TCM Greatest Classic Films: Marx Brothers (Day at the Races, Room Service, At the Circus, Night in Casablanca) (DVD)

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"Here your ice-a cream.
Here your tootsie-fruitsie ice-a cream."

We can rejoice at the appearance of any new compilation of Marx Brothers comedies, even if, as here, the studio has already issued them singly. In this two-disc TCM Greatest Films collection, we get "A Day at the Races" (1937), "Room Service" (1938), "At the Circus" (1939), and "A Night in Casablanca" (1946). They are not all among the Brothers' absolute best work, but they are fun, nonetheless.

The Marx Brothers got their start in movies as Groucho, Chico, Harpo, and Zeppo, filming their stage hit "The Coconuts" for Paramount in 1929. Then followed "Animal Crackers" (1930), "Monkey Business" (1931), "Horse Feathers" (1932), and "Duck Soup" (1933), also for Paramount. But "Duck Soup," today often considered their best film, was a box-office bomb, and by this time Zeppo, playing the eternal straight man to his brothers' zaniness, quit the team. The Marx Brothers weren't sure if they'd ever work again. But Irving Thalberg, the young genius head of MGM, came to the rescue. He lured them to his studio, gave them a tighter script than they had ever performed in before, a rather silly subplot involving two young lovers (Allan Jones and Kitty Carlisle), bigger production numbers, and a larger budget than the boys had ever seen. The combination worked, and "A Night at the Opera" became the most financially successful movie the Marx Brothers made, leading to six more movies at MGM, including the four represented here, before they retired the act in the mid 1940s. Unfortunately, "A Night at the Opera" is a film WB leave off this four-movie collection. Oh, well....

Let me describe briefly three of the films we do get in the set and then go into a little more detail on the one I like best, "A Dat at the Races. So, first up, we have "Room Service." William A. Seiter directed it, and Lucile Ball, Ann Miller, and Frank Albertson co-star. This was something of a change of pace for the Marxes, doing a movie that was originally a Broadway play, which the screenwriter, Morrie Ryskind, rewrote with the brothers in mind. It's all about a group of theatrical performers who can't get enough money together to put on their show and have to stall the manager of a hotel from throwing them out on their ear. It's rather stage bound for a Marx Brothers movie, but there are still a few good scenes.

Next, there's "At the Circus," directed by Edward Buzzell and co-starring Kenny Baker, Florence Rice, Eve Arden, Margaret Dumont, and Nat Pendleton. Groucho's singing "Lydia, the Tattooed Lady" is the highlight of an otherwise fairly routine Marx Brothers affair.

Then, there's the final movie the brothers did together for the big screen, "A Night in Casablanca." Archie Mayo directed and Charles Drake, Lois Collier, Lisette Vera, Sig Ruman, Dan Seymour, and Lewis Russel co-star. You can see from the movie's title that the producers were trying to remind people of the Brothers' previous hit, "A Night at the Opera," while at the same time capitalize on Bogart's "Casablanca." Critics generally gave the film a bum rap, but it holds up surprisingly well. Or maybe it's just my sentimental nostalgia for the Brothers' last film together. The Marxes are up against Nazis in a Moroccan hotel, all quite exotic, with several funny moments, especially at the beginning and end.

Which brings us to probably the best of the four films included here, "A Day at the Races," directed by Sam Wood, who also directed the Brothers in "A Night at the Opera" and would later do such classics as "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" and "Our Town." "A Day at the Races" would mark the first major decline in the Marx Brothers' fortunes, but at least the movies they made prior were all genuine classics and the movies they made after, even if they weren't up to the best of the early stuff, were better than most comedies of their day or our own.

"A Day at the Races" takes place at a sanitarium in Sparkling Springs, Florida, and at a nearby racetrack. Judy Standish (Maureen O'Sullivan) owns the sanitarium, but it's not doing well and the bank is about to foreclose. Breathing down her neck are a pair of weasels--Whitmore (Leonard Ceeley) and Morgan (Douglas Dumbrille)--who want to buy her out. Morgan already owns the racetrack and a nightclub, and he wants to turn the sanitarium into a hotel-casino. What Judy needs is a wealthy patron to help her out. And there is one possibility: Mrs. Emily Upjohn (Margaret Dumont), who might just donate to the cause if she can get her favorite doctor, Hugo Z. Hackenbush (Groucho), to join the hospital's staff.