The unique comic talents of
Groucho Marx,
William Bendix and
Marie Wilson are hardly exploited to their fullest in RKO's A Girl in Every Port. Groucho and Bendix play Benny Linn and Tim Dunnevan, respectively, a couple of scheming sailors who embark upon one get-rich-quick scheme after another. This time around, our heroes use a small inheritance to purchase two horses, one for racing purposes and one to be sold at a tidy profit. After a series of bizarre complications, both horses are pitted against each other in a crucial race which could spell either triumph or ruin for the two goofy gobs. Wilson co-stars as a birdbrained carhop who owns one of the horses coveted by Linn and Dunnevan. No stone is left unturned so far as wheezy comedy routines are concerned: writer-director
Chester Erskine even manages to revive the old chestnut wherein the sailors sneak both horses on board their ship. The likeable supporting cast includes
Don DeFore as a disgruntled stable owner,
Dee Hartford (who later became
Groucho Marx's sister-in-law) as DeFore's financially savvy fiancee,
Gene Lockhart as a seedy horse dealer, Hanley Stafford ("Daddy" on radio's Baby Snooks) as the two protagonists' flustered commanding officer, and
Teddy Hart as a Runyonesque gangster. A box-office disappointment, A Girl in Every Port ended
Groucho Marx's efforts to become a solo screen star; fortunately, he still had TV's
You Bet Your Life to fall back on. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide