The Great Race

"The Great Race" remains one of my all time favorite light confections. This crazy comedy has the wonderful Blake Edwards absurdities and screwy jokes that we enjoyed in an age prior to the bitterness and darkness we seem to enjoy wallowing in today.

The stars of the movie are fabulous. Jack Lemon is great as the melodrama-style villain Professor Fate and Peter Falk is eternally memorable has his feckless and long suffering assistant, Max. Tony Curtis gets the staring role as the spotless hero, The Great Leslie. His teeth glisten, his white clothes are dazzling, his hair is in place, and his white car never seems to pick up dirt. Keenan Wynn is his silent, strong, and able assistant, Hezekiah. Of course, the glory of the movie was the beautiful Natalie Wood as the suffragette and reporter, Maggie Dubois. She left us far too soon.

The story is inspired by the real 1908 Great Race from New York to Paris. The Suffragette movement tied in nicely with the rise of women's liberation in 1960s America, so that is in the story, too. Neither the race nor the women's issues is handled all that seriously. They are merely plot points to hang the jokes on and around. The wonderful melodrama of the magnificence of The Great Leslie and the dastardly (is that word used anywhere outside of melodrama?) Professor Fate is the engine that drives the movie. Fate hates Leslie and will stop at nothing (Nothing!) to beat him.

There are jokes about Fate's car (the Hannibal 8) and its secret weapons that never work and Leslie's car, the Leslie Special) that can withstand anything and never even get dirty. One of my favorite sections of the movie takes place on the ice flow.

Max: "We got to do something!"
Fate: "Oh, don't worry. Before this iceberg melts and we drown like rats, we're going to do plenty"
Max: "What?"
Fate: "We're going to starve!"

Then this exchange between Fate and Leslie discussing the rate of the ice flow melting:
Leslie: "You had better keep this to yourself"
Fate: "Of course I will keep it to myself" then after Leslie walks away he says to himself (us):
Fate: "Until the water reaches my lower lip! Then I'm going to mention it to somebody!"

And the movie features the largest pie (and most colorful) pie fight ever filmed. Those are real pies and the crew devoured hundreds of leftovers! The movie also has some wild west fun, sword fights, and a delightfully goofy race through Paris.

A wonderfully silly movie that is still wonderful entertainment.

Enjoy!

Strongly recommended.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

Just as funny as I remembered it to be. This has the absolutely best pie fight ever.

If you like campy, slapstick, over-the-top vintage comedies Hollywood style then you'll love `The Great Race' from '65 starring the incomparable Tony Curtis as the Great Leslie, the demure and lovely Natalie Wood as Maggie Dubois and the sinister and demented Jack Lemmon as Professor Fate.

`The Great Race' is loaded with lots of familiar faces and plenty of laughs to spread liberally along the way as the Great Leslie and the lovely Ms. Dubois battle Professor Fate and his assistant Max in a trans-continental automobile race of outrageous proportions. There's lots of fun to be had for the whole family in this oldie but goodie. Gentlemen, start your engines!

My Rating: -4 1/2 Stars-.

The second pairing of Tony Curtis & Jack Lemmon is a good, funny movie but not quite up to the level of their first, Some Like It Hot. Tony Curtis is our hero, The Great Leslie, dressed in white, teeth gleaming, never dirty. Jack Lemmon is our villain, Professor Fate, dressed in black, always scheming, always failing hilariously. Natalie Wood is our heroine, Maggie Dubois, lovely, emancipated & sexy. Our supporting cast has Peter Falk, Max Meen, Professor Fate's henchman, dumb & prone to failure; & we have Keenan Wynn, Hezekiah, The Great Leslie's assistant, loyal & obedient.

Does this all sound trite, hackneyed & done before? Possible, but never done with tongue so much into cheek. Lemmon actually has two roles, Professor Fate & Prince Hapnick, the latter being an exact look alike (different mustache), a drunk & more inept than Max. These two characters are involved in a minor subplot where Gen. Kuhster (George Macready) has them switched so that the Prince will abdicate & make him Chancellor of Potzdorf.

This movie pays homage to the history of Hollywood & its films. There are touches of the Keystone Cops, Robin Hood, Dick Dastardly, a western barroom brawl & many more. The sword duel between The great Leslie & Baron Von Stuppe (Ross Martin) is lifted directly from The Adventures of Robin Hood, even to the point of showing the shadows only dueling. One can even see some of the Roadrunner & Wile E. Coyote in the film. Jack Lemmon is completely over the top as Professor Fate, in fact, all the characters in the movies are caricatures, complete exaggerations of the real thing.

The movie is directed by Blake Edwards, one of Hollywood's most versatile directors who had a knack for comedy. His list of credits include acting ,writing, producing & directing. His directing credits include: Operation Petticoat, Breakfast at Tiffanys, The Pink Panther & most sequels & The Wild Rovers. His passion for comedy & Hollywood's history is very apparent, including the pie fight scene (a la Three Stooges) near the end of the movie. EVERYONE gets hit with a pie including Natalie Wood. Through it all The Great Leslie remains spotless, the pies are flying fast & furious & yet he doesn't even get a ricochet crumb. Well, that is, he finally gets one in the face at the end of the scene.

The film is actually done in two parts, there is an intermission. The first half of the film is mostly farce, the second half is more like a traditional costume adventure movie, though the pie fight scene reverts the movie to a farce. The only complaint I have is that the movie is too long, it clocks in at 160 minutes. The movie has been beautifully remastered, there are subtitles in eight languages & a behind the scenes documentary.

Loved Natalie Wood singing The Sweetheart Tree song. It is a happy song with happy words.
Cinematography, soundtrack and acting are excellent.