Review of Great Race, The

Introduction

This is my 100th review, and for it I`m covering one of my comfort movies. Blake Edwards` "The Great Race" is one of those movies I love to immerse myself in. It`s like a big, warm blanket of childhood I can huddle in when the world is a sad and depressing place.

For years, "Race" was unavailable due to a long-running dispute between the director and the studio (Warners). During the 1990s, it was finally re-released as a pan and scan VHS title, but now it`s available in Region 1 in its fully restored glory.

"The Great Race" is an epic comedy in the style of "It`s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World", "Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines" and most closely the oft-overlooked "Monte Carlo Or Bust" (aka "Those Daring Young Men In Their Jaunty Jalopies") It follows the adventures of two turn-of-the-twentieth-century showmen-daredevils - The Great Leslie (Tony Curtis) and his greatest rival Professor Fate (Jack Lemmon). The two men vie to pull off greater stunts than each other, usually with Professor Fate ending up with mud on his face.

Leslie moots the idea of an overland race from New York to Paris, and Fate uses foul means rather than fair to ensure that he wins. Covering the race for the New York Sentinel is Maggie DuBois (Natalie Wood), a suffragette journalist who bullies her way into a post on the newspaper.

The Race takes them across the United States, the Bering Straits, Russia and into the sleepy little mittel-European country of Potsdorf (when I say little, I mean little. It`s the sort of place that would have its ass kicked by Lichtenstein. They worked out that rather than having an integrated road transport plan it would be cheaper to have the country carpeted. We are talking small.) There, the two racers and their companions become embroiled in a "Prisoner of Zenda"-style plot to usurp the Potsdorfian crown. This plot leads to the biggest pie fight in cinema history.

And what a pie fight. What timing. And doesn`t Natalie Wood look good in whipped cream...

Tony Curtis sends up the whole square-jawed hero image with great panache, and Jack Lemmon chews the furniture wonderfully as a prototype Dick Dastardly. Peter Falk is magnificent as his Muttley sidekick Max and Keenan Wynn offers stalwart assistance to Tony Curtis as his mechanic Hezekiah. Natalie Wood is stridently lovely as the totally liberated Maggie and as villain of the piece Ross Martin is eminently hissable. Dorothy Provine as a Wild West songstress and Larry Storch as her insanely jealous mexican-bandit boyfriend complete a marvellous ensemble cast.

Video

The movie is presented in its original 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. This is a digital remastering, so the film is about as clean and sharp as you could ever hope to get it. Contrast is excellent and colours are vivid and clean. Wear and tear is minimal for a film of this vintage.

Audio

Warners have gone all out on the sound side of this release, restoring it and remastering it to Dolby Digital 5.1. Although there aren`t any real surround effects in the movie, the soundtrack has pleasing `oomph`. The picture includes the original walk-in, walk-out and intermission reels which offer Henry Mancini`s catchy score, not least "The Sweetheart Tree".

Features

There are full subtitles (a personal important point), a theatrical trailer, filmographies but best of all a "Behind The Scenes With Blake Edwards` The Great Race" documentary. This is a short piece made at the time of the production and just shows how studio puff-pieces have been elevated to a science by the PR companies.

Conclusion

"The Great Race" was very nearly never completed. It suffered from the kinds of problems and setbacks that have the gossip columnists rubbing their hands together, and nearly had the plug pulled on it when it soared over budget. The result disappointed at the box-office, but thirty-eight years on the picture is benefitting from nostalgia. It is easily up there with "The Pink Panther" as one of the best movies made by Blake Edwards, and it certainly contains top line (admittedly almost pantomime) performances from Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon. Wonderful!