1965 - THE GREAT RACE, should have been called "The Barely Okay Race."

The director Blake Edwards had been on a roll with his successful Pink Panther films.  Edwards was considered one of the masters of screen comedy particularly when it came to slapstick humor.  Warner Brothers studios gave him a lot of money to film a tribute to the kind of physical comedy he was supposed to be an expert at.  The result was a critical and commercial flop.

Tony Curtis is "The Great Leslie," a virtuous hero always dressed in white.  His opponent is Jack Lemmon  the evil "Professor Fate," Leslie's mortal enemy.  Natalie Wood is "Maggie DuBois," a reporter and suffragette.  The film is set in the early 20th century, with Leslie and Professor Fate challenging each other to a round the world car race in early automobiles.  This setup allows Blake Edwards to load the film up with lots of gags that he probably borrowed from silent comedies.

However the film is just not that funny.  The viewer sits through one lame comedic bit after another.  The old time comics like Keaton, Chaplin and Lloyd knew how to set up and pace a joke.  Edwards knows how to reuse a lot of their old situations but doesn't seem to be able to get the timing right to delivery the laughs.  This is particularly evident during an extended pie fight scene which should be hilarious but for the most part just lays there like a dying fish.

Another big issue with the film is Jack Lemmon.  Lemmon is supposed to be in the great tradition of the evil mustache twirling villain, sort of like Snidley Whiplash from the old Dudley Do Right cartoons.  But the best Lemmon can do is shout and role his eyes without actually being funny.  It's hard to believe that Lemmon was considered a gifted comedian at one time.

 

The film is supposed to be about a race but with an hour left to go in an already long film, Edwards decides to borrow the plot of The Prisoner of Zenda.  The race is completely forgotten about as the viewer watches scenes rehashed that were staged a whole lot better in the original Prisoner of Zenda film.  

To sum it up the film is almost a complete failure and kind of a mess.  To bad since this is a large scale and good looking production.  The actors with the exception of Jack Lemmon are good, the on-location photography across Europe must have been expensive, but the film's biggest issue the unfunny script finishes off the whatever fun there is to be had in watching this expensive disappointment.

 

The film was written by Arthur A. Ross with Blake Edwards taking a story credit.  For a comedy the film runs 160 minutes.