BEFORE: I don't have an Easter film cued up - you'd think that some enterprising cable channel would fast-track a film like "Exodus: God & Kings" to coincide with the holiday, but I've found that movie programmers don't necessarily make sensible decisions that coincide with the calendar. The world of film distribution remains quite alien to me. At least I've got this one which concerns horse racing, and that's a form of gambling, and we're heading to Atlantic City later today - so it's an Easter tie-in for me, if not for anyone else.
I did finally manage to find a path that weaves its way through the remaining 170 films on my list, except for a select few, and there's always the chance that by adding more films I can connect those last 15-20 movies by actor linking. The problem is not a lack of links between films - if anything, it's the opposite. For example, coming up on the schedule is the new Avengers film, which I can follow with finally watching "Guardians of the Galaxy" - but after that, which path do I take? Do I follow that with "The Lego Movie", also starring Chris Pratt? Or perhaps "Riddick", also starring Vin Diesel? Or "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug", also starring Lee Pace? Which would make me happiest? Which path leads to the best chances of linking everything together down the road?
It's impossible to know, without taking a look at every cast list for every film, and cross-referencing them all - a huge task with little chance of succeeding. Trial and error won't work, because multiply 3 or 4 possible tracks by 170 films, and you'll see what I'm up against. Plus that won't account for any new films to be added later. So, I've got a rough plan for what remains, but in a month the entire landscape's going to look different anyway - so even though I'm satisfied with the plan, I also hate it and I can't wait to tear it apart in a month and rebuild it. It's probably best for now just to build little blocks of 10 or so films, and to be aware that those blocks can be taken apart and re-assembled to make many different larger shapes.
THE PLOT: A veterinarian posing as a doctor, a race-horse owner and his friends struggle to help keep a sanitarium open with the help of a misfit race-horse.
AFTER: This one started out OK, but after a while it became hard for me to follow the plot. Either I'm already tiring of the Marx Brothers and their form of comedy chaos, or else my brain is too focused on organizing my list - either way, taking a day off tomorrow is probably a grand idea. I haven't taken a day off from the routine so far this year, and I'm over three months into the year.
There are quite a few contrivances that move the plot forward, most notably that Groucho's veterinarian, Hugo Z. Hackenbush, has been treating a rich woman, pretending to be a human doctor. When she goes to a sanitarium, she practically demands that Hackenbush be put on staff, and Chico's character puts on a deception that he's already been hired, so that she (and her money) will stay there. They then wire for Hackenbush to join the facility as chief of staff - and apparently no one takes the time to check his credentials first.
The woman who owns the sanitarium has a boyfriend, and he's bought himself a horse, creating roles for Harpo as a jockey and Chico to double as the horse's trainer, in addition to working at the sanitarium. By this point, the connections between people and jobs are already stretched about as thin as they can be, but there are more. There's a banker trying to gain control of the sanitarium, and he's got the facility's business manager working for him, and also hires a doctor to discredit Hackenbush, and a loose woman to try to seduce him, so he'll fall out of favor with his rich patient, who also seems to be his girlfriend.
It always seems to be a class struggle with these guys - I guess they represent the common man. I've been reading about the genesis of the brothers' different characters, and originally they represented the different nationalities of immigrants in New York - Chico the Italian one, Harpo the Irish one (his wig was red at first, then I guess became blond, which looked better on film) and Groucho was the German one, but the German accent wasn't popular due to wartime resentment, so he altered it.
ASIDE: I always thought the actor's name was pronounced "Chee-ko", but Ben Mankiewicz on TCM pronounces it "Chick-o", so I guess I'm wrong. That guy knows his Hollywood trivia...
So here the Marx Brothers, representing the working class, have to fight the banker and his hired doctors, representing the upper class - of course you know who most of the audience will be rooting for. They have to find the missing race horse, get him to the start of the steeplechase race, and also pull a lot of racetrack shenanigans to buy themselves more time. And it's only another contrivance that gives their horse a fighting chance.
The best bit in the film, however, comes earlier on when Chico's character is selling Hackenbush betting tips, but each tip never really tells him anything, and it forces him to buy more and more books on codes, breeding, etc. This sort of extended con game was then repeated, slightly differently, later in the train station scene in "Go West". And in a fashion similar to what was seen in "At the Circus", Chico and Groucho start out as opposing con-men, but then later work toward a common goal.
The second-best bit was probably Groucho intercepting the business manager's call, and pretending to be an operator, secretary and records-keeper by using different voices.
The musical numbers here seemed really out of place, though - not Harpo & Chico playing together, that was fine - but the whole "water carnival" bit with the dancers, and Allan Jones singing. It just brought the film to a dead stop, and since this was the Marx Brothers film with the longest running time, I think it could easily have been cut. And the song where Harpo plays pipes and dances through the shantytown, called "All God's Chillun Got Rhythm" - it also seemed out of place. Again, it was made during a different time, but this seemed very questionably racist by today's standards.
I think it's a question of geography - where do you find a sanitarium, a racetrack and a shantytown in the same neighborhood? Only in the movies, I guess.
There's definitely a formula with these guys, I just have to keep cracking it - but I'll pick this up on Tuesday, I just really need a day off.
Also starring Allan Jones, Maureen O'Sullivan, Margaret Dumont (last seen in "At the Circus"), Douglass Dumbrille (last seen in "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town"), Leonard Ceeley, Sig Ruman (last seen in "Only Angels Have Wings").
RATING: 4 out of 10 rolls of wallpaper.
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