The Marx Brothers absolute peak critically and commercially came with their two big MGM films, A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races. The formula is the same for both, and would influence every film they would subsequently make. It was a departure in ways from their earlier, faster films, which had probably twice the number of jokes per flick, but less character and plot. They also had Zeppo, who decided he's had enough of playing straight man and left the on-screen act after Duck Soup.
With the colossal success of Opera, the Brothers saw that what Thalberg and Co. had planned for them at the big studio was far more profitable, so they decided not to vary from the basic set up of their biggest hit and thus came Races, still a fine film, and the last of the string of true classics the brothers would star in. Irving Thalberg would die, the studio's overall interest in the property would wane, and their career as a screen team would begin its slow descent into oblivion.
A Day at the Races has at its center the Standish Sanitarium, which is in danger of being lost to creditors unless they scare up more cash. The plan to do this revolves around one of the rich patrons, Mrs. Upjohn (Margaret Dumont), donating funding with a catch, and the owner's main squeeze buying a racehorse and attempting to win the money at the track. They are really disparate plots but fold together thanks to the brothers Marx involvement. The catch to Mrs. Upjohn giving the necessary money over is that her personal physician must be made head of the sanitarium. He is one Hugo Hackenbush (Groucho, obviously), and in reality he's a horse doctor. Stuffy (Harpo) is a jockey, and Tony (Chico) works at the sanitarium and loiters around the track as well. It all knots up pretty soundly.
Just to get the criticism out of the way, the plot here isn't quite as slick as in Opera, and the musical numbers feel more out of place. In particular, Harpo's epic "Blow That Horn" routine seems to go on forever and comes out of nowhere toward the end of the film. It's not a bad sequence, even if it is borderline offensive, it just wasn't super necessary. There's a famously cut song from the movie - titled simply "Dr. Hackenbush" - that seems like it would have fit better, as it is a pretty funny tune and would have nicely set up the beginning.
That being said, there are hilarious sequences in the picture that rival anything the team ever put on screen. The classic 'Tootsie Frootsie' routine, where Tony cons Hackenbush into buying race track guides, is as solid as ‘Party of the First Part' in Opera or ‘Why a Duck?' in The Cocoanuts, as far as Groucho/Chico scenes go. Tony and Stuffy's wallpapering during Hackenbush's date - a scene road tested like many of the comic set pieces in the movie - is blisteringly funny, and the utterly chaotic examination of Mrs. Upjohn by the brothers dressed as mechanics is demented genius.
Like all the great Marx films, Races is a film that improves with repeated viewing, as there is plenty to enjoy even outside the larger sequences of lunacy. Having been playing essentially the same roles for nearly twenty years at this point, the brothers are reliable in their timing and physicality. Harpo's horns and whistling, Chico's conning and piano key shooting, and the inimitable Groucho's withering put downs are all on glorious display. The only major drawbacks are the film slightly exaggerated length (for a Marx film) and the creaky plot that's simply a rehash of Opera and dozens of other underdog stories.
This was the last of the seven masterpiece films, and by my ranking Day at the Races is the sixth best Marx Brothers film overall, besting only Cocoanuts from that group. It's a terrifically enjoyable film, and it does provide great, memorable moments, but it's not exactly Duck Soup or Horse Feathers as far as pure comedy is concerned.
Maureen O'Sullivan plays Judy Standish a woman whose sanitarium is about to be foreclosed upon. Standish begs for help from rich patient Emily Updike ...More at Family Video
Doctor Hugo Hackenbush, Tony, and Stuffy try and save Judy s farm by winning a big race with her horse. There are a few problems. Hackenbush runs a hi...More at Buy.com
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