A Day at the Races (1937)

• Year: 1937
• Released: 11 Jun 1937
• Country: United States
• Adwords: Nominated for 1 Oscar. 1 nomination total
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028772/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/a_day_at_the_races
• Metacritics:
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English, Italian
• MPA Rating: Passed
• Genre: Comedy, Family, Musical
• Runtime: 111 min
• Writer: Robert Pirosh, George Seaton, George Oppenheimer
• Director: Sam Wood
• Cast: Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx
• Keywords: veterinarian, musical, femme fatale,

	7.5/10
	94% – Critics
	89% – Audience

A Day at the Races Storyline

The Standish sanitarium, located in the resort town of Sparkling Springs Lake, has fallen on hard times. Young Judy Standish (Maureen O’Sullivan) inherited the family business, along with its debts and mortgages, and is determined to keep going despite the fact that local businessman J.D. Morgan (Douglass Dumbrille) is pressuring her to sell out. Morgan needs the sanitarium property in order to expand his racetrack and resort hotel empire, and is conniving to have the sanitarium fail, aided by Judy’s oily business manager, Whitmore (Leonard Ceeley), who is secretly in cahoots with Morgan.Judy’s last hope is to request financial assistance from her most well-heeled client, the wealthy widow (and hypochondriac) Mrs. Emily Upjohn (Margaret Dumont). To Judy’s dismay, Mrs. Upjohn storms into the lobby and announces that she is leaving. The incompetent medical staff has had the nerve to tell her there is nothing wrong with her. Mrs. Upjohn yearns for the ministrations of Dr. Hugo Z. Hackenbush, since “I never knew a thing was wrong with me before I met him.” Overhearing this exchange, Judy’s loyal man-of-all-work Tony (Chico Marx) announces that Dr. Hackenbush will soon be arriving. He then rushes off to telegraph Hackenbush offering him a job. As Tony observes, “If she want a hack-in-de-puss, she gonna get a hack-in-de-puss.”Judy’s fiancé Gil Stewart (Allan Jones) is hoping to make it as a singer, but in the meantime has come up with a quicker plan to earn enough to save the sanitarium and marry Judy. He has sunk all his savings into purchasing a race horse called Hi Hat, to be ridden by an eccentric local mute jockey named Stuffy (Harpo Marx). A couple of realities intrude on Gil’s plan. Hi Hat’s practice times are mediocre, and Gil has no money to keep up with the horse’s expenses, causing the local sheriff (Robert Middlemass) to come after the horse to repossess it for the unpaid feed bill. Fortunately, some sleight-of-hand by Tony and Stuffy keeps the sheriff at bay for the time being. Gil is also dismayed that he has a sure thing tip for a race that afternoon, but no money to bet. Tony reassures him that he will get some money by finding a sucker.In Florida, Dr. Hugo Z. Hackenbush (Groucho Marx) is treating one of his clients, a horse, when the telegram arrives with the job offer. Aware that they can put a veterinarian in jail for treating people, he observes that he can also be put in jail for not paying his rent and has nothing to lose. Soon he arrives at Standish Sanitarium, where Judy appoints him chief of staff at the behest of Mrs. Upjohn, who has agreed to pay Hackenbush’s salary and has hinted that she may help the sanitarium financially. The rest of the medical staff, and the scheming business manager Whitmore, are suspicious of Hackenbush’s credentials, but he manages to double talk his way around them, and then, at the sound of the bugle call, heads for the racetrack. On his way to place a bet on Sunup, Hackenbush encounters Tony in the guise of an ice cream vendor. Tony offers a hot tip, which turns out to be in code, which a variety of code books and reference works are needed to interpret. After spending a wad of cash on useless books, Hackenbush winds up with a losing horse while Tony bets the profits on the winner – Sunup!Whitmore attempts to verify Hackenbush’s credentials with the Florida Medical Board, but Hackenbush manages to divert the calls, to Whitmore’s frustration. In order to keep an eye on Whitmore, Tony brings Stuffy into the sanitarium for treatment. During Hackenbush’s examination of Stuffy, Tony discovers that Hackenbush is really a horse doctor. Hackenbush wants to flee, but Tony insists that he stay to try to help Judy. At the water carnival, where Gil is the featured vocalist, Hackenbush escorts Mrs. Upjohn but is distracted by a voluptuous blonde named Flo (Esther Muir), with whom he performs an energetic rumba and arranges a late-night rendezvous. Tony and Stuffy invade the bandstand and treat the audience to a comic musical performance. Afterwards, Stuffy overhears that Flo has been hired by Whitmore to lure Hackenbush into a compromising situation. He manages to convey this information to Tony, and the two rush to the rescue. Flo arrives at Hackenbush’s suite at the sanitarium for a late night supper. Hackenbush tries to romance Flo, but Tony and Stuffy keep interrupting, first as house detectives, then as decorators hanging wallpaper. At the crucial moment, Whitmore leads the indignant Mrs. Upjohn to Hackenbush’s suite, but Flo is safely hidden inside the sofa under a pile of wallpaper, and Mrs. Upjohn redirects her anger to Whitmore.Stuffy hides the horse in a room in the sanitarium. In a further attempt to discredit Hackenbush, Whitmore has brought in Dr. Steinberg (Sig Ruman), a pointy-bearded Austrian physician, to examine Mrs. Upjohn. Steinberg declares that he has never met a healthier woman in his life, to which Hackenbush retorts, ‘You don’t look as though you ever met a healthy woman.” Pressured into demonstrating how he conducts an examination, Hackenbush, aided by Tony and Stuffy, manages to postpone doing so by repeated hand washing and other diversionary tactics. The examination eventually erupts into mayhem when Stuffy sets off the fire sprinkler, and the trio escapes riding Hi Hat.Hackenbush, Tony, Stuffy, and Gil hide out with Hi Hat in a remote barn next to an African-American community. Judy arrives with blankets and Gil reassures her about the future. The locals are enjoying their day of rest with song and dance. The kids are fascinated by Stuffy, whom they identify as the angel Gabriel; Stuffy plays a tin whistle and leads them in a dance. A girl (Ivie Anderson) sings “All God’s Children Got Rhythm.” Then the sheriff arrives along with Morgan to confiscate Hi Hat. Upon hearing Morgan’s voice, Hi Hat bolts and clears a tall hedge with ease. Judy and Gil realize that the horse is a jumper, not a sprinter, which means he’s more suited to steeplechase racing, and that Hi Hat’s animosity toward Morgan can be used to advantage.The day of the big steeplechase has arrived, but all will be lost if Hi Hat cannot make the post time. Staking out the track, the sheriff once again wrests control of Hi Hat, but then Judy gets the horse back by staging a road accident.Meanwhile, Hackenbush, Tony and Stuffy come up with various and hilarious stratagems for delaying the start of the race. To Morgan’s dismay, Stuffy appears at the last moment on Hi Hat, ready to race. After seeing Morgan’s photo, Hi Hat easily makes the first jump, but then Stuffy loses the picture. Hackenbush comes up with an alternate plan – he finds a microphone hooked up to the public address system and gets Morgan to talk into it, thus energizing Hi Hat. The jockey of Morgan’s horse has been instructed to play dirty, and does so. Eventually Hi Hat and Morgan’s horse wind up falling into a big mud puddle. They recover and race to the finish, with Morgan’s jockey edging out Stuffy. Judy and Gil’s disappointment is palpable, but when Morgan arrives to claim the prize, the winning horse reacts negatively to him and Stuffy realizes that it is really Hi Hat – the jockeys had switched horses in the mud. The race is won, the sanitarium is saved, Judy and Gil can marry, and most amazing of all, Hackenbush proposes marriage to Mrs. Upjohn!

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A Day at the Races Movie Reviews

“Getta Your Tuttsi Frutsi Ice Cream”

When MGM had such a great success with A Night at the Opera, their first film with the Marx Brothers it was only natural that they reunite them with Allan Jones again. Jones is once again doing the Zeppo part and helps out with all the racetrack shenanigans they pull. And of course unlike Zeppo, Jones sings beautifully.

Allan’s in love with Maureen O’Sullivan who owns a sanitarium that the wealthy Margaret Dumont patronizes. Douglass Dumbrille wants it real bad and will do everything in the best Snidely Whiplash to get it from O’Sullivan. Dumont will help out, but only if her personal physician, Doctor Hugo Hackenbush takes over the sanitarium. Problem is that Dr. Hackenbush is a fake.

Of course you know Dr. Hackenbush is Groucho. I’ve said this on many occasions. But there are two schools of thoughts as to who had the best character names in films. W.C. Fields or Groucho Marx.

Jones has both Chico and Harpo as his sidekicks and of course like they had to save the opera in the first film, they have to save the sanitarium for Maureen O’Sullivan and to do it, they have to enter Jones’s horse High Hat in the Steeplechase. What they did to delay the opera is nothing compared to the riotous stuff pulled to stall the race.

But I like A Day At the Races most of all because it is the best showing of Chico in that Tuttsi Frutsi Ice Cream bit where the ignorant immigrant takes in the greedy Groucho with his racetrack tips. The only one whoever really got the better of Groucho. Chico invented disingenuous it was the only way to deflect Groucho’s razor wit. A lot of people in the audience identified with Chico in fleecing Groucho so thoroughly. It’s my favorite Marx Brothers moment.

And if you watch A Day At the Races it might become your’s as well.

hilarious; 9/10

I haven’t seen enough of the Marx Brothers’ films to say which is their best and which is their worst. I have seen Duck Soup, which I would say has to be at least one of their best, seeing that I believe it to be one of the funniest comedies ever. I have also seen A Night at the Opera, which is also often considered one of their best, often the best. I myself found it much less funny than Duck Soup. I wanted to kill myself during the musical numbers of that film.

Now I’ve seen A Day at the Races, the Brothers’ follow up to A Night at the Opera, a smash hit in theaters. Generally, Races is considered a weak follow-up to a great film. I disagree. I liked A Day at the Races much more than A Night at the Opera (but a bit less than Duck Soup). All three Brothers are firing bullseye after bullseye. Harpo could stand to do a little bit more. He may have had the funniest role in Duck Soup. He was an utter maniac with total disregard for human life. When the Marx Brothers left Paramount for MGM, their edge was dulled down a bit. Oh well, Races still succeeds.

Also, except for the boring opera voice, even the musical numbers work here. I love to watch Chico play the piano. That’s hilarious. Harpo’s harp number is less good, but still not bad. The ballet sequence is also quite good. There’s one more musical number that’s just fantastic: the poor black folk singing “Who’s that man?” as Harpo runs around playing the flute. It’s somewhat shocking to see a scene like this. It does not exploit them (it may seem to now, but it was probably quite inclusive and progressive in its day), and it’s a smash.

Longest Of The Marx Brothers Features

Well, here’s one more zany uniquely-Marx Brothers film, one noted for being the longest feature movie they made at 111 minutes.

Even with the longer running time, it’s still not the story but all the gags and musical talent of the Marx Brothers that is on parade here and is the selling point of the film. That was normal procedure for them. In this edition, the gag scenes were longer and the amount of music was much greater.

The major skits involve a race track tout (Chico conning Groucho) , a physical exam (Margaret Dumont, who else?), a delay of the big horse race and a bunch of other crazy skits. Some are good, some go on too long.

Maureen O’Sullivan, of Tarzan fame among other films, gives the film some beauty and Dumont is treated with more respect here than in the other Marx Brothers films. Groucho takes it easy on her because her character has the money that will save the day, so to speak.

This MB film has a ton of music, from Chico on piano, to Harpo with harp and flute solos plus a flute number with a group of black folks. Then there is Allan Jones crooning away to O’Sullivan with several ballads. Also, there are several group numbers featuring the aforementioned group of blacks . I liked their rousing gospel numbers best of all the music.

The ending of this movie reminded me of Horse Feathers, in which the most outrageous football game was ever filmed. Here, it was a horse race, unlike any you would ever see. It is so ridiculous, you just laugh out loud….and that’s the idea of the movie.