A Day at the Races

A Day at the Races is a 1937 comedy from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in which Groucho Marx plays Hugo Z. Hackenbush, a man installed as the head of a financially troubled sanitarium even though his qualifications are in veterinary medicine, not human medicine. With the Marx Brothers' Chico and Harpo as Tony and Stuffy, he joins the effort to keep the place running, aided by the money of a wealthy patient and by plans involving a horse and a big race. Maureen O'Sullivan plays Judy Standish, the woman trying to hold the institution together.

The film was directed by Sam Wood. It followed his A Night at the Opera and came before Goodbye, Mr. Chips and Gone with the Wind in his filmography. George Seaton, Robert Pirosh and George Oppenheimer wrote the screenplay from a story by the Marx Brothers, and Irving Thalberg and Lawrence Weingarten produced alongside Wood; it was their second Marx Brothers film after A Night at the Opera. The credited cast numbers 22, with Margaret Dumont and Allan Jones in supporting roles.

Made for about 2 million dollars and taking in roughly the same amount worldwide, the film was a financial disappointment at the time. It runs 109 minutes and blends comedy with musical numbers. On IMDb it holds a 7.5 rating from around 15,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 7.1 from about 241 votes. A critics' rating of 7.5 from 19 reviews places it close to the audience scores.