The Great Race

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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.

It tells the story of a car race in 1908 between New York and Paris in which two of the contestants, the evil Professor Fate (Jack Lemmon) and his sidekick, Max (Peter Falk), try to get rid of the rest of motorists by means of nefarious sabotage. The only racer who can escape their evil plots is Fate's nemesis, The Great Leslie (Tony Curtis), driving the Leslie Special with the help of his mechanic, Hezekiah (Keenan Wynn), and Maggie DuBois (Natalie Wood), a spunky journalist/suffragette whose entry was eliminated early in the race.

Jack Lemmon plays two very different characters in the film: aside from Professor Fate, he also plays Crown Prince Frederick Hapnick, a silly, consistently drunk monarch who becomes the victim of a conspiracy plot using Fate as a double.

The film was a major influence on Wacky Races, a Hanna-Barbera cartoon series. 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. Interestingly, through several corporate transactions, Warner Bros. now holds the rights to Wacky Races as well.

The film features what was reputedly the largest pie fight in film history.

The film is dedicated "To Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy".

There was an actual automobile race staged in 1908 from New York to Paris, before actual racing over public roads (as opposed to rallying) was made illegal due to the danger and the increasing volume of traffic. However, it was merely the inspiration for this film; the events depicted in the film are in no way related to the actual events of the race, which have been documented in at least three books, written, respectively, by members of the three teams that finished the real race. Those books are:

• The Longest Auto Race (pub. 1966) by Shuster, the driver of the 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.

Quotes

• "As a very wise English gentleman once said, 'He who fights and runs away may live to fight another day'. So, until another day, Mr. Leslie, please excuse me." ~Baron von Stuppe (Ross Martin), preceding a perfect swan dive through his boat.

• "Ulp? Brandy? Hah-hah, throw more brandy! Throw brandy! More Brandy!" ~ Prince Frederick Hapnik, getting a pie in the face.

• (gets a second pie in the face) "Rum! I never mix my pies. I want to play, too." ~Crown Prince Frederick Hapnick (Jack Lemmon) as he enters the pie fight.

• "It's been my experience, General, that there is little advantage to winning if one wins too easily." ~The Great Leslie (Tony Curtis) to General Kuhster (George Macready) after Leslie arrives in Potsdorf.

• "In my profession, to win is imperative; to win easily is a blessing." ~General Kuhster's reply to the Great Leslie.

• "Rise and shine? You rise, you shine! Rise and shine..." ~Professor Fate (Jack Lemmon), after Max (Peter Falk) tries to wake him up in The Leslie Special.

• "If you don't leave this car immediately, I shall personally feed you to the bear." ~The Great Leslie to Professor Fate, after Fate falls through the roof of the Leslie Special in the middle of a snowstorm.

• "You talk a good fight, but when it comes down to it, you're as emancipated as a confirmed spinster in a knitting bee." ~The Great Leslie to Maggie DuBois (Natalie Wood) as they approach the finish line in Paris.

• "I'd like to see the Great Leslie try THAT one!" ~Professor Fate, covered in feathers after crashing during a stunt.

• "Well, there's another one Leslie can try on for size!" ~Professor Fate, covered in hot slurry after crashing during another stunt.

• "I'm offering you a lift. Or would you prefer an engraved invitation?" ~The Great Leslie to Maggie DuBois, the latter seated on a desolate rock.

• "Push the button, Max!" ~Professor Fate, on numerous occasions.

• "You have a brain the size of a carbuncle! Get outta here before Leslie spots us! Dive, crash dive!" ~ Professor Fate (To Max, in one of the three greatest submarines ever put on film)

• "I won the Women's International Fencing Competition! En guarde!" (accidentally rips tent with rapier) ~ Maggie DuBois

"Now, if you'd won the Men's International Fencing Competition . . ." ~ The Great Leslie

• "Genius, Max, positive genius! What's next?" ~ Professor Fate

"Car number 5, the engine falls out!" ~ Max "Car number 5, hah hah hah hah! Uh Max . . . we're number 5." ~ Professor Fate

• "Welcome to Boracho, honey!" ~ Lily Olay

• "I ain't no native, I was born here!" ~ Lily Olay

• "Fiddledy dee!" ~ Texas Jack

• "NOW can I have me some fightin' room?!" ~Texas Jack, the outlaw (Larry Storch), several times during a saloon fight.

• "I once went on an anthropological expedition, to study the Kwakiutl Indians. In winter, one Kwakiutl in a blanket froze. But two Kwakiutls, in the same blanket ..." ~ The Great Leslie

"Yeeeesss?" ~ Maggie DuBois "Were warmer." ~ The Great Leslie

• "What, we gotta do somethin'." ~ Max

"Oh, don't worry. Before this iceberg melts and we drown like rats, we're going to do plenty, ha!" ~ Professor Fate "Yeah? What?" ~ Max "We're gonna starve!" ~ Professor Fate

• "Why you thimble headed gherkin! Do you realize the odds against a storm in this part of the ocean at this time of the year?" ~ Professor Fate, to Max.

• "Thirty seven inches to go." ~ The Great Leslie (measuring iceberg remaining)

"Oh, 37 inches to go. Huzzah! At the rate we've been melting, that's good for about one more week!" ~ Professor Fate "You'd better keep it to yourself." ~ The Great Leslie "Oh, of course I'll keep it to myself. Until the water reaches my lower lip, and then I'm gonna mention it to SOMEBODY!" ~ Professor Fate

• "You bumbling idiots, you will answer to my government for this outrage, outrage! You are kidnapping Fate the Magnificent! Look, let's get practical. I don't care what you do to the others, as long as you let me go. What do you say to five HUNDRED dollars?" (whistles) ~ Professor Fate, to the Baron's guards.

• "I hate you"" ~ Professor Fate, as Prince Frederick Hapnik, to Hapnik's dog.

• "Leslie escaped with a chicken!?!?!?" ~ Professor Fate, as Prince Frederick Hapnik.

• "No! You touch one hair on his head and you'll have to answer to Teddy Roosevelt, and the government of the United States of America!" ~ Maggie DuBois, in defense of Hezekiah Sturdy.

• "You! You're the cause of it all! It was your idea!" "You're banished! I'm getting a new tucker-inner! Banished, banished, banished!" ~ Prince Frederick Hapnik to General Kuhster.

• "Goodbye! Farewell, you good Leslie you! I hope you win! I hope you win! (laughs) I miss him ..." ~ Prince Frederick Hapnik

• "If we turned right back there we'd end up on the Montmarte Steps!" ~ The Great Leslie

• "I am king! I am the king....no I'm not! I didn't beat him! He let me win! I can't win this way! I can only win one way - my way! He let me win! I can't win your way! You cheated, you cheated, you cheated, you cheated! You cheated, cheated, I hate you! I refuse to accept! I won't win any way but my way! You'll ruin my reputation, do you hear! *You* I hate! You with your hair that's always combed and your suit that's always white and your car that's always clean! I refuse to accept! I challenge you to another race!" ~ Professor Fate, on winning THE GREAT RACE.

External links

• [Dialog on DVD version]

External links to items about the real race

• [Antonio Scarfoglio and the Great Race]
• [The Great Auto Race of 1908]

Blake Edwards
The Pink Panther	The Pink Panther (1963) | A Shot in the Dark (1964) | The Return of the Pink Panther (1975) | The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976) | Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978) | Trail of the Pink Panther (1982) | Curse of the Pink Panther (1983) | Son of the Pink Panther (1993)
1950s	Bring Your Smile Along | He Laughed Last | Mister Cory | This Happy Feeling | The Perfect Furlough | Operation Petticoat
1960s	High Time | Breakfast at Tiffany's | Experiment in Terror | Days of Wine and Roses | The Great Race | What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? | Gunn | The Party
1970s	Darling Lili | Wild Rovers | The Carey Treatment | The Tamarind Seed | 10
1980s	S.O.B. | Victor/Victoria | The Man Who Loved Women | Micki + Maude | A Fine Mess | That's Life! | Blind Date | Sunset | Skin Deep
1990s	Switch
Productions	Panhandle (1948) | Soldier in the Rain (1963)
Television	"Four Star Playhouse" (1952 - 1956) | "Peter Gunn" (1958 - 1961) | "Mr. Lucky" (1959 - 1960) | "The Dick Powell Show" (1961-1963) | Justin Case (1988) | Peter Gunn (1989) | "Julie" (1992) | Victor/Victoria (1995)

 

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