Starring The Marx Brothers, Alan Jones, Margret Dumont, and Maureen O'Sullivan
Directed by Sam Wood
Music by Broislau Kaper and Walter Jurmann; Lyrics by Gus Kahn
We join the Marx Brothers to celebrate the other major event this weekend, the Kentucky Derby. This is the second movie the Brothers made at MGM after their big comeback hit A Night at the Opera. While the Brothers went on a vaudeville tour to hone their gags for this film, MGM went through eighteen different scripts before they hit on the right combination of music and madness. Was it worth it, or should this be put out to pasture? Let's begin as Tony (Chico Marx) tries to pick up customers for the Standish Sanitarium and find out...
The Story: The Standish Sanitarium is in danger of going under. Local banker and owner of a race track, hotel, and nightclub J.D Morgan (Douglass Dumbrille) wants to foreclose on it and tear it down to build a casino. Its current owner Judy Standish (O'Sullivan) owes way more money on it than she can ever repay. When Tony hears that their best client, the hypochondriac Mrs. Upjohn (Dumont), will only stay if she's given treatment by Dr. Hugo Z. Hackenbush (Groucho Marx), he writes Hackenbush in Florida. Hackenbush comes for the money, but he's really a horse doctor. Judy's manager Mr. Whitmore (Leonard Ceeley) is suspicious, but Hackenbush is able to evade his attempts to figure out his medical background at first.
Meanwhile, Judy's boyfriend Gil (Jones) just bought a race horse, Hi-Hat. Judy's angry at him for throwing away his money, especially when Hi-Hat doesn't seem to be much of a racer. He does, however, rear up and run faster whenever he sees Morgan or hears his voice. Between Mrs. Upjohn nearly catching Hackenbush with a blonde floozy (Esther Muir) after the local Water Carnival and her disastrous examination, Gil and the Brothers finally decide to enter jockey Stuffy (Harpo Marx) and Hi-Hat in the race and make sure that Morgan doesn't interfere.
The Song and Dance: Whatever the Marxes did on that vaudeville tour worked. Some of their funniest gags can be found in this film. Most people mention Groucho and Chico's word play in the "Tootsie Fruitsi Ice Cream" skit, which has Chico selling Groucho more and more and more books in order to figure out which horse to bet on at the track, but Dumont's examination and the sequence with Chico and Harpo trying to hide Muir in Groucho's hotel room are hysterical, too. Jones has a bit less to play than in Night at the Opera with one of his songs deleted, but he still works well with the Marxes and even gets a line or two of his own. Then there's the entire last twenty minutes of the film. Everything from them sneaking Hi-Hat onto the field to the surprise finale is surreal lunacy at its absolute finest.
Favorite Number: Our first song isn't until nearly 20 minutes in, but it's the enormous "On Blue Venetian Waters" at the Sepia-toned Water Carnival. In fact, I suspect this number is the only reason this sequence was set at a Water Carnival to begin with. Gil sings the number with splashing fountains behind him before we fade in on ballerinas in long dark skirts. swirling around the lavish watery set dripping with waving trees. Vivan Fay takes over as the soloist after them, pirouetting daintily in the blue-tinted number. Fay and the dancers do well enough, but the number goes on for way too long and stops the movie cold. Even Chico's piano solo and Harpo turning Chico's piano into a harp doesn't pick things up again.
The other big chorus routine works far better with the movie and the Marxes. After Mrs. Upjohn's examination goes haywire, the Marxes end up in the stables with Hi-Hat and a group of poor working black kids. Gil starts by singing the ballad "Tomorrow Is Another Day" to cheer up Judy about possibly losing the Sanitarium. Harpo and singer Ivie Anderson go even further, turning "All God's Chillun Got Rhythm" into a wild melee of some of the craziest, most energetic jitterbugging ever captured on film. Like "Blue Venetian Waters," it also goes on for too long, but the dancing is so much fun, you almost don't mind.
Trivia: There were originally two more songs. Groucho tried out "I'm Dr. Hackenbush" on the vaudeville tour, but it never made it into the film. Jones' other ballad, "A Message From the Man In the Moon," was cut at the last minute. The film portion is lost, but the audio survives and can be heard as an extra on the DVD. Groucho sings a little bit of it for Dumont in the finale.
Originally, Groucho's character was to be Quackenbush, but it turns out there were at least three doctors with that name. Groucho ended up liking Hackenbush so much, he'd answer to that name later in life.
What I Don't Like: First of all, let's discuss that "All God's Chillun" number. On one hand, the dancing really is amazing, and it does fit the film and the Marxes better than the endless stuffy "Blue Venetian Waters." It also perpetuates more than a few stereotypes, including the Marxes briefly ending up in blackface to avoid the sheriff near the end. Both numbers stop the film cold and are really there more to show off the music than the Marxes. O'Sullivan doesn't fit in terribly well, either, and seems a bit at sea with the Marxes' shenanigans.
The Big Finale: One of the Marx Brothers' best films. Grab your sibling and your big hat and check it out this Derby Weekend.
Home Media: On DVD and streaming in the US; the most recent DVD is from the Warner Archives.
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