A Day at the Races **** (1937, Marx Brothers, Margaret Dumont, Maureen O’Sullivan, Alan Jones) – Classic Movie Review 1404

Director Sam Wood’s 1937 Marx Brothers comedy gem A Day at the Races stars Groucho Marx as horse doctor Hugo Z Hackenbush who is romancing (as always) the redoubtable Margaret Dumont, this time playing rich sanatorium patient Emily Upjohn. Harpo Marx plays a jockey called Stuffy and Chico Marx is a tipster named Tony in this hilarious MGM movie of their hit stage show.

The seventh film starring the three Marx Brothers and their second at MGM after A Night at the Opera (1935), A Day at the Races was a major hit. It was carefully steered by producer Irving Thalberg, who brought the Marx Brothers to MGM, but died suddenly of pneumonia aged 37 during production. It left the Brothers without a champion at MGM, who never again gave them the same level of care, and their three later MGM films are therefore inferior.

Groucho’s delightfully dodgy character Hackenbush is a veterinarian posing as a doctor and running a high-priced clinic for the wealthy. He, Tony and Stuffy try to save Judy (Maureen O’Sullivan)’s farm by winning a big race with her misfit race-horse.

The plot, musical numbers and singer Alan Jones (playing Gil Stewart) are brisk, capable and professional enough, though not particularly inspired, perhaps holding the fun back just a tiny little bit. But the three Marx Brothers are on their absolute best form, the gags are just great and often hilarious, and it’s a hysterical film that is only just a notch down from their highest peak of Duck Soup (1933).

Douglass Dumbrille and Sig Ruman give sterling comic support as J D Morgan and Dr Leopold X Steinberg.

The 1937 songs by Bronislau Kaper and Walter Jurmann (music) and Gus Kahn (lyrics) include ‘On Blue Venetian Waters’ (sung by Allan Jones), ‘Tomorrow Is Another Day’ (sung by Allan Jones) and ‘All God’s Chillun Got Rhythm’ featuring Ivie Anderson from Duke Ellington’s orchestra.

Future star Dorothy Dandridge is one of the singers in ‘All God’s Chillun Got Rhythm’.

The Brothers honed the comic material during a vaudeville tour before the film production, with the screenplay going through many outlines, treatments and drafts to get the finished gem. There were 18 different scripts before the final screenplay, a major part of which was written by Al Boasberg, but after a bitter dispute with MGM, he chose not to be given any credit and the film is credited to George S Kaufman and Carey Wilson.

Groucho’s character was originally named Quackenbush but was changed to Hackenbush over fear of a lawsuit by a real Dr Quackenbush. In his later years Groucho increasingly actually referred to himself as Hackenbush.

Wood became exasperated by the brothers’ lack of seriousness on the set and told them: ‘You can’t make an actor out of clay!’ Groucho shouted back: ‘Nor a director out of Wood.’

Santa Anita Park was used for some of the racetrack scenes.

The opening two numbers featuring the songs ‘I’m Dr Hackenbush’ and ‘A Message from the Man in the Moon’ were cut and footage is believed lost.

The cast are Groucho Marx as Dr Hugo Z Hackenbush, Chico Marx as Tony, Harpo Marx as Stuffy, Allan Jones as Gil Stewart, Maureen O’Sullivan as Judy Standish, Margaret Dumont as Emily Upjohn, Leonard Ceeley as Whitmore, Douglass Dumbrille as J D Morgan, Esther Muir as Flo, Sig Ruman as Dr Leopold X Steinberg, Robert Middlemass as Sheriff, Vivien Fay as specialty dancer, Ivie Anderson as specialty singer, Richard Farnsworth as a jockey, Dorothy Dandridge as singer, and Darby Jones as a trumpet player.

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1404

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