much of the cast from "Opera" returns. The formula of mixing comedy skits with a few musical numbers and a romance is repeated.
Margaret Dumont again plays a wealthy woman cynically romanced by Groucho. Dumont is the star patient at a struggling hospital. Groucho Marx is a horse doctor who has conned his way into being chief of staff. The hospital is owned by lovely Maureen O'Sullivan (not to be confused with Maureen O'Hara or Margaret Sullivan), who is romanced by tenor Allan Jones, who owns a race horse named Hi Hat, whose jocky is Harpo Marx.
Sig Ruman, the comic foil from "Opera", shows up as a pompous doctor. He is the subject of one of Groucho's best one-liners, "Don't point that beard at me, it might go off!"
The skits are inconsistent in quality. Groucho buys a stack of books from Chico, and it isn't that funny. When Groucho fakes a long distance phone call from Leonard Ceeley to Florida, it is funny. When the Marx Brothers turn a medical examination into chaos, it is very funny.
As in "Opera", there are some unnecessary musical numbers. Jones may be a fine tenor, but his songs are empty. The big production number featuring dancer Vivien Fay is out of place. Chico and Harpo take turns on a piano, with Chico showing greater skill. Harpo plays the harp, but it isn't funny and never will be. One musical sequence is almost surreal: Harpo plays Pied Piper for about fifty blacks, who dance and sing with much greater energy than their white counterparts.
kollers@mpsi.net http://members.tripod.com/~Brian_Koller/movies.html
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