I rate A DAY AT THE RACES a 10 only compared to other non-Marx comedies (as critic James Agee remarked, the worst the Marx's might do would be better worth seeing than almost anything else). As a Marx Brothers movie it's bogged down by long, pointless musical numbers (I'll contradict myself in a moment) and a sappy romantic subplot (remnants of the formula Irving Thalberg devised for the boys in NIGHT AT THE OPERA, but with Thalberg dead it's all formula now and not much else). Then about two thirds of the way through something nearly miraculous happens. The brothers cut lose with the fabulous examination scene, exhibiting all the anarchic genius that made them great, and then following Allan Jones' cloying rendition of "Tomorrow is Another Day" Harpo grabs a flute and goes tootling off to some sort of African American shanty town where he encounters Ivie Anderson, The Crinoline Choir, and Whitie's Lindy Hoppers and the movie just explodes with energy. Many people, as has been pointed out, would consider this sequence "politically incorrect" but since political correctness is mostly the knee-jerk application of 21st century standards to earlier eras that the critics know nothing about I say screw 'em. For maybe ten minutes or so the screen is filled with so much warmth, talent, and exuberance that it nearly brings tears to my eyes. Sure it's got nothing to do with the story and little to do with the Marx Brothers but it is greatness unto itself and it may be the best scene in the movie. And by the way, for those who insist on judging this movie in racial terms the message seems to be that rich white men (Douglas Dumbrille and his flunkies) are evil and heartless and poor black people know that life is about singing and dancing and having fun. Sounds good to me.
Review of A Day at the Races
