Great Race, The
Warner Brothers (1965)
Action, Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Romance
In Collection
#5476
0*
Seen ItYes
085391109129
IMDB   7.4
2 hr 40 mins USA / English
DVD  Region 1   NR
Jack Lemmon Prof. Fate
Tony Curtis The Great Leslie
Natalie Wood Maggie DuBois
Peter Falk Max
Keenan Wynn Hezekiah
Arthur O'Connell Henry Goodbody
Vivian Vance Hester Goodbody
Dorothy Provine Lily Olay
Larry Storch Texas Jack
Ross Martin Baron Rolfe Von Stuppe
Director
Blake Edwards
Producer Martin Jurow
Dick Crockett
Writer Arthur Ross
Blake Edwards
Arthur A. Ross


The Great Race was dedicated to "Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy ", though perhaps a more appropriate set of dedicates might have been Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. Tony Curtis stars as The Great Leslie, a hero among heroes whose purity of heart is manifested by his spotlessly white wardrobe. Leslie's great rival, played by Jack Lemmon , is Professor Fate, a scowling, mustachioed, top-hatted, black-garbed villain. Long envious of Leslie's record-setting accomplishments with airships and sea craft, Professor Fate schemes to win a 22,000-mile auto race from New York City to Paris by whatever insidious means possible. The problem is that Fate is his own worst enemy: each of his plans to remove Leslie from the running (and from the face of the earth) backfires. Leslie's own cross to bear is suffragette Maggie Dubois ( Natalie Wood ), who also hopes to win the contest and thus strike a blow for feminism. The race takes all three contestants to the Wild West, the frozen wastes of Alaska, and, in the longest sequence, the mythical European kingdom of Carpania. This last-named country is the setting for a wild Prisoner of Zenda spoof involving Professor Fate and his look-alike, the foppish Carpanian king. When Leslie and Fate approach the finish line at the Eiffel Tower, Leslie deliberately loses to prove his love for Maggie. Professor Fate cannot stand winning under these circumstances, thus he demands that he and Leslie race back to New York. The supporting cast includes Peter Falk as Fate's long-suffering flunkey Max, Keenan Wynn as Leslie's faithful general factotum, Dorothy Provine as a brassy saloon singer, Larry Storch as ill-tempered bandit Texas Jack, and Ross Martin as "Rupert of Hentzau" clone Baron Von Stuppe. The Great Race also yielded a hit song, Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer 's The Sweetheart Tree. — Hal Erickson
Edition Details
Edition Sub
Distributor Warner Home Video
Chapters 44
Release Date 2002
Packaging Snap Case
Screen Ratio Widescreen 1.85:1 Color
Subtitles Chinese; English; French; Japanese; Korean; Portuguese; Spanish; Thai
Audio Tracks ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1 [CC]
FRENCH: Dolby Digital Mono
Layers Single Side, Dual Layer
No. of Disks/Tapes 1

Features
Documentary "Behind The Scenes with Blake Edward's The Great Race"
Interactive Menus
Theatrical Trailer
Cast/Filmmaker Film Highlights
Scene Access