... and not as many cameos and not as much emphasis on shooting world locations. It's actually like a cross between that film and "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" and is a a lavishly produced homage to the slapstick comedy and exaggerated villains and heroes of early silent films.

The Great Leslie (Tony Curtis) and Professor Fate (Jack Lemmon) are competing daredevils at the turn of the 20th century. Leslie is the classic hero, Fate the classic villain. Leslie proposes an around the world automobile race and Fate sees this as a chance to - finally - best Leslie by fair means or foul. Complicating matters is a suffragette (Natalie Wood) who insists on entering the race so she can report on it. Arthur O'Connell plays the newspaper editor whom she comically browbeats - and shocks - into employing her.

The most impressive aspect of The Great Race is the lively performance by Jack Lemmon who dominates the film in every frame in which he resides. Lemmon had done comedy and drama up to this point, but it was a departure for him to do farce and do it as the villain, although there are plenty of spots where he is humanized to the point that you don't really think of him as such. He also had tremendous support from the sidekick role of Max as played by Peter Falk. While Tony Curtis and Natalie Wood may have been considered the leads of the film, in the end it was Jack who stole the whole show.

I wish I could answer this - THE GREAT RACE and THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES both came out in 1965. It would be interesting to know who came up first with the idea of the car and/or the airplane film. Fortunately, aside from some brief cross-referenced scenes, THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN remained bound to the sky as THE GREAT RACE was bound to the earth.

In 1907 the world's first really great automobile race occurred: the Peking to Paris road race. It was such a success that it was hoped that a similar long race would be tried soon after. The result was the 1908 New York to Paris road race, which is the factual basis of THE GREAT RACE. It was won by a Thomas Flyabout, which had an appearance very much like the car driven by the Great Leslie. The cars in the 1908 race were to drive from New York City to Seattle, Washington, then get shipped by steamer to Vladivostok, and then to transverse the Russian Empire, Europe, and finally reach Paris. So keep in mind, there was no use of icebergs as in the film.

Blake Edwards always has enjoyed playing around in his comedies and musicals with images from the times of the story. For example, in THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLY one of the two male leads wears eyeglasses, and (to see his girlfriend) climbs the side of an office building - in short (as the story takes place in the 1920s) he is imitating Harold Lloyd in SAFETY LAST. He dedicates this film to Laurel and Hardy, although it is set before the 1920s.

In THE GREAT RACE he uses the forgotten 1908 race to build upon many different social events of the day like the suffragette movement that involves Natalie Wood (as the Nellie Bly like reporter Maggie) and her friend Vivian Vance as the wife (and temporary successor) of husband Arthur O'Connor a newspaper editor. There is also the final days of the American frontier, as seen in the sequences involving the town of Borracho and Tony Curtis' confrontation with Larry Storch over Dorothy Provine. There is (finally) the unsettled state of Balkan Europe, wherein the plot of Anthony Hope's THE PRISONER OF ZENDA is lampooned, concluding with a pie fight.

The film marked the reunion of Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon after their first pairing in SOME LIKE IT HOT, but Lemmon's character there was not as comically sinister as Professor Fate is here. Fate is totally captivated by his own ego. He certainly has engineering ability, but he is incapable of being friendly (when he is about to test out a rocket device early in the film his picture is being taken - some kids are touching the rocket, and he angrily yells at them to go away). He also is stuck with having the faithful but totally inept assistant Max (Peter Falk - who comes close to stealing the film) who constantly is pushing the wrong buttons on Fate's machines, with disastrous effects. And he is constantly trounced by the handsome, accessible, "Frank Merriwell" like "Great Leslie" (Curtis) who is far better organized, and a hell of a deal luckier.

Not that Leslie is without flaws. A man of the Edwardian period, he does not think woman are fully the equal of men. Notice that Leslie's most fair minded complement to Maggie is that her choice of a Stanley Steamer for the race was the wrong car. It is, he says, meant for picnics and Sunday drives. But, he adds, her success in getting it across half of the U.S. before the boiler gave out was quite an accomplishment...and she should be proud. The self-satisfaction is annoying as Maggie shows. I might add that in the period of the film, Stanley Steamers won several races - steam engines can build up tremendous amounts of power but they have to be replenished more frequently than gasoline engines.

Besides the four leads (five if you count the under-used Keenan Wynn) the performances of Storch and Provine were good (Provine being allowed a lively dance hall tune - "He Shouldn'ta, Hadn'ta, Oughtn'ta Swung On Me!", with Storch being unable to get the right amount of room he needs to cut loose on Curtis without falling on his face. Wood (like Provine) was given a nice tune - the charming, "Sweetheart Tree". And in the Balkan section, besides a second role for Lemmon, the conspirators George Macready and Ross Martin make the most of the "Ruritania" story - and demonstrate their own flair comedy (a rarity for Macready).

For Martin it is particularly welcome, as his last appearance under Edwards' direction was as the evil criminal in EXPERIMENT IN TERROR three years earlier. While Baron Von Stuppe (what a name - possibly a cousin to Lily Von Stuppe (Madeleine Kahn) in BLAZING SADDLES) is a villain, he is shown to be confused sometimes - see Wood threaten him with President Theodore Roosevelt's wrath, and start singing the "Star Spangled Banner". Martin doesn't know what to do with this female nut.

This movie has lots of wonderful little moments--more than most movies I can think of right now. And, it is very well-made except for a few small lapses when it can become a little bit dopey (such as the pie fight near the end). But, all-in-all, it was also a really good time to watch. Silly and trivial, but still a very good time.

Tony Curtis is perfectly cast. While he isn't my favorite actor, in this movie he is wonderful as the Great Leslie. He is super self-confident and very suave. But what I particularly liked were the couple times he looked towards the camera and his teeth sparkled. That was really funny and quite appropriate as he played a very old-fashioned type of hero---the type you might think you'd see in a silent melodrama.

Jack Lemmon is probably the best part of the movie (aside when he played the annoying an over-the-top king--that was a bit grating). I loved his Professor Fate!! He was a lot like a cartoon character--Snidely Whiplash to be exact. In fact, if there had been a lot more scenes like there were at the beginning of the film, I would have been even happier--I loved watching him perform his evil stunts and have them end up very reminiscent of Wiley Coyote (he takes a beating and still SOMEHOW survives).

Natalie Wood is fine as well as Peter Falk and Keenen Wynn, but all their performances are secondary to the two male leads. They try hard but you keep find yourself focusing on Curtis and Lemmon.

The story itself is generally good and lots of fun. The beginning, as I already mentioned, is the best but the excellent pace continues through much of the movie. There is a bit of a lull later on, but not such that the film becomes boring.

This is an excellent family film. Adults will enjoy it but the kids will no doubt laugh themselves silly at Professor Fate's stupid antics. Nice job!