the great race

The Great Race is a 1965 slapstick comedy movie directed by Blake Edwards, written by Blake Edwards and Arthur A. Ross, with music by Henry Mancini and cinematography by Russell Harlan. It stars Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, Natalie Wood, Keenan Wynn and Peter Falk.

Background and influences

On February 12, 1908, the first around-the-world automobile race began with six entrants, starting on 43rd Street in New York City. Their destination was Paris. The first car crossed the finish line on July 18, but its team was penalised 15 days for using railroad transport to meet a critical North American deadline (meeting the other surviving racers to catch a ship to Russia). They lost to the American entry driven by George Miller, which arrived on July 22. At least three books, written by members of the three teams that finished the race, have documented this event:

• The Longest Auto Race (pub. 1966) by George Shuster, the co-driver of the (winning) US entry
• Il giro del mondo in automobile (pub. 1910) by Antonio Scarfoglio the driver for the Italian team
• Im Auto um die Welt (pub. 1909) by the German driver, Koeppen

Only the approximate race route and the time period were borrowed by Blake Edwards in his effort to make "the funniest comedy ever" (see Review quoting this tagline). Building on the dedication to "Mr Laurel and Mr Hardy", the film makes use of every silent movie era slapstick and visual gag, along with double entendres, parodies and period-related absurdism (amongst these are the elaborate gowns of Maggie DuBois and the fact that, with limited luggage, she never repeats an outfit). A western saloon brawl embodies a parody of Westerns in general, and a plot detour launched during the final third of the film is a direct parody of The Prisoner of Zenda. The unintended consequences of Professor Fate's order, "Push the button, Max!," is a running gag, along with the untouchability of The Great Leslie.

Music for the film was by Henry Mancini and the costumes were designed by Edith Head. Production design, so important in setting the period but also in establishing a setting for the visual humour, was by Fernando Carrere who also designed The Great Escape and The Pink Panther for Blake Edwards.

Plot

The Great Leslie (Tony Curtis), whose full name is Leslie Gallant III, is a wealthy daredevil and showman who is famed for such things as setting speed records or Houdini-esque escape acts. Professor Fate (Jack Lemmon) is Leslie's nemesis, whose own daredevil-shows usually end in failure or at least embarassment. Leslie has the respect and admiration of businessmen and the media, whilst Fate sulks behind the walls of his dark mansion and is not taken seriously in general; hence, he bears an eternal grudge against his white-suited rival.

Leslie proposes that the Webber Motor Company promote its brand-new open-top tourer by sponsoring, entering and (hopefully) winning a race from New York to Paris. Fate is at pains not only to build his own supercar, the Hannibal Twin-8 (complete with features reminiscent of James Bond's movie cars) but also to sabotage Leslie's preparations. Meanwhile, the editor of New York City's most prominent newspaper--The Sentinel--is cajoled by Maggie DuBois (a young female photojournalist and suffragette) into entering a car with her as the driver...since her previous attempts to insinuate herself into either Leslie's or Fate's cars have failed.

As the race begins, Fate's sidekick Maximillian (Peter Falk) carries out his master's instructions to fatally sabotage all the other cars except the Leslie Special (and DuBois' car, since she was late to the starting grid). Fate's motivation is for the race to be a one-on-one standup-fight between himself and Leslie. However, in spite of taking the lead on the road, Fate is unable to press his advantage; he antagonizes the officials of Boracho...a small western-frontier town where the racers are due to refuel. DuBois breaks down in the desert and is given a ride by Leslie; her presence between the two cars will remain a hot topic for the rest of the race. Fate steals the fuel he needs and sets the rest on fire (which destroys half the town), consigning Leslie to a long delay. Yet, in due course, this is erased when both cars reach Alaska and park side-by-side in the snowbound middle-of-nowhere.

DuBois has conned Leslie so she can remain in his car, at the expense of his loyal mechanic Hezekiah (Keenan Wynn). As the two cars sit out a snowstorm, Leslie begins his first real efforts to break down Maggie's resistance (which is merely a hard-to-get act; her attraction to Leslie was made obvious earlier in the story). But with both cars parked alongside each other in the snowstorm, a few mishaps compel all four (Leslie, DuBois, Fate and Max) to sleep in Leslie's car. They awake to find themselves adrift on a small iceberg no bigger than their two cars. Fortuitously, as the iceberg melts close to the point of submergence, they drift right into their intended Russian port. There Hezekiah is waiting. To avoid her being left behind ("She is his Achilles-heel; She is our ace-in-the-hole; She must not be left behind!"), DuBois is snatched by Fate who drives off in the lead.

After an uneventful trip across Asia, both racers (now out of contact with each other) enter the small European kingdom of Potsdorf, where Fate's exact resemblance to Crown Prince Hapnick (also played by Lemmon) leads to a significant — and dangerous — interlude. Rebels under the leadership of Baron Rolf von Stuppe (Ross Martin) and General Kuhster (George Macready) kidnap the Prince. They hold Maggie and Max prisoner...forcing Fate to masquerade as the Prince and go through the coronation, then hand over power to the Baron and General. The plot is foiled after Max escapes and convinces Leslie to attempt a rescue. Leslie (narrowly) bests von Stuppe in a swordfight, and all our main characters go through the (reputedly) biggest pie fight in cinema history (where Leslie's untouchable panache is tainted for the first time).

As the five escape (with Maggie now in Leslie's car), it becomes a straight road race to Paris. Within the city of Paris itself, Leslie and Maggie have a raging argument over the relationships and roles between men and women (one of the film's main themes). The argument ends when Leslie stops his car, just meters from the finish line under the Eiffel Tower, to prove his love for Maggie by sacrificing the race. Fate drives past to claim the winner's mantle, but when it becomes apparent that Leslie threw the race ("You cheated!"), Fate demands a rematch. The film ends with the start of that race back to NYC (Leslie and Maggie are in his car with "Just Married" signage), and the sight gag to end all sight gags.

Legacy

The film was a major influence on Wacky Races, a Hanna-Barbera cartoon series.^{citation needed]} The film's characterizations were themselves rather cartoonish. Furthermore, film editor and sound-effects man Treg Brown, who worked on many classic Warner Brothers cartoons, worked on this film, and many sound effects will be familiar to cartoon fans.