A Day at the Races (1937)

A veterinarian posing as a doctor and a race-horse owner and his friends struggle to help keep a sanitarium open with the help of a misfit race-horse.

Director:

Sam Wood

Writers:

Robert Pirosh (screen play), George Seaton (screen play)

Stars:

Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx

Nominated for 1 Oscar.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Groucho Marx	...	Dr. Hugo Z. Hackenbush (as The Marx Brothers)
Chico Marx	...	Tony (as The Marx Brothers)
Harpo Marx	...	Stuffy (as The Marx Brothers)
Allan Jones	...	Gil Stewart
Maureen O'Sullivan	...	Judy Standish
Margaret Dumont	...	Mrs. Emily Upjohn
Leonard Ceeley	...	Whitmore
Douglass Dumbrille	...	Morgan
Esther Muir	...	Cokey 'Flo'
Sig Ruman	...	Dr. Steinberg (as Sig Rumann)
Robert Middlemass	...	Sheriff
Vivien Fay	...	Dancer
Ivie Anderson	...	Vocalist
The Crinoline Choir	...	Vocal Ensemble

Storyline

Doctor Hugo Hackenbush, Tony, and Stuffy try and save Judy's sanitarium by winning a big race with her boyfriend's 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.

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Plot Keywords:

horse race | racetrack | reference to vassar college | sanitarium | horse | 

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Taglines:

The Year's BIG Laugh, Music and Girl Show!

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Genres:

Comedy | Musical | Sport

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Italian

Release Date:

11 June 1937 (USA)

Also Known As:

Un jour aux courses

Filming Locations:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

111 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Color:

Black and White Black and White (Sepiatone) Black and White (blue tinted)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

British rock band Queen named their 1976 album "A Day at the Races" after the film. It was a companion piece to their 1975 album "A Night at the Opera", also named after a Marx Brothers film. Groucho Marx got to hear the album shortly before his death and sent them a handwritten note congratulating them.

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Goofs

When the horses head to the track, the announcer notes only eleven horses are headed to the track and that the added horse, Hi Hat, is nowhere to be seen. However, when the board was shown with the horses listed, twelve horses were initially listed for the race with two scratched and then Hi Hat added, so if Hi Hat wasn't heading to the track, there should have only been ten horses.

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Quotes

Whitmore: [Speaking on the phone, believes he is talking to the Florida Medical Board, but, it is really Dr. Hackenbush, pretending to be Medical Board Records Department Manager, Colonel Hawkings] I want to know about Doctor Hackenbush.
[Hackenbush, in an adjacent office, buzzes the dictograph. Whitmore goes to answer it]
Whitmore: Yes?
Dr. Hackenbush: Whitmore, you'll have to cut out that squawking. The patients are all complaining.
[Talking on the phone in a Southern accent, pretending to be Colonel Hawkings]
Dr. Hackenbush: And, eh, I hope, sir...
[...]

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Alternate Versions

After the film's opening two musical numbers featuring the songs "I'm Dr. Hackenbush" and "I've got a message from the man in the moon" were removed. This footage is now believed to have been destroyed.

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Connections

Referenced in On Your Marx, Get Set, Go! (2004)

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Soundtracks

La Cucaracha
(uncredited)
Traditional
Danced by Groucho Marx with Esther Muir

User Reviews

Three Men on a Horse

A DAY AT THE RACES (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1937), directed by Sam Wood, capitalizes on the current trend of horse-racing movies done by the numbers during the 1937-38 cycle, notably MGM's own 1937 releases of "Saratoga" and "Broadway Melody of 1938" as well as "Stablemates" (1938). Starring those three Marx Brothers, in their second collaboration for MGM, following the enormous success of A NIGHT AT THE OPERA (1935), this horse opera, being the longest running feature film of their screen career, stop-watched at 111 minutes, did prove quite successful then, and because of its good track record, still remains a sure bet comedy today.

The first Marx Brother to be introduced in the story is Chico. He plays Tony, a chauffeur for Judy Standish (Maureen O'Sullivan), whose sanitarium is in financial trouble. Morgan (Douglass Dumbrille), the owner of a nearby racetrack and hotel, along with his associate, Whitmore (Leonard Ceeley) want to take over the sanitarium so to convert it into a gambling casino. He offers Judy the option of accepting $5,000 from them or face a mortgage foreclosure, but she prefers to wait the 30 days. Gil Stewart (Allan Jones) her fiancé, has purchased Hi-Hat, Morgan's race horse, for $1,500, gambling her life savings hoping to win enough money to get Judy out of debt. However, Mrs. Emily Upjohn (Margaret Dumont), an exclusive patient of the sanitarium, expresses her need for a doctor, even though there is really nothing physically wrong with her. Realizing that Mrs. Upjohn's financial support could save the hospital from ruin, Tony notifies Dr. Hugo Z. Hackenbush (Groucho Marx) of Palmville, Florida, who is well acquainted with Mrs. Upjohn, unaware he is a horse doctor, and making him chief of staff. Then there's Stuffy (Harpo), Morgan's jockey, with a natural flair for horses, who gets to ride Hi-Hat, who turns out to be a jumper, as well as quite fearful to the sight and sound of Morgan himself.

The Music and Lyrics by Bronislau Kaper, Gus Kahn and Walter Jurmann: "On the Blue Venetian Waters" (Sung by Allan Jones/ danced by Vivian Fay,recently restored to its original sepia tone); "Tomorrow is Another Day" (sung by Jones); "Blow That Horn, Gabriel," "All God's Chillin' Got Rhythm," "All God's Chillin' Got Rhythm" (reprise/finale), along with "A Message From the Man in the Moon" (sung briefly by Groucho Marx/ otherwise cut from final print, and heard instrumentally during opening credits). "Tomorrow is Another Day" is quite a good tune with Jones in fine voice singing to charming heroine O'Sullivan that shifts into a parade from the black community singing and dancing to "All God's Chuillin Got Rhythm" with the Marxes, headed by Harpo playing a flute like the Pied Piper, with one of the vocalists being future star Dorothy Dandridge.

As already mentioned, A DAY AT THE RACES is quite long, in fact, everything about the movie is long: the song numbers, the comedy routines, the narrative, and the horse racing finale (so clever that it's been reused several times since then in other hydrazine), resulting to perfectly timed structures, although the water carnival ballet number performed by Vivian Fay near the beginning could have been shortened, in fact substituted into another movie categorized as a musical. One of MGM's debits is having this look more like a lavish scale musical than a Marx Brothers comedy, with the trio off screen for long intervals, with occasional cutaways during the ballet as a reminder that this is a Marx Brothers comedy and not a ballet musical choreographed by George Ballachine. After it is all over, Chico and Harpo get to do their traditional musical bits with piano and harp at length. Groucho doesn't do a song solo, which is unfortunate, because his style of singing and dancing always brings pleasure during these musical interludes.

With this being the seventh Marx comedy, it's evident that some of their routines are rehashes yet improvements from their earlier outings. At this point, could anything new be added to their comedy material? In fact, something has: Harpo's mimed message through constant whistling, facial and hand gestures, telling Chico about Groucho falling victim to Flo Marlowe (Esther Muir), as schemed by Morgan. The Groucho and Chico exchanges are highlights, the best being their seven minute Tootsie Fruitsie ice cream bit where Chico posing an ice cream vendor actually a race tract tout making a sucker out of Groucho by selling him racing tips that ends up being a stack of hardbound books taken from his pushcart. The madcap examination room sequence involving Harpo and Dumont are notable attention grabbers as well. In true Marx tradition, Margaret Dumont falls victim to their shenanigans, usually being the prime insult by Groucho through one of his classic re-marx: "Emily, I have a little confession to make. I really am a horse doctor, but marry me and I'll never look at any other horse." Sig Rumann should not go unnoticed as Doctor Steinburg, a pointed beard Viennese specialist who arrives to examine Mrs. Upjohn, thus preventing Hackbush from performing his own examination on Emily.

In spite of long stretches, A DAY AT THE RACES does have its doses of winning streaks thanks to the staff and performers combined, several recalls from A NIGHT AT THE OPERA. The film in general is not perfect, but worthwhile comedy thanks to the Marx Brothers expert horsemanship. Recommended viewing during the late evening hours before "hitting the hay." Formerly available on video cassette, a format that had been in circulation since the 1980s, which has since been discontinued in favor of the much improved DVD format, A DAY AT THE RACES can be seen intact whenever shown on Turner Classic Movies. (***)