Honestly, they just don’t make them like this anymore. When people talk about "The Great Race film," they’re usually thinking of that massive, sprawling, $12 million comedy from 1965 that basically tried to out-spectacle every other movie in Hollywood. It was a chaotic love letter to the silent film era, dedicated to "Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy," and it remains one of the most expensive comedies ever greenlit by a studio.
Directed by Blake Edwards—the genius behind The Pink Panther—this movie is a loud, colorful, slapstick-heavy marathon. It runs for nearly three hours. Yeah, you heard that right. Three hours for a comedy. But somehow, it works. It’s got Tony Curtis playing the blindingly white-clad hero, Jack Lemmon as the mustache-twirling villain, and Natalie Wood as a suffragette who refuses to take anyone's nonsense.
What Actually Happens in The Great Race Film?
The plot is deceptively simple. It’s 1908. A car race is organized from New York to Paris (heading west across the Rockies and through Russia, because why not?). But the movie isn't really about the driving. It’s about the rivalry between The Great Leslie and Professor Fate.
Tony Curtis is The Great Leslie. He’s perfect. He’s so perfect that his teeth literally "ping" when he smiles. On the flip side, you have Jack Lemmon as Professor Fate, a man who lives in a gothic mansion, wears all black, and fails at every single thing he attempts. Lemmon actually plays a double role here, also appearing as the wine-soaked Prince Frederick Hoepnick of Carpania, which leads to some of the best physical comedy in the film's second half.
It’s a movie of extremes.
The production was a beast. They shot on location in Salzburg, Vienna, and Paris. Warner Bros. poured money into it, and you can see every cent on the screen. The cars alone—The Leslie Special and the Hannibal 8—were fully functional custom builds that cost a fortune in 1960s dollars. The Hannibal 8 had six wheels and a hidden smoke screen. It was basically a precursor to the Wacky Races cartoon, which, fun fact, was actually inspired by this movie.
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The Pie Fight to End All Pie Fights
You can't talk about The Great Race film without talking about the pie fight. It is legendary.
It took five days to film. It used 4,000 real pies. Not shaving cream, not fake foam—actual pastry and filling. The cast got so sticky and smelly under the hot studio lights that they had to be hosed down between takes. Natalie Wood reportedly hated every second of it, but she played it like a pro.
There’s a specific beat in that scene that defines the movie’s logic. Tony Curtis, being the "perfect" hero, walks through the entire chaotic battle without getting a single speck of flour on his white suit. While everyone else is drenched in cherry and custard, he’s pristine. It’s only at the very final second of the scene that he finally gets hit. It’s a masterclass in comedic timing.
The sheer scale of the waste—all those pies—actually led to some minor controversy at the time. But Edwards wanted authenticity. He wanted the weight of the fruit hitting the faces to look real. It cost over $200,000 just to film that one sequence. In 1965. That’s roughly $1.8 million in today’s money just for a food fight.
Why This Movie Still Matters in 2026
You might wonder why a 60-year-old movie about a car race is worth your time. Well, because it’s a time capsule of a specific kind of Hollywood ambition. It represents the "Roadshow" era—films that had intermissions, orchestral overtures, and souvenir programs.
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The Dynamics of the Trio
The chemistry between the leads is what keeps the engine running.
- Jack Lemmon: He’s doing high-level vaudeville. His "PUSH THE BUTTON, MAX!" catchphrase is iconic.
- Tony Curtis: He’s the straight man, which is a harder job than it looks. He has to stay charming while Lemmon is chewing the scenery.
- Natalie Wood: Her character, Maggie DuBois, is actually pretty progressive for a 1965 script. She’s a journalist, a suffragette, and she speaks about five languages. She’s not just a trophy at the finish line; she’s a competitor.
The film also features Peter Falk (before Columbo fame) as Max, Professor Fate’s long-suffering henchman. The back-and-forth between Lemmon and Falk is pure gold. They’re like a live-action Wile E. Coyote and a slightly more competent Ralph Wolf.
The Technical Madness Behind the Scenes
Creating The Great Race film was a logistical nightmare for the 1960s. The film used 70mm prints for its roadshow release, which meant the image was incredibly crisp. If you watch a 4K restoration today, you can see the individual stitches in the costumes and the genuine exhaustion on the actors' faces during the trek across the "tundra" (which was actually a very cold studio set and some locations in California).
The music by Henry Mancini—the guy who did the Pink Panther theme—is another layer of brilliance. "The Sweetheart Tree" became a hit song, but the real star is the "Professor Fate" theme, which sounds exactly like something a villain in a silent movie would play on a rickety piano.
But let's be real: the movie is long. It’s a commitment. Some critics at the time, like Edith Oliver of The New Yorker, found it a bit much. They thought it was too big for its own good. And yeah, the Carpania sequence (the Prisoner of Zenda parody) drags a little. But the sheer joy of the filmmaking usually wins people over.
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Misconceptions and Forgotten Facts
A lot of people confuse this movie with Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, which came out the same year. Both were big-budget, period-piece races. But while the plane movie is British and focuses on national stereotypes, The Great Race is American slapstick through and through.
Also, many don't realize that the "Great Race" was based on a real event. The 1908 New York to Paris Race actually happened. It was won by a Thomas Flyer, and it took 169 days. The movie turns that grueling historical feat into a candy-colored fantasy, but the inspiration was real. The real race was even more insane—drivers had to deal with mud that was three feet deep and bandits in Siberia.
How to Watch It Today
If you’re going to sit down with The Great Race film, you need to do it right. Don't try to watch it in 15-minute chunks on your phone.
- Find the Intermission: The movie has a literal intermission built into the runtime. Use it.
- Look for the Details: Watch the background during the crowd scenes. Edwards loved filling the frame with small, sight gags.
- Check the Cars: Both the Leslie Special and the Hannibal 8 are now legendary among car collectors. The Hannibal 8 currently sits in the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.
The movie is a testament to what happens when a director is given an unlimited budget and told to "make it funny." It’s loud, it’s proud, and it’s unapologetically silly. It’s also one of the last times we saw this level of practical stunt work and physical comedy on such a massive scale before CGI took over the world.
Your Next Steps for a Deep Dive
If you want to truly appreciate the craftsmanship of this era, here is what you should do:
- Watch the 4K Restoration: Avoid the old DVD transfers. The color palette of this movie (designed by Edith Head and others) needs the high dynamic range to pop.
- Listen to the Commentary: If you can find a version with behind-the-scenes insights, listen to the stories about Jack Lemmon’s improvisation. He was basically a human cartoon.
- Visit the Petersen Museum: If you're ever in LA, seeing the Hannibal 8 in person gives you a real sense of the "over-engineering" that went into this production.
The Great Race isn't just a movie; it's a monument to an era of Hollywood that believed bigger was always better—and in this case, they might have been right.