The Great Race

The Great Leslie and Professor Fate are competing daredevils at the turn of the 20th century. Leslie is the classic hero – always dressed in white, handsome, ever-courteous, enormously talented and successful. Leslie's nemesis, Fate, is the traditional melodramatic villain – usually dressed in black, sporting a black moustache and top hat, glowering at most everyone, possessing a maniacal evil laugh, filled with grandiose plans to thwart the hero, and dogged by failure. Leslie proposes an automobile race from New York City to Paris and offers the Webber Motor Car Company the opportunity to build an automobile to make the journey. They design and build a new car named "The Leslie Special". Fate builds his own race vehicle, "The Hannibal Twin-8", complete with hidden devices of sabotage. Other car owners enter the race, including one owned by New York City's most prominent newspaper. Driving the newspaper's car is beautiful photojournalist Maggie DuBois, a vocal suffragette.

A seven-car race begins, but Fate's long-suffering sidekick Maximilian Meen has sabotaged four other cars (and his own, by mistake), leaving just three cars in the race. The surviving teams are Leslie with his loyal mechanic Hezekiah Sturdy, Maggie DuBois driving a Stanley Steamer by herself, and Fate and Max. The steamer car breaks down and Maggie accepts a lift in the Leslie Special. Fate arrives first at a refueling point, the small Western frontier town of Borracho. A local outlaw named "Texas Jack" becomes jealous of the attraction to Leslie shown by showgirl Lily Olay and a saloon brawl ensues. Fate sneaks outside amidst the chaos, steals the fuel he needs, and destroys the rest. Leslie uses mules to pull his car to another refueling point, where Maggie tricks Hezekiah into boarding a train and handcuffs him to a seat, lying to Leslie that Hezekiah had quit and "wanted to go back to New York".

The two remaining cars reach the Bering Strait and park side by side in a blinding snowstorm. Keeping warm during the storm, Leslie and Maggie begin to see each other as more than competitors. Mishaps, including a polar bear in Fate's car, compel all four racers to warm themselves in Leslie's car. They awaken on a small ice floe which drifts into their intended Russian port, where Hezekiah is waiting for Leslie, who in turn casts off Maggie for deceiving him. Maggie is snatched by Fate, who drives off in the lead.

After driving across Asia, both cars enter the tiny kingdom of Carpania, whose alcoholic and foppish Crown Prince Friedrich Hapnick is the spitting image of Professor Fate. Plotters under the leadership of Baron Rolfe von Stuppe and General Kuhster kidnap the Prince, Fate, Max, and Maggie. Max escapes and joins Leslie to rescue the others. Fate is forced to masquerade as the Prince during the coronation so that the rebels can gain control of the kingdom. Leslie and Max overcome Von Stuppe's henchmen and confront Von Stuppe. Following a climactic sword fight with Leslie, Von Stuppe attempts escape by leaping to a waiting boat, but bursts the hull and sinks it. Leslie and Max return the real Prince to the capital in time to defeat Kuhster's plan for a military coup. Fate, still masquerading as Prince Hapnick, takes refuge in a bakery but falls into a huge cake. A pie fight ensues involving the racers, the Prince's men and the conspirators. The five racers, covered in pie filling, depart Carpania with King Friedrich's best wishes.

As the racers leave Pottsdorf (with Maggie now back in Leslie's car), it becomes a straight road race to Paris. Nearing Paris, Leslie and Maggie have a spirited argument regarding the roles of men, women and sex in relationships. Leslie stops his car just short of the finish line under the Eiffel Tower to prove that he loves Maggie more than he cares about winning the race. Fate drives past to claim the winner's mantle, but becomes indignant that Leslie let him win. Fate demands a rematch: a race back to New York.

The return race commences, with newlyweds Leslie and Maggie now a team. Fate lets them start first, then attempts to destroy their car with a small cannon. The shot misses the Leslie Special, instead knocking down the Eiffel Tower.

Director Blake Edwards based the film on the 1908 New York to Paris Race, very loosely interpreted. On February 12, 1908, the "Greatest Auto Race" began with six entrants, starting in New York City and racing westward across three continents. The destination was Paris, making it the first around-the-world automobile race. Only the approximate race route and the general time period were borrowed by Edwards in his effort to make "the funniest comedy ever".[5]

Edwards, a studious admirer of silent film, dedicated the film to film comedians Laurel and Hardy.[2] The Great Race incorporated a great many silent era visual gags, along with slapstick, double entendres, parodies, and absurdities.[4] The film includes such time-worn scenes as a barroom brawl, the tent of the desert sheik, a sword fight, and the laboratory of the mad scientist. The unintended consequences of Professor Fate's order, "Push the button, Max!", is a running gag, along with the spotless invulnerability of "The Great Leslie".[2]

Edwards poked fun at later films and literature as well. The saloon brawl scene was a parody of the western film genre, and a plot detour launched during the final third of the film was a direct parody of the novel, The Prisoner of Zenda, and of the 1937 film version of the story, wherein a traveler is a lookalike for the king and stands in for him.[2]

Because of the success of Edwards' previous films Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Pink Panther and A Shot in the Dark, the film's budget started at a generous $6 million. Mirisch Productions initially financed the film for United Artists. The film's escalating costs led UA to drop the film, but the project was picked up by Warners.[6]

Edwards wanted Robert Wagner to play the leading man, but studio executive Jack L. Warner insisted on Tony Curtis, possibly because of Wood's recent divorce from Wagner. (Burt Lancaster was announced at one stage.)[7] Working with Warner, Curtis's new agent Irving "Swifty" Lazar negotiated US$125,000 for Curtis, more than Edwards and Lemmon who were to receive US$100,000 each. After Warner signed the Curtis contract, Lazar reasoned that Edwards and Lemmon should also make US$125,000, and Warner upped its compensation to match Curtis.[8]

Natalie Wood did not want to make The Great Race, but Warner talked her into it. Wood was unhappy with her career and her personal life, having been divorced from Robert Wagner in April 1962. Warner asked Curtis if he would give a percentage of his film royalties to Wood as an enticement, but Curtis refused. He said "I couldn't give her anything to make her want to do the movie."[9] Instead of more money, Warner promised Wood that if she completed The Great Race, she could star in Gavin Lambert's drama Inside Daisy Clover, a role she greatly wished to have.[9] Wood agreed, thinking that filming would be brief on Edwards' movie.

Shooting began on June 15, 1964.[9] Many of the sight gags for The Great Race were expensive to create, and the costs ballooned to US$12 million by the time the film was finished. Edwards, sometimes with Wood in tow, repeatedly visited Warner in his office to ask for more money. Warner approved nearly all of the requests. When it was released, it was the most expensive comedy ever filmed.[2]

Shooting ended in November 1964. During the five months of filming, Wood's unhappiness was not visible to the cast and crew, and her characterization of Maggie DuBois was playful. Her sister Lana Wood thought that Wood looked the prettiest she ever had, but Lana sensed that the film "was physically taxing" for Wood.[10] On Friday, November 27, the day after Thanksgiving, Wood wrapped the last bit of dialog work, then went home and swallowed a bottle of prescription pills. Groggy from the drugs, she called her friend Mart Crowley who took her to the hospital for emergency treatment.[10]

Music for the film was by Henry Mancini, and the costumes were designed by Edith Head. Production design, setting the period and augmenting the visual humor, was by Fernando Carrere who had designed The Great Escape and The Pink Panther for Blake Edwards. The unique slideshow-style title design was by Ken Mundie.[11]

The Great Race was generally not well-received upon release and was considered a critical and commercial flop, making it the first notable failure for director Edwards. Most critics attacked its blatant and overdone slapstick humor and its lack of substance. It also suffered from comparisons with another race-themed "epic comedy" of 1965, Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines. Film critic Richard Schickel wrote that, though the film "bumps along very pleasantly for the most part", Edwards failed at his attempt to recreate the slapstick atmosphere of a Laurel and Hardy comedy.[19] Schickel felt that Wood was "hopelessly miscast", and that the energies of Lemmon and Curtis did not quite make the slapstick work.[19] Maltin wrote that Wood "never looked better" and that the film's comedy sometimes worked but was otherwise forced: "a mixed bag".[20] It currently has a 74% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[21]

Despite earning theatrical rentals of over $11.4 million in the United States and Canada, due to its high cost, it was loss-making.[22]

Before the film was released, the soundtrack was re-recorded in Hollywood by RCA Victor Records for release on vinyl LP. Henry Mancini spent six weeks composing the score, and the recording involved some 80 musicians.[23] Mancini collaborated with lyricist Johnny Mercer on several songs including "The Sweetheart Tree", a waltz released as a single. The song plays on along the film as the main theme without chorus (except in the entr' acte) and it was performed onscreen by Natalie Wood with the voice dubbed by Jackie Ward (uncredited).[24] It was nominated for but did not win an Oscar for best song. The full track listing is:

• "He Shouldn't-A, Hadn't-A, Oughtn't-A Swang on Me" – Mancini/Mercer
  • Performed by Dorothy Provine
• "Buffalo Gals" – Traditional Western song performed by the chorus girls in Boracho saloon, with different lyrics and a middle section, for a 1900s atmosphere
• "The Sweetheart Tree (chorus)" – Mancini
  • Performed by Natalie Wood (dubbed by Jackie Ward)
• "The Royal Waltz" – Mancini
• "Great Race March" – Mancini
• "They're Off!" – Mancini
• "Push the Button, Max!" (Professor Fate's theme) – Mancini
• "The Great Race March" – Mancini
• "Cold Finger" – Mancini
• "Music to Become King By" – Mancini
• "Night, Night, Sweet Prince" – Mancini
• "The Pie in the Face Polka" – Mancini
• "The Desert Song"
  • Music by Sigmund Romberg
• "It Looks Like a Big Night Tonight"
  • Music by Egbert Van Alstyne
• "Big Night Tonight"
• "Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565"[25][26]
  • Written by Johann Sebastian Bach
• "Tales from the Vienna Woods"
  • Written by Johann Strauss
• "The Beautiful Blue Danube"
  • Written by Johann Strauss

The film won an Oscar for Best Sound Effects as well as being nominated for Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Song, and Best Sound (George Groves).[27] It was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Picture – Musical or Comedy and Best Actor – Musical or Comedy (Jack Lemmon).

At the 4th Moscow International Film Festival, the film won the Silver Prize.[28]

Slightly in advance of the film's release, as was the custom of the era, a paperback novelization of the film was published by Dell Books. The author was renowned crime and western novelist Marvin H. Albert, who also made something of a cottage industry out of movie tie-ins. He seems to have been the most prolific screenplay novelizer of the late '50s through mid '60s, and, during that time, the preeminent specialist at light comedy.

• Dell Movie Classic: The Great Race (March 1966)[29][30]

The film was a major influence on Wacky Races, a Hanna-Barbera cartoon series.[31] The film's characterizations were rather cartoonish. Furthermore, film editor and sound-effects man Treg Brown, who worked on many classic Warner Brothers cartoons, worked on this film. Brown's sound design won the film an Oscar.[27] In his Top 10 Favorite Comedies, Doug Walker cited Jack Lemmon's performance as Professor Fate as a major influence for his Nostalgia Critic persona.

The villain's catchphrase, "Push the button, Max!" was also adapted by the satirical TV series, Mystery Science Theater 3000 for most of the early seasons as, "Push the button, Frank!", as an episode closing catchphrase.[32]

• Monte Carlo or Bust!, aka Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies (1969)

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• The Great Race at the American Film Institute Catalog
• The Great Race at IMDb
• The Great Race at the TCM Movie Database
• The Great Race at AllMovie