The Greatness of the Great 'The Great Race'

To fight TV in the fifties and sixties, the movies got bigger.

Biblicals, historical epics, and musicals usally got the big treatment, but so did a few comedies.

"Comedia garguantua," we called them. And there are only a few examples. "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" is the biggest (the title ALONE suggested the giganticism.) "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines" was another.

And over a decade later, Steven Spielberg tried to reinvent the genre with "1941"(which, especially in its second half, delivered the goods better than you'd think.)

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But a bow must be made, here and now, to "The Great Race."

Here is a movie we took for granted then(especially if we were kids.) But LOOK AT IT NOW.

Look at those plush Warner Brothers production values. Look at those great sets and that fine location cinematography in the Southwest Desert and in Austria and in Paris. Look at all those cars...and all of Professor's Fates various Machines of Evil Destruction (giant arrows and smiling torpedos and floating mini-blimps and submarines and...more).

By the time he made "The Great Race," Blake Edwards had become a specialist in a great sixties mix: smooth sophistication(aided and abetted by Henry Mancini's smooth and rich jazz orchestrations) and expertly timed slapstick. The European-styled "The Pink Panther" and "A Shot in the Dark" had made Edwards name in both regards, but the All-American "The Great Race" took everything up to 11.

Here's a movie with sequence after sequence after sequence of splendorous big-budget comedy: "Coyote versus Road Runner" live action assaults on Tony Curtis' The Great Leslie by Jack Lemmon's villainous Professor Fate(with Peter Falk's Max on hand for henchmanship and random punishment by Fate.); then the introduction of a beautiful but aggravatingly liberated Natalie Wood(during her peak star period.)

Then the opening race. Then on to the Southwest and a great big musical number (by Dorothy Provine; "Ya Shouldn'a, Oughtna', Hadn'a Swung On Me" -- Huh?) and a great big barroom brawl(as Anglo Frito Bandito Larry Storch keeps demanding "Gimme some FIGHTIN' room"!) Then on to a floating ice floe between Alaska and Russia. Then on to some sort of mythical kingdom for a small-scale mini-remake of "The Prisoner of Zenda" with (1) Jack Lemmon in a second hilarious role as a drunken fop of a Prince ("Oh, you Great Leslie, you!")(2) a spectacular swordfight(between an impressively shirtless Curtis and Ross "Artemis Gordon" Martin) and (3) "The Greatest Pie Fight Ever Filmed!"(You betcha!)... and on to Paris and the Eiffel Tower for a frenzied finale.

Rumor has it that Jack Warner, in the final years of his reign, tried to shut down production on "The Great Race" as it reached "Cleopatra/Heaven's Gate" levels of cost overrun and schedule bypass. Well, "The Great Race" is a whole lot more entertaining than "Cleopatra" or "Heaven's Gate," and the cost overruns? Well, that was between Warner and Edwards. WE got the most spectacular and lush "comedia garguantua" of all time.

I say that even in comparison to the beloved "Mad, Mad World." That former film was directed by Stanley Kramer with an epic-makers deference to sheer SIZE: the size of the cast, the size of the locales, the size of the climax. It hurtles along with a drama-maker's attention to pragmatic shots and basic filmmaking skills.

But Blake Edwards in "The Great Race" elected to make something more plush and lush and fantastic, to focus on three major stars -- Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, Natalie Wood --- and surround them with some of the best character talent in the biz(Peter Falk -- who is really the fourth star of the film), Keenan Wynn(as Curtis' letter perfect Turn-of-the-Century "Good Henchman" complete with handlebar moustache and Barbershop Quartet looks) Vivian Vance (with long-suffering hubby Arthur O'Connell), Ross Martin, George MacReady, and some more.

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Film critics hated the "comedia garguantuas"(rather unfairly comparing them to the artistry of Keaton and Chaplin from an era long gone) and they have always preferred Lemmon and Curtis in "Some Like It Hot"(which lacks the cartoonish backlot sensibility of "The Great Race," but which ALSO lacks the blockbuster production values of "The Great Race.")

In the Jack Lemmon/Tony Curtis career match-up, I rather see "Some Like It Hot" as their "Hard Day's Night" and "The Great Race" as their "Help!" They're both good, but different. And the first, black-and-white one is the "arty one."

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I once met Jack Lemmon at a Q and A in the 70's, and he said that Professor Fate was -- hands down -- the role for which he got the most fan mail. Still. And not only from kids.

Fate is really one of the best things Lemmon ever did. An actor who far too often played neurotic and milquetoast(see "The Apartment" early on, or "The Fortune Cookie" or "The Odd Couple" later) is a macho, bellowing tough guy of evil as Fate...its really just about the most manly role he ever played, except for the pilot in "Airport '77" or that guy in "Cowboy."

And Lemmon LOOKS great in "The Great Race." He had aged out of his cherubic boyishness into middle-aged handsomeness, and was far away from his later elderly disipation. In stylish black outfits(with turn-of-the-century collars and cuffs and stripes), a big moustache, and eyebrows built for raising, Lemmon OWNS "The Great Race." Or rather, he co-owns it: with Peter Falk as Max("Push the button, Max!")

Edwards opens "The Great Race" with the lines: "To Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy." Tony Curtis told the press that Lemmon and Curtis(or Curtis and Lemmon, in Tony's eyes) were Laurel and Hardy in "The Great Race." WRONG. Its Lemmon and FALK. Roughly. Because Lemmon is tougher than Hardy and Falk is tougher than Laurel. But they are still hilarious together.

Not that Tony Curtis was chopped liver. Good Guy The Great Leslie(with animated gleams in his eyes and teeth) is just about Curtis' last movie as a TRULY major movie star, and he plays it like one. He delivers his stilted lines with great wit (he over-enunciates all the time, as when he says "OTTO-MO-BEEL" for "automobile." He wears all his white outfits with verve. And he does the afore-mentioned shirtless swordfighting with beefcake aplomb. (Note: Paul Newman and Charlton Heston turned the role down first.)

Curtis also nicely romances the feisty and sexy Natalie Wood in the movie. (Lemmon and Falk are the other "love duo" -- Lemmon angrily rejects Wood's feminine wiles. No time for such nonsense!)

Cartoonish slapstick is the order of the day in "The Great Race." Its not meant for kids so much as it is meant for families to enjoy together. Natalie wears some nice lingerie for the daddies in the audience, and Curtis strips his chest for the mommies. And the lines are ofttimes pitched at adult levels of wit:

Curtis(remarking that the ice floe on which they are travelling is melting): But please don't tell the others, it will only alarm them.
Lemmon: Well, alright, but when the water reaches my upper lip, I''m gonna tell SOMEBODY!

Character: The Great Leslie escaped with a small friar.
Character: He escaped with a CHICKEN?!!("small fryer." Get it?)

Not to mention the funny interludes in which Falk tries to awaken the grouchy Lemmon from slumber:

Falk: Rise and shine, Professor.
Lemmon: Rise and shine? Rise and shine? RISE AND SHINE??!!!

Falk: Up and at 'em, Professor.
Lemmon: Up and at 'em? Up and at 'em? UP AND AT 'EM!??"

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"The Great Race" starts like those great movies of the sixties starts...getting you in a mood with the music and the credits. Mancini eschews the jazz style for something of a Gay Nineties player-piano technique, introducing his very sweet song "The Sweetheart Tree" to make us happy(and now, when I hear it, decades later, it makes me just a little sad.)

Edwards uses old-fashioned "slide show" titles to do the credits: "Gentlemen, Please Remove Your Hats." Curtis's card gets pre-recorded audience cheers; Lemmon's card gets pre-recorded audience boos; Wood's card gets pre-recorded male audience wolf whistles.

Its all fun and charming and funny and EXPENSIVE(in a very, very good) way.. as can be.

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People try to imagine a "Great Race" remake now. Oh, how fun it would be for Tom Hanks(an expert yeller) to play Professor Fate. Or Jim Carrey(Oh, Lord, no...but I know others would like it.) Or even George Clooney(Lemmon was handsome when he played it, and Clooney can be funny.)

And the good Great Leslie? Take your pick (Downey Jr. -- no wait, he'd make ANOTHER good Professor Fate.) Hugh Jackman? Matt Damon(no, no, no.)

The Natalie Wood role? Pick your beauty.

But it is impossible. It would cost zillions to make nowadays, even with CGI.

And we're simply not so innocent anymore.

Better to have "The Great Race" as a marvelous memory of a different(not better, just different) time at the American movies. It came out in 1965, when people still needed a laugh after JFK and before things got really bad in "the real world."

And it stands today as an unmatchable oasis of fun and sweetness and frolic. The belly laughs come fast and furious, but so do the smiles. When I want some uplift and some escape from where the world is now, I put "The Great Race" in. Works every time. Just like it did in 1965.

Push the button, Max!