Straight Place and Show

1938's "Straight Place and Show" was one of the later vehicles for Fox's talented Ritz Brothers, just before their greatest triumph "The Three Musketeers," which in turn was followed by their most accessible feature "The Gorilla." Their patter here isn't as bad as some insist, but the script clearly lets them down, unable to do much to enliven shopworn material. The straight story features lovely Phyllis Brooks obsessed with her race horse Playboy, to the jealous chagrin of fiancée Richard Arlen, who bets her that if he doesn't win a race for three months running she loses Playboy to him to do with as he pleases. As one would expect, Arlen wins the bet and decides to just give away Playboy to the Ritz Brothers, a trio of pony ride barkers who figure that Playboy makes a better jumper for a major steeplechase. Phyllis manages to find the boys and become a partner in the venture, but they need $1000 for the entry fee, so Harry Ritz has to pose as champion wrestler Running Deer to win a purse to get by, probably their best scene in the film. The climactic race carries no dramatic weight whatsoever, all the riding done by stunt doubles, the brothers impersonating three crooked Russian jockeys who had planned to sabotage Arlen's riding of Playboy as one last chance to prove his love for Phyllis. Ethel Merman, ending her brief Hollywood career, gets to sing two songs, Sidney Blackmer plays wealthy gambler Lucky Braddock, and Lon Chaney (seen in the earlier Ritz comedy "Life Begins in College") gets a decent bit as Lucky's chauffeur Martin (this early scene inspires the Ritzes to go from pony rides to the race track). A disappointment even for Ritz Brothers fans, but hardly the awful film that some make it out to be. "The Gorilla" later proved an unhappy experience, confined to one setting with no song and dance patter, and after one final picture at Fox, Sol Wurtzel's B unit production "Pack Up Your Troubles," a vehicle for pint sized Jane Withers, Harry Ritz famously quipped that their career had gone "from bad to Wurtzel!" Four subsequent features at Universal failed to improve their fortunes, so they left Hollywood for good in 1944, missing out on the mystery musical "Murder in the Blue Room," which at least would have suited their talents better than "The Gorilla."

Like the Marx Brothers who found themselves with a racehorse in their classic film A Day At The Races, the Ritz Brothers also gain possession of a thoroughbred courtesy of a spat between engaged parties Richard Arlen and Phyllis Brooks in Straight Place And Show. The parallels between the two films are truly obvious and I won't belabor you with them.

A whole lot of the same gags are used. But I and others have noted that unlike the Marx Brothers the Ritz Brothers have no individual identities. It's one of the reason their work is not as acclaimed as other comedy teams.

The film's best moments occur when the guys are at a wrestling match and Harry Ritz goes in the ring to earn money for an entrance fee. Very funny stuff, wrestling was as honest a sport then as now.

Straight Place And Show is not a bad film, very funny in spots still.

All comedy is a matter of individual taste, and the Ritz Brothers are no exception. They are the class cut ups, mugging and and crossing eyeballs, shouting and always on stage, minor variations on each other, as opposed to the Marx Brothers, who had clearly differentiated personalities -- except for Zeppo, who had none -- and actually had a intellectual side to them.

In any case, the question of whether you will like this movie depends on if you like the Ritz Brothers. Richard Arlen is present for standard leading-man action, and Ethel Merman to sing a few songs, but this movie is about the Ritz Brothers mugging it up over a racehorse. If you like them, go to it. If you dislike them, avoid it. If you don't know who they are, give it a try.

Straight, Place & Show was not one of the Ritz's better films for 20th Century Fox. Those were Life Begins in College, Kentucky Moonshine, Three Musketeers, as well as their outings with Alice Faye: On the Avenue and You Can't Have Everything. But Straight, Place & Show was acceptable despite the woefully low budget. The film editor and the director seem not to have talked to each other; the film looks choppy. The screenplay was adapted from a play written by Dmon Runyon (think Guys & Dolls) and Irving Caesar, but the only Runyonesque characters we meet are characters played by Sid Fields, Stanley Fields and Ben Weldon. Wiile Best is wasted.Even the Ritzes are cut down to two specialty numbers. But they do their best, as does Ethel Merman in crystalline voice. Phyllis Brooks tries to put life into her role. If it were not for the Ritz Brothers and Merman, I'd say pass on this film. But because of La Merman and Al, Jimmy & Harry Ritz, it is worth a look and will provide some chuckles. Yeah, yeah. You either love'em or hate 'em. But to call the Ritz Brothers untalented, as a previous reviewer did, is ridiculous. They were expert precision dancers and could sing as well as do physical and verbal comedy. By the 1940s many budding comedians (Jerry Lewis, Sid Caesar, Mel Brooks)were heavily influenced by the Ritz Brothers' zaniness.

Possibly the least talented "act" ever seen, The Ritz Brother infested many a 30s film. Here they star in an unfunny comedy as dopes who are given a race horse. Richard Arlen and Ethel Merman are trapped in this stupid comedy as are Phyllis Brooks, Ben Weldon, Sidney Fields, Willie Best, George Barbier, and Sidney Blackmer.

Ethel Merman looks great but sings two sub-par songs; Richard Arlen looks fat, and no one else cause of ripple of interest. The Ritz Brothers make the Three Stooges look like Olivier, Gielgud, and Richardson!

An oddity is that Ivan Lebedev, Raphael Storm, and Gregory Gaye appear as 3 Russian jockeys.... the three also appeared together as princes/suitors to Constance Bennett in Merrily We Live that same year. What was THAT about?