When MGM had such a great success with A Night at the Opera, their first film with the Marx Brothers it was only natural that they reunite them with Allan Jones again. Jones is once again doing the Zeppo part and helps out with all the racetrack shenanigans they pull. And of course unlike Zeppo, Jones sings beautifully.

Allan's in love with Maureen O'Sullivan who owns a sanitarium that the wealthy Margaret Dumont patronizes. Douglass Dumbrille wants it real bad and will do everything in the best Snidely Whiplash to get it from O'Sullivan. Dumont will help out, but only if her personal physician, Doctor Hugo Hackenbush takes over the sanitarium. Problem is that Dr. Hackenbush is a fake.

Of course you know Dr. Hackenbush is Groucho. I've said this on many occasions. But there are two schools of thoughts as to who had the best character names in films. W.C. Fields or Groucho Marx.

Jones has both Chico and Harpo as his sidekicks and of course like they had to save the opera in the first film, they have to save the sanitarium for Maureen O'Sullivan and to do it, they have to enter Jones's horse High Hat in the Steeplechase. What they did to delay the opera is nothing compared to the riotous stuff pulled to stall the race.

But I like A Day At the Races most of all because it is the best showing of Chico in that Tuttsi Frutsi Ice Cream bit where the ignorant immigrant takes in the greedy Groucho with his racetrack tips. The only one whoever really got the better of Groucho. Chico invented disingenuous it was the only way to deflect Groucho's razor wit. A lot of people in the audience identified with Chico in fleecing Groucho so thoroughly. It's my favorite Marx Brothers moment.

And if you watch A Day At the Races it might become your's as well.

I haven't seen enough of the Marx Brothers' films to say which is their best and which is their worst. I have seen Duck Soup, which I would say has to be at least one of their best, seeing that I believe it to be one of the funniest comedies ever. I have also seen A Night at the Opera, which is also often considered one of their best, often the best. I myself found it much less funny than Duck Soup. I wanted to kill myself during the musical numbers of that film.

Now I've seen A Day at the Races, the Brothers' follow up to A Night at the Opera, a smash hit in theaters. Generally, Races is considered a weak follow-up to a great film. I disagree. I liked A Day at the Races much more than A Night at the Opera (but a bit less than Duck Soup). All three Brothers are firing bullseye after bullseye. Harpo could stand to do a little bit more. He may have had the funniest role in Duck Soup. He was an utter maniac with total disregard for human life. When the Marx Brothers left Paramount for MGM, their edge was dulled down a bit. Oh well, Races still succeeds.

Also, except for the boring opera voice, even the musical numbers work here. I love to watch Chico play the piano. That's hilarious. Harpo's harp number is less good, but still not bad. The ballet sequence is also quite good. There's one more musical number that's just fantastic: the poor black folk singing "Who's that man?" as Harpo runs around playing the flute. It's somewhat shocking to see a scene like this. It does not exploit them (it may seem to now, but it was probably quite inclusive and progressive in its day), and it's a smash.

Well, here's one more zany uniquely-Marx Brothers film, one noted for being the longest feature movie they made at 111 minutes.

Even with the longer running time, it's still not the story but all the gags and musical talent of the Marx Brothers that is on parade here and is the selling point of the film. That was normal procedure for them. In this edition, the gag scenes were longer and the amount of music was much greater.

The major skits involve a race track tout (Chico conning Groucho) , a physical exam (Margaret Dumont, who else?), a delay of the big horse race and a bunch of other crazy skits. Some are good, some go on too long.

Maureen O'Sullivan, of Tarzan fame among other films, gives the film some beauty and Dumont is treated with more respect here than in the other Marx Brothers films. Groucho takes it easy on her because her character has the money that will save the day, so to speak.

This MB film has a ton of music, from Chico on piano, to Harpo with harp and flute solos plus a flute number with a group of black folks. Then there is Allan Jones crooning away to O'Sullivan with several ballads. Also, there are several group numbers featuring the aforementioned group of blacks . I liked their rousing gospel numbers best of all the music.

The ending of this movie reminded me of Horse Feathers, in which the most outrageous football game was ever filmed. Here, it was a horse race, unlike any you would ever see. It is so ridiculous, you just laugh out loud....and that's the idea of the movie.