A Day at the Races (film)

A Day at the Races (1937) is the seventh film starring the Marx Brothers, with Allan Jones, Maureen O'Sullivan and Margaret Dumont. Like their previous Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer feature "A Night at the Opera", this film was a major hit.
Plot.
The Standish Sanitarium, owned by Judy Standish, has fallen on hard times. Banker J.D. Morgan, who owns a nearby race track and nightclub is attempting to gain control of the sanitarium in order to convert the building into a casino. Judy's faithful employee Tony, suggests asking financial help from the wealthy hypochondriacal patient Mrs. Emily Upjohn. Mrs Upjohn has just been given a clean bill of health by the doctors at the Sanitarium and she threatens to leave for treatment by Dr. Hugo Z. Hackenbush. Tony overhears Mrs. Upjohn's praise of Hackenbush, who is, unknown to her, a horse doctor. When Tony tells Mrs. Upjohn that Dr. Hackenbush has been hired to run the sanitarium, she is elated and informs Judy with Dr. Hackenbush in charge she will consider helping her financially. Tony promptly wires Dr, Hackenbush in Florida to come and take care of Mrs. Upjohn. Dr. Hackenbush eventually arrives and instantly begins insulting the sanitarium's crooked business manager Mr. Whitmore. Whitmore, who is Morgan's stooge, is immediately suspicious of Hackenbush's medical background.
Meanwhile, Judy's beau, singer Gil Stewart, who performs in Morgan's nightclub, has just spent his life's savings on a racehorse named Hi-Hat. His hope is that the horse, which he purchased from Morgan, will win a big race and the money will allow Judy to save the sanitarium. Hi-Hat is so afraid of Morgan, that he rears in fright whenever he hears his voice. Unfortunately, Gil now has no money to pay for Hi-Hat's feed, and he, Tony and Stuffy, Hi-Hat's jockey, have to resort to trickery to fend off the Sheriff who has come to the racetrack to collect money for the feed bill. Tony raises some money by scamming Hackenbush in the "Tutsi Fruitsy Ice Cream" scene, in which Tony gives Hackenbush a tip on a horse, but all in code, so that Hackenbush has to buy book after book from Tony to decipher the code.
At the Sanitarium, Whitmore still suspects Hackenbush is a fraud and attempts to contact the Florida Medical Board for information on the doctor's background. Hackenbush intercepts the call and by assuming a phony southern accent, feigning a hurricane with an electric fan and repeatedly calling Whitmore to the dictagraph, enrages Whitmore to the point that he gives up. Next, Whitmore attempts to expose Hackenbush and rattle Mrs. Upjohn's faith in him by having her discover him in a compromising situation with a blonde floozie. Hackenbush is rescued by Stuffy and Tony who pose as house detectives and then as paperhangers. They hide the vamp from Mrs. Upjohn by stuffing her under the sofa cushions. The following day, just as Mrs. Upjohn is about to sign an agreement to help Judy, Whitmore brings in the eminent Dr. Leopold X. Steinberg from Vienna, whom he hopes will expose Hackenbush as a quack. After Mrs. Upjohn agrees to an examination by Steinberg, Hackenbush wants to flee for fear of being exposed as a fraud; Gil, Tony and Stuffy remind him that Judy still needs his help and persuade him to stay.
After making a shambles of Mrs Upjohn's examination, Hackenbush, Tony, Stuffy and Gil hide out in Hi-Hat's stable, where Judy soon joins them. Whitmore finally exposes Hackenbush as a horse doctor and Morgan is about to have them arrested when Hi-Hat hears Morgan's voice and bolts, jumping several obstacles in the way. Gil realizes that Hi-Hat is a jumper, and enters him into the upcoming steeplechase race. Morgan, who witnessed Hi-Hat's jumping ability, tries to prevent him from being entered in the race. After some difficulty getting past Morgan and the Sheriff, the race begins. Knowing that Hi-Hat is afraid of Morgan, everyone works to make Hi-Hat aware of his presence before reaching the fence. On the last lap, Hi-Hat and Morgan's horse wipe out; when they reach the finish line, it appears that Morgan's horse has won. Stuffy realizes that the mud-covered horses were switched after the accident, and Morgan's jockey was riding Hi-Hat in the finish, thus making Hi-Hat the winner.
Cast.
Cast notes
Production.
The film went through numerous outlines, treatments, drafts, revisions and a total of eighteen different scripts before arriving at its final version. A major portion of the final screenplay was written by Al Boasberg who also contributed to "A Night at the Opera", but due to a bitter disagreement with MGM, he chose not to be given any credit for his work. As they had with "A Night At The Opera", the Brothers honed the comic material during a pre-production vaudeville tour.
Groucho's character was originally named "Quackenbush" but was changed to "Hackenbush" over threats of lawsuits by several real doctors named Quackenbush.
During production, Irving Thalberg, who had brought the Marx Brothers to MGM, died suddenly in September, 1936 of pneumonia at the age of 37. Thalberg's death left the Marxes without a champion at MGM, and the studio never gave the same level of care and attention to the team they had received under Thalberg. As a result, the Marx Brothers' three later MGM films are generally considered to be vastly inferior to their first two.
The original release of "A Day at the Races" presented the water carnival sequence in light brown sepia and the ballet scene with a blue tint.
The film used Santa Anita Park as a filming location for some of the racetrack scenes.
Music.
The songs in the film, by Bronislaw Kaper, Walter Jurmann, and Gus Kahn, are "On Blue Venetian Waters", "Tomorrow Is Another Day", and "All God's Chillun Got Rhythm" (featuring Ivie Anderson from Duke Ellington's orchestra). Two other songs were slated for the film, but ultimately cut . One, "Dr. Hackenbush", sung by Groucho about "what a great doctor he is" ("No matter what I treat them for they die from something else") was performed on the pre-filming tour, but was apparently never shot; the other, "A Message From The Man In The Moon", sung by Allan Jones, was shot, but was cut at the last minute because the film was too long. The melody is heard during the opening titles, as some incidental music during the Water Carnival scene, and is "reprised" by Groucho during the final scene. The DVD release of the film includes a recently rediscovered audio recording for the film soundtrack of the song, performed by Allan Jones.
The film also features a lindy hop dance sequence set to the tune of "All God's Chillun Got Rhythm", and featuring Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, including Willamae Ricker, Snookie Beasley, Ella Gibson, George Greenidge, Dot Miller, Johnny Innis, Norma Miller and Leon James.
"Cosi-Cosa", a song sung by Allan Jones in "A Night at the Opera", makes an instrumental cameo at the opening of the climactic racetrack scene.
Reception.
Contemporary reviews from critics continued to be positive for the Marx Brothers through their seventh film. John T. McManus of "The New York Times" called it "comparatively bad Marx," although still deserving of "a much better than passing grade" because "any Marx brothers motion picture is an improvement upon almost any other sustained screen slapstick." "Variety" declared, "Surefire film fun and up to the usual parity of the madcap Marxes." "Harrison's Reports" wrote, "Very good! The Marx Brothers are at their best and funniest here." John Mosher of "The New Yorker" was also positive, writing that "Groucho, Harpo, and Chico are in full blast again," and the film "reaches a fever pitch even beyond earlier records." The "Chicago Tribune" called it a "ridiculous farce, plummed with unique gags, laugh provoking situations, fast action ... The finale sends audiences away grinning and happy."
Writing for England's "Night and Day", Graham Greene gave the film a generally good review, summarizing it as "easily the best film to be seen in London", but he criticized some elements of the film's portrayal. Greene noted that the film gave him "a nostalgia for the old cheap rickety sets" rather than the modern realistic sets, and although he praised Harpo's performance as "shin[ing] the brightest", he complained that the strong realism in O'Sullivan's acting set up a strong juxtaposition against the "silliness" of the Marx brothers' antics.
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
Awards.
The dance sequence for "All God's Chillun Got Rhythm" was nominated for the short-lived Academy Award for Best Dance Direction, only given from 1935 to 1937.