One of their best
Not as packed with routines as A Night at The Opera, but up there with their top films. With The Coconuts and Duck Soup, it completes a Marx Brothers collection.

"Doctor! My Metabolism!"
The Marx Brothers had a run of four critically and commercial popular films for Paramount--but when DUCK SOUP was released in 1933 it tanked in a major way, so much so that Paramount was suddenly unenthusiastic about future projects. Enter Irving Thalberg, who was best known for "prestige pictures" made at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, a studio that tended to emphasize family fare. Thalberg and MGM seemed an unlikely venue for the anarchy of the Marx Brothers, but Thalberg had ideas--and the result was two extremely popular films: A NIGHT AT THE OPERA and A DAY AT THE RACES.

In both instances Thalberg placed the wild humor of the Marx Brothers at the service of a romantic subplot. Where RACES is concerned, that plot is particular bizarre. Judy Standish (Maureen O'Sullivan) has inherited a sanitarium and if she is unable to repay her debts she will be bought out by a casino! Her fiancee Gil (Alan Jones) has a plan to save the day: he has bought a race horse and hopes to win the money she needs. Judy finds the scheme ridiculous and turns instead to wealthy patient Emily Upjohn (the formidable Margaret Dumont)--who insists that Judy employ her favorite doctor, Dr. Hugo Z. Hackenbush. And with a name like that, this can only be one actor: Groucho Marx.

Marx Brothers fans argue a lot about whether the Paramount or MGM films were better. I tend to come down on the side of the Paramount films, which are edgier, but there's no denying that both A NIGHT AT THE OPERA and A DAY AT THE RACES are exceptionally entertaining films--and when you combine horse racing, a water ballet, a medical sanitorium, mistaken identities, and mix them thoroughly with some of the most outrageous one liners and set pieces imaginable... well, you have a classic on your hands. The whole thing is a hoot, and if you can get through the famous Florida call scene without busting a gut you need to go to a sanitarium yourself.

The DVD release offers an extremely good, if not entirely pristine, print of the film and it comes with several bonuses. Unfortunately, these are not particularly memorable; the commentary track is at best uninspired. But who cares when you've got the Marx Brothers zinging along very close to the peak of their skills? Strongly recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

A Day at the Races 1937
Some of the trio's funniest set piece . The Comedy content is sensational . The Marxes skewer medicine and bring home a racetrack winner in the hilarious A DAY AT THE RACES. In his favorite role , Groucho is Dr. Hugu Z. Hackenbush - MD , PhD , RFD , MC , PDQ , BYOD and one of the above -dispensing horse pills and quips with equal glee . Groucho (1890-1977) , Chico (1887-1961) , Harpo (1888-1964) and favorite foil Margaret Dumont 1882-1965 join the fun of throughly thoroughbred comedy . Enjoy tootsie-frootsie ice cream , Dumont's medical exam , Harpo's pretty girl pantomime sketch , wallpaper wackies and wall-to-wall hilarity the marx way .High Quality Transfer . Recommended.

Package: 5 stars / Material: 3 stars = ****
If you'e looking for "Duck Soup" you may have to settle for slightly diluted consomme, regarding the real comedy herein, although there are several excellent scenes which utilize the remarkable talents of Groucho, Chico, and Harpo ("tuttsie-frootsie" ice-cream, a couple of examinations, one with Harpo, and one with Margaret Dumont), and there some good lines, but this enterprise must be considered a Hollywood musical with the Marx Brothers - and the music is fine. (And what a shame that two numbers were not used, Groucho's "Dr. Hackenbush", which would have worked beautifully in his first big scene at the Sanitarium; and Alan Jones' "A Message From The Man In The Moon", heard only as incidental music).
Talking about "The Message", it is one of the Features here, and should delight those longtime fans who have always enjoyed that small excerpt by Groucho during the formulaic "cast call" production number.
Yes, a Director like Leo McCarey, and additional writing support from folks like Kalmar and Ruby, plus a scaled down water ballet sequence, and cutting about 15 minutes, would have produced a great motion picture. But MGM could not match Hal Roach, Paramount, or Columbia, when it came down to upbeat comedy, despite some nice editing on the Dumont examination scene. The Groucho "seduction scene", if you will, with the bad guys' accomplice has all the right ingredients, the right look and feel, but the pace is too slow. A bigger error is in the story-telling department. It doesn't make much sense to use Chico as the affable con-artist to Groucho on the one hand, if he's the selfless beneficient soul for the lovers on the other hand. And if he does have this split-personality, then why wouldn't the writers simply have him summon up his old dependable friend Hugo Z. when he's working up his scheme? So we have a case of mistaken identity which hurts the free-wheeling style of the Marx Brothers.
As Glen Mitchell, our host/critic in the Features, points out, however, it was absolutely necessary to transform the Marx Brothers into family entertainers, and to smooth out the comedy and put it in a happy, smile up the aisle, framework. The previous two Paramount efforts were pure comedies, appealing more to "educated" males, at the time.
An Amazon reviewer effectively wrote that the mix of Jones and O'Sullivan has something over Jones and Carlysle from the previous MGM film.

A Day at the Races
One of the Marx Bros' nuttiest farces, "Races" has all the gut-busting gags you would expect from their follow-up to "A Night at the Opera." The plot isn't as important as the general air of lunacy presiding over the whole affair, as when Groucho attempts to take a medical exam or falls for Chico's "tutsy-fruitsy" tip-buying scheme. Opulent sets and choice musical numbers performed by Allan Jones, who plays Hi-Hat's owner, complement director Sam Wood's goofy scenemaking. All of it culminates, of course, in a magnificently manic "Day at the Races."