A Day At The Races
(1937)
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A vet posing as a doctor, a race horse owner and his friends struggle to help keep a sanitarium open with the help of a misfit racehorse. |
The Marx Brothers' second film for MGM was hidebound by the decision to overload the mayhem with mediocre musical interludes that the studio bigwigs believed would give the picture more class. The inconsistent support playing similarly saps much of the action's energy, with the soppy wooings of Allan Jones and Maureen O'Sullivan undoing the sterling work of the ever wonderful Margaret Dumont, a wasted talent on the evidence of her selfless stooging for Groucho. As ever, the trio's own performances are splendid, with the “Tootsie frootsie ice cream” sketch standing as the best of the Chico/Groucho wordplay routines.
Halliwell's Film Guide
Fashions in Marxism change, but this top quality production, though lacking their zaniest inspirations, does contain several of their funniest routines and a spectacularly well integrated racecourse climax. The musical and romantic asides are a matter of