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 high priced clinic for the wealthy who don't know he has his degree in Veterinary Medicine.
Marx Brothers [1937] A Day at the Races, Die Marx Brothers: Ein Tag beim Rennen, Um Dia nas Corridas, Marx Brothers - Ein Tag beim Rennen, Un día en las carreras, Ένα Σκάνδαλο στις Κούρσες
80/100
Sure, I'd be happier were Allan Jones not in the movie. But people are generally way too hard on the MGM Marx Brothers films, treating anything short of full-on Duck Soup anarchy as unacceptably watered-down (to quasi-mix my food/beverage metaphors). Ignore all the filler—even Chico and Harpo's solo musical numbers, if you insist, though I personally enjoy those—and there's still a solid hour of uproarious comedy here, ranging from elaborate vaudeville-style routines like the horse-betting codebooks to just Groucho's repeated, ludicrously "upper-crust" pronunciation of "Thank you" (one of those jokes that keeps getting funnier with incessant repetition). I'd forgotten about the blackface moment, and reflexively cringed, but at least it's not actively mean-spirited—just a quick blending-in-with-the-crowd gag at the…
It's really a shame the Marx brothers had to be "put on a leash" and forced to be less insane, and to add ridiculous romantic plots concerning characters no one is particularly interested about. However, Groucho, Chico and Harpo bring the things I most enjoy about them in another fun film, from the fast and sharp responses to the musical performances, "A Day at the Races" has everything one would hope from a Marx brothers film. There is a musical sequence that is particularly ruined by something I was surprised to see the Marx brothers do (I think it was the first and only time). Excluding that, it is a very fine film.
Film #19 of Project 30
”Hey, don't drink that poison! That's $4.00 an ounce!”
Anarchy. That is the key concept in the universe of Marx Brothers. Their comedy is built around mayhem and chaos, they don’t pay attention to any kind of discipline and with an insane and wild sense of humor they symbolically restructure and rebuild the boring world we’re living in. The final 20 minutes or so of A Day at the Races is a great example of this attitude of the brothers, they literally drive a massive crowd crazy and the most fascinating thing is they do it with utmost calmness as if it is a normal part of their life, seemingly challenging the ridiculously senseless order…
It was Karl Marx who once wrote history repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce, but it is Groucho Marx who proves the reverse, as he plays a veterinarian, feeding his patients Ivermectin because they don't trust their actual real doctors. A Day at the Races is a sprawling, too long, epic musical, with big numbers, including a ballet act with mad, neck-breaking pirouettes, and the lively "All God's Children got Rhythm" with more black talent on screen than I've ever seen, as if trying to make up for their absence in all the Marx's previous movies all at once. The Library of Congress entry for the movie lists: Ivie Anderson and The Crinoline Choir, The Four Hot Shots,…
A group of rather colorful characters including an eccentric veterinarian, a jockey, a chauffeur and her singing boyfriend, will do everything in their power to help a young woman who owns a sanatorium and is about to lose everything due to debt and lack of clientele. A Day at the Races is a funny and crazy comedy in which the natural charisma and gift for comedy of the Marx Brothers, particularly that of Groucho, shines out. However, it should be noted that some of the scenes become too long and consequently lose some charm and slow down the pace of the film. Likewise, the musical numbers and the beautiful dance sequence feel a little out of place and, in addition…
I haven't seen a Marx Brothers film in over 25 years.
Imagine my disappointment to see this one where I laughed so much and smiled so much utterly destroyed by a deeply sickening moment of blackface. And after a sequence where it looked as though Groucho and co were trying to celebrate the often overlooked excellence of black dancers, singers, musicians, and facial over-actors. This scene, specifically, is the very first time I ever saw black performers doing the famous dance moves (and a lot more) to swing music. I have only ever seen whites doing this- and how (A League of Their Own, Swing Kids, Gilmore Girls, Blast from the Past, Clueless, Cherry Poppin' Daddies, Mighty Mighty Bosstones). Likely proving this is a perfect example of black cultural erasure by whites.
All that goodwill. Ruined.
Well damn. I was mostly enjoying myself until the song and dance came up about 2/3 of the way through. At first, it was pretty harmless. Then the brothers smeared tar on their faces...
Why Marx Brothers? You're so wholesome most of the time, and then you throw blackface at us??? The only thing that can be done unfortunately is accepting that it happened and learn from it. It's wrong and will always be wrong.
With that out of the way, this one takes quite a bit of time to get going, but features some incredible scenes the Brothers are a part of. The examination scene and Chico & Harpo trying to interrupt Groucho's date were two hysterical moments. Some of…
Despite being saddled with a somewhat laboured finale and, worse, a pair of dead-weight musical numbers (one of which seems to function purely to set up a bit where the Marx Brothers do blackface, because we totally needed that), this still has tons of funny scenes. I pretty much died laughing during the medical examination.
more like "A Day at the Racist." Well, not really, but it's the only Marx Brothers movie I can think of that has blackface and stereotypical, retrograde depiction of African Americans. More problematic in regards to my enjoyment is the bloat. For all of the story development, settings, and Hollywood polish this has compared to their earlier films, the best sequences are still just the Marx Brothers going bananas on a sound stage. The "tootsie-frootsi ice cream salesman" sequence may be one of the more clever bits they've done, but for my money a horse running around indoors is always going to top whatever comes before or after it in terms of inducing gut-busting laughter.
Way too long and has the unfortunate effect of changing the formula of the Marx Brothers anarchic tendencies of crashing a movie to one where they fit comfortably in the plot. There are a lot of good bits in the first hour, however, such as the one where Chico is an ice-cream man selling insider horse racing tips to a witless Groucho who is robbed blind and cursed with the ownership of dozens of horse-racing books by bits end.
'If I hold you any closer, I'll be in back of you.'
The Marx's second picture for MGM, directed by Sam Wood, is easily among their best work, with the brothers still at the top of their game performance wise, though A Day at the Races isn't quite as a unruly or succinct as their earlier Paramount outings—running at almost two hours in length, that's almost twice as long as Duck Soup and a lot of that time is spent on filler material like musical numbers and the usual straight romance, which is obviously dull as hell. There's also an unpleasant use of blackface, which though indefensible is at least in service to the plot as part of a gag…
A great Marx Brothers movie with a couple of my favorite bits from them. "Tutsy-fruitsy ice cream" and the scene where Groucho has the woman in his room and Chico and Harpo try to get her out.
