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Good story, Not enough for a whole film

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

I love slapstick. Laurel and Hardy and Inspector Clouseau. My wife cannot stand either but will tolerate some Stan and Ollie on occasion so here I have a personal note. I am a 10 year old fan of this film, saw it in 1965 and in later years since. BluRay now. Such is time. Now at the age of 61, I watch it with my wife every September 11 as I am also a survivor of the South Tower, 101st floor, so my hand is on the selection button for that night. I enjoy it immensely - Fate under the Curtiss pusher, the torpedo, race, the saloon fight and all. Right back to Laurel and Hardy in WAY OUT WEST. So here is a personal note for me here for this group - it has flaws but immensely entertaining. Watch it, laugh and enjoy fine performances from a time long ago.

This film is a perfect classic! Straight from the impeccable A-list cast! Natalie Wood was great in this film! And of course Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon fit their roles perfectly also! This is just the type of film that I love! A big road trip adventure movie, with a great cast, humor, and well written along with a good story line. The costumes are fantastic too, I'm sure it was tough to gather all those different costumes, for all the different settings in the movie, especially for 1965, they did do a great job though! This movie is just pure fun!! Very fun, adventurous, funny, well acted, well done. The sets are very pretty and elaborate looking. The bottom line is this movie is just so enjoyable and fun to watch! I 100% suggest the great race (1965) 10/10! Some people don't even know it exists, and it's really a shame, because it's better than some movies that come out today.

Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis team up once again in what should had been one of the great slapstick comedies of all times but it becomes an overindulgent, overlong mess. Well it does have a massive pie fight near the end.The film came out a few weeks after the similar themed Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines. Having watched both recently, the Magnificent Men has stood the test of time better.Director Blake Edwards is inspired by Laurel & Hardy which clearly shows in the comical scrapes that Jack Lemmon and his side kick Peter Falk get into.Lemmon and Curtis are daredevils although Lemmon is the dastardly kind and Curtis is the dashing heroic one. They compete in a New York to Paris car race which Lemmon is hell bent to disrupt by nobbling his rivals. Natalie Wood takes part as a suffragette reporter who competes as well as covering the race for a newspaper and is the romantic interest for Curtis.The film starts as a promising farce. There is a sequence involving Tony Curtis free falling before he opens a parachute which I swear was later borrowed by the James Bond producers. Its all very wacky races, there is even a Penelope Pitstop but it just goes on and on including a subplot involving a doppleganger that looks like Lemmon who is a crown Prince of a European principality.I think Blake Edwards decided to end it all in a giant pie fight but then remembered that he had a race to finish in Paris so on and on the film goes.Wood's Suffragette feminist character actually gets to be grating and holds the picture up. Curtis is a little too subdued, one of the reasons the film's release was delayed was because the production schedule overran. Too much partying by the cast and crew and its reflected in some of the acting. Lemmon gets to play two roles but his Professor Fate cackled too much for my liking but he and Falk blend wonderfully.The film would had been a classic if 40 minutes was shaved off the running time.

Are grand slapstick films like this even made any longer? It seems even the children's comedies nowadays are vulgar and cynical. Not that I'm saying vulgar and cynical can't be entertaining, but it would be nice if there was still room for fare like The Great Race (1965), one of the breeziest comedy spectacles ever made. It's no exaggeration when I say that this is a film that will make you feel like a kid again.The plot itself is like a Saturday morning cartoon of old: a daredevil named the Great Leslie (Tony Curtis) is partaking in an automobile race from New York to Paris, joined by his lackey Hezekiah (Keenan Wynn) and the reporter Miss Maggie DuBois (Natalie Wood). On the journey, he has to contend with his mustache-twirling rival Professor Fate (Jack Lemmon) and his minion Max (Peter Falk), both willing to do anything to make sure they beat Leslie. The film is episodic, covering their misadventures across the globe.Though It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) is what comes to mind when people think of the short-lived genre of epic comedy, The Great Race is far superior due to focusing on five main characters and running at twenty minutes under three hours. Unlike the earlier film, this one knows when to give you a breather before delivering another volley of gags. The look of the movie itself is easy on the eyes, colorful and warm. The costumes are the stuff of cartoons: Leslie is always in an immaculately white suit and cap, Fate is head to toe in black, and Miss DuBois' outfits (which are wont to change even within the same scene!) come in every color on the rainbow.All the players are great, but the one everyone always remembers is Jack Lemmon's outrageous mustachioed villain, Professor Fate. He leaves much more of an impression then the film's white clad hero, but then again, don't the bad guys usually do? You can tell Lemmon is having the time of his life and consequently, so do we.A perfect film for a rainy day.