The Great Race

1965
Approved
2h 40m

IMDb RATING

7.2/10

20K

YOUR RATING

Natalie Wood, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon in The Great Race (1965)

Trailer for this comedy starring Jack Lemon

Play trailer2:51

1 Video

99+ Photos

Parody Road Trip Satire Slapstick Action Adventure Comedy Family Romance Sport

In the early 20th century, heroic Leslie Gallant and his despicable rival Professor Fate engage in an epic automobile race from New York to Paris while enthusiastic suffragette Maggie Dubois... Read allIn the early 20th century, heroic Leslie Gallant and his despicable rival Professor Fate engage in an epic automobile race from New York to Paris while enthusiastic suffragette Maggie Dubois enters the race to report on every step of it.In the early 20th century, heroic Leslie Gallant and his despicable rival Professor Fate engage in an epic automobile race from New York to Paris while enthusiastic suffragette Maggie Dubois enters the race to report on every step of it.

Director
- Blake Edwards
Writers
- Arthur A. Ross
- Blake Edwards
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.2/10

20K

YOUR RATING

Director
- Blake Edwards
Writers
- Arthur A. Ross
- Blake Edwards
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Won 1 Oscar
- 3 wins & 14 nominations total

Trivia
The pie fight scene lasts four minutes and was shot in five days. It is the longest pie fight sequence in movie history. At first, the cast had fun filming the pie fight scene, but eventually the process grew wearisome and dangerous. Natalie Wood choked briefly on a pie which hit her open mouth. Jack Lemmon got knocked out a few times: "a pie hitting you in the face feels like a ton of cement". At the end of shooting the fight, when Blake Edwards called "Cut!" he was barraged with several hundred pies that members of the cast had hidden, waiting for that moment.

Goofs
In the final sprint to Paris, Maggie DuBois's costume changes. Since her costume changes at a phenomenal rate throughout the film, this was probably intentional.

Quotes
[On a melting iceberg]
Leslie: [measures the base] 37 inches to go.
Fate: Oh, 37 inches to go. Huzzah! At the rate we've been melting, that's good for about one more week!
Leslie: You'd better keep it to yourself.
Fate: Oh, of course I'll keep it to myself.
[Leslie walks away]
Fate: [muttering] Until the water reaches my lower lip, and then I'm gonna mention it to SOMEBODY!

Crazy credits
Jack Lemmon is only credited as Professor Fate and not for his second role as Crown Prince Hapnik.

Alternate versions
The Great Race has been re-released in France in 1996. However, after the race starts, all scenes involving people from the newspaper in New York have been cut. The French authorities or distributors took them as a mockery of the French suffragette's, feminist's and women's lib movements.

Connections
Edited into Lo schermo a tre punte (1995)

Soundtracks
The Sweetheart Tree
Words by Johnny Mercer
Music by Henry Mancini
Performed by Natalie Wood (dubbed by Jackie Ward) (uncredited)
Robert Bain guitar accompanist (uncredited)

User reviews201

Review

Featured review

Some Like It Custard

Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, memorably paired in "Some Like It Hot", tried it again in "The Great Race". Natalie Wood was a reluctant addition, with a new biography of this actress repeating her displeasure with the film and its director. Peter Falk, not yet Columbo, rounded out a globetrotting quartet chasing first prize in the 1908 New York to Paris automobile race.

Much has been made of how the script's "Prisoner of Zenda" subplot slows the action. Yet these scenes shot in Salzburg have contributed several zingers to the stock of movie quotes floating around in general circulation. Someone must have liked the "Potzdorf" episode, as "More brandy!" and "Drat!

I never mix my pies!" remain among Jack Lemmon's most cited lines.

Surviving participants in the real-life 1908 competition did not care for this trashing of their personal history. I loved it on its first release way back when, and it remains a pleasant (if long) watch on cable TV and home video.