Review of A Day at the Races (1937) by Ryan M — 02 Apr 2010
OK. It's The Marx Brothers. That's all you need to know. Go and enjoy it.
Nevertheless, I have to comment. This movie has some really weird stuff going on in it. Specifically what is weird happens in the second part of the second act. Allan Jones sings a sappy song to Maureen O'Sullivan about tomorrow being another day and even with that being the style of music in vogue at the time I think it was about as sappy then as it appears to be now. Then comes the weird bit, which actually gets a brief foreshadow before the sappy song. In amongst the resorts, hotels, spas and race tracks there is a community of impoverished black people. I guess in 1936 and 1937 there was a stereotype to maintain.
As the sappy song concludes, Harpo plays some notes on a penny whistle. Then all the black kids come over and sing, "Who that man? Who that man? It's Gabriel!" Then the kids move to a group of black teenagers who repeat the Gabriel bit. Then Harpo and all of those people move to a place where black laborers are preparing food and doing other chores. They do the Gabriel bit. Then all of them go to another location where there are black musicians jamming and they in turn do the Gabriel bit. Then Harpo leads all the black people outside where Ivie Anderson (who was in my opinion more attractive than Maureen O' Sullivan) sings "All God's Chillun Got Rhythm" followed by some over the top and out of site jitter bug dancing.
Up until Harpo does the thing with the penny whistle and the black people come out and do their thing the music in this movie pretty much sucks. The weird part is all the black people involved don't show up in the movie until that point and otherwise have nothing to do with the plot, except at the end when High Hat, the horse wins the race and saves the day, all the black people come out and join in the happy procession leading the horse into the end credits.
As in most Marx Brothers movies the various elements in the movie are all over the map, but the point of Marx Brothers movies is the comedy, not the plot, not the music and not the cinematic techniques. This movie is very funny and if you are a Marx Brothers fan, you've already seen it and enjoyed it.
"Getta your tootsie frootsie ice cream!".
This review of A Day at the Races (1937) was written by Ryan M on 02 Apr 2010.
A Day at the Races has generally received very positive reviews.
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