Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

A Day at the Races Blu-ray Movie Review

One horse, no feathers.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III January 25, 2024

Released at the height of their big-screen fame, 1937's A Day at the Races represented something of a milestone for the Marx Brothers: it was their longest, most expensive, and most popular film, yet even strong ticket sales made this comparatively lavish ~$2M production something of a box office disappointment. A decently crafted follow-up to their excellent comeback film A Night at the Opera and their second of five made under the MGM banner, A Day at the Races doesn't hold up as top-tier Marx Bros. material but is still well worth 109 minutes of your time.

Truth be told, "109 minutes" is the exact reason why A Day at the Races falls short of greatness. It finds our three heroes in fine form, surrounded by several familiar faces, contains some of the comedy team's most memorable bits, and ends on a resoundingly high note... yet too many detours pad its runtime, leaving only 25 minutes or so for the titular event. A Day at the Races actually revolves more around The Standish Sanitarium, a struggling mental hospital owned by lovely Judy Standish (Maureen O'Sullivan) that will be overtaken by banker J.D. Morgan (Douglass Dumbrille) if a certain amount of money can't be raised soon. Along with her business manager Mr. Whitmore (Leonard Ceeley), who for some reason still has a job, as well as her dutiful employee Tony (Chico Marx), she seeks financial help from wealthy patient Emily Upjohn (Margaret Dumont, "the fifth Marx Brother"), who will only consent if they bring in her favorite medical professional and crush Hugo Z. Hackenbush (Groucho Marx). He's actually a horse doctor.

Meanwhile, Judy's beau Gil Stewart (Allan Jones), a popular night club singer, has just spent his life savings on a racehorse named Hi-Hat who he hopes will win enough money back to pay off the debt. She's not exactly appreciative, convinced the gamble won't pay off. Also not appreciative is J.D. Morgan: he suspects Hackenbush is a fraud and uses all manner of trickery to expose him, but Hi-Hat's jockey Stuffy (Harpo Marx) overhears the banker's plot and keeps Hugo and Tony one step ahead of the situation. It all comes to a head when our heroes attempt to enter Hi-Hat in a big race against long odds, but actually getting him in the competition may prove tougher than the actual race.

Needless to say, the plot of A Day at the Races is convoluted and this doesn't even include at least three or four lengthy detours, some of which work in spite of the barely-controlled chaos (a medical examination gone wrong, the wallpaper incident) and others that feel too long in the tooth (the Gala Water Carnival and Stuffy's encounter with a group of poor black people, although both contain great musical sequences). Then there's the entire romance between Judy and Gil, which doesn't register strongly enough to carry much emotional weight. This gives A Day at the Races a truly uneven, scattered flow that entertains more often than not but doesn't make much sense in hindsight. Luckily it builds to a well-executed and crowd-pleasing climax, making us almost forget the long, strange road we took to get there.

Not surprisingly, A Day at the Races wasn't quite as critically well-received as its predecessor back in the day, and its "almost, but not quite" box-office performance ensured that future Marx Brothers productions would be budgeted quite a bit more frugally. (Their next film Room Service, released by RKO Pictures, was made for less than half the money.) A Day at the Races is still well worth (re)discovering on Warner Archive's excellent new Blu-ray. which supports the main feature quite capably with another top-tier A/V presentation and plenty of great legacy bonus features.

A Day at the Races Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Warner Archive's 1080p transfer is every bit as good as expected and worth the wait, as it's been restored from a new 4K scan of the best-available preservation elements (typically indicating two or more sources, one of which is likely the original nitrate negative), and its sporadic dips into softness are the only outlier in what's otherwise a perfectly polished mage. Fine detail and textures a quite good, image stability is rock-solid, and as usual the film is as clean as a whistle while preserving authentic levels of film grain consistent with its nitrate origins. It's very much in line with their usual work on films from this era, representing a huge leap forward in image quality over previous home video presentations and likely rivaling original theatrical showings. If all Blu-rays looked this good, would 4K even be a thing?

A Day at the Races Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Similarly, the DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio mix is faithful to its roots, with a clean and trouble-free "split" presentation of its original one-channel source. Dialogue is crisp and always intelligible, background effects are mixed well, and there's more than enough room left over for the original score. Very slight hiss and other age-related wear and tear can be heard at higher volume levels, but as usual Warner Archive's light but careful restorative favors maintaining dynamic range levels over excess polish and filtering. By all accounts, a near-perfect effort that purists will love.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are included during the main feature (not the extras listed below, sadly), but for whatever reason they're of the ALL CAPS variety. I thought they finally ended that practice years ago?

A Day at the Races Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a keepcase with original poster-themed cover art and no inserts. The well-rounded bonus features are mostly carried over from Warner Bros.' 2004 DVD, and a few have even been nicely restored.

• Audio Commentary - Film historian Glenn Mitchell, author of The Marx Brothers Encyclopedia, contributes a well-researched and enjoyable commentary that offers a nice mixture of trivial tidbits, historical context, notes about the three brothers and supporting players, and of course analysis of the film's themes and style. A few dead spots slow down the momentum on occasion, but it's overall a solid effort that fans will enjoy.

• On Your Marx, Get Set, Go! (27:37) - Obviously created alongside the retrospective documentary produced by Warner Bros. for their DVD of A Night at the Opera, this enjoyable piece features a wide variety of participants including actor Dom DeLuise, writers Irving Brecher and Anne Beatts, director Carl Reiner, film historian Robert Osborne, writer Larry Gelbart and even a few archival comments from Maureen O'Sullivan (d. 1998).

• A Night at the Movies (10:00) - Not to be confused with those pre-show compilations made for WB home video releases, this 1937 MGM short follows a couple who experiences Murphy's Law at their local theater.

• Classic MGM Cartoons - Three vintage shorts in slightly rough but watchable condition.

• "Gallopin' Gals" (7:26) - This lively 1940 MGM Technicolor short, directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, appropriately enough features screwball underdog antics at a race track.
• "Mama's New Hat" (8:24) - This 1939 black-and-white Captain and the Kids short, co-directed by Friz Freleng, is also available as a bonus feature on Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume Two.
• "Old Smokey" (7:34) - Another Captain and the Kids short, this one was directed by William Hanna in 1938 and concerns a loyal fire horse due to be replaced by a fancy new gas engine.

• Audio-Only Treasures - Three vintage audio clips from the vault.

• NEW! "Dr. Hackenbush" (2:56) - Groucho performs a song written for the film but never used.
• "A Message from the Man in the Moon" (2:34) - A once-lost audio recording of Allan Jones singing the song accompanied by film clips and images of the original scripts.
• "Leo is On the Air" (13:28) - This 1937 installment of the long-running MGM radio series promotes A Day at the Races and includes supportive clips from the finished film.

• Theatrical Trailer (2:59) - This raucous promotional piece can also be seen here.

• Song Selection - Instant access to the film's main songs and performances.

A Day at the Races Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Sam Wood's A Day at the Races is mid-tier Marx Bros. material, but that's still a guaranteed good time at the movies. The fun performances, showy music breaks, and unexpected chaos are as infectious as ever, yet a few too many tonal detours rob the film of much-needed momentum along the way. Warner Archive's Blu-ray is one of their best in recent memory, with another sterling A/V presentation and a very nice collection of legacy bonus features that elevate this package to considerable heights. As a whole it's firmly recommended to fans and first-timers alike, though anyone completely new to the comedy team should start with The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection first.