There are heaps of stories about feisty single girls struggling to save the ranch or the farm or the corner store… but a sanatorium? And this film treats it seriously – despite being a Marx Bros film. Maureen O’Sullivan owns a sanatorium and employs Chico; Margaret Dumont is a hypochondriac rich woman (a delightful fresh variation on her normal character formula) who insists on being treated only by Groucho.
This film is often bracketed with Night at the Opera but it’s not as good. The pacing is slower, the running time is too long, there is too much music, the setting less magical, the rough edges of the brothers smoothed down far too much (Groucho for instance, normally always so up-front about his unscrupulousness, here plays a character who has a secret, i.e. that he’s not a real doctor – there’s this awful scene near the beginning where he admits to O’Sullivan he’s not who he says he is and seems glum).
Also the central story isn’t interesting: who cares if O’Sullivan keeps the sanatorium? Besides there’s something a bit yuck about O’Sullivan wanting to make money out of it – and she only inherited it, it’s not as though she’s a doctor or anything. In Night at the Opera the motivations of the brothers and Allan Jones were clear – Groucho wanted to keep his cruisy job, Harpo wanted revenge, Chico was Jones’ agent and Jones wanted to be a star. But here they all just want to help out O’Sullivan… because. Jones is the boyfriend, I get that, but couldn’t they have come up with a mercenary motive for the brothers, to make things believable?
However, there is still a lot of fun to be had, especially when the brothers are allowed to cut loose. There are three great scenes: one with Groucho dancing with Dumont and trying to pick up another woman at the same time; Groucho and said woman back at his place while Harpo and Chico try to distract him; and Groucho performing diagnosis on Margaret Dumont (which ends with a horse and sprinklers). Dumont is in top form.
There are lots of big musical problem numbers done with massive dollops of MGM gloss (one big one has people in boats watching a ballet number). Too many numbers, actually, particularly as they are so poorly integrated into the action (at least, compared with Night at the Opera). The big set piece number takes place towards the end involves a lot of African Americans – a spectacular sequence packed full of talented performers, but perhaps a bit unfortunate, particularly the bit at the end where Groucho and Harpo black themselves up in order to escape some gangsters.
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