Review of A Day at the Races (1937) by Kevin N — 17 Aug 2010

This was Sam Wood's second Marx feature and it works a lot less than his first one. There is just too much studio control, and while Groucho and the gang could still be riotously funny under MGM's grasp their fire is too often put out by the likes of tame musical numbers.

The picture's biggest problem is that when it comes to the Marx Brothers' film plots, less is more; the gags that were so gleefully chaotic in previous films here follow very carefully the structure of the storyline, and the results are often disappointingly timid.

None of the scenes without the brothers are very entertaining, and there is one incredibly racist musical number where we find the only black actors of the film- singing the blues in a slum. Still, what few strictly comic gag sequences there are work well, and Groucho, Chico and Harpo make this one their own whenever they can.