Movie · 1965 · Comedy, Adventure, Action, Romance, Western, Family · 2h 40m · NR · English
Curator score: 5.2/10 (21.7K ratings)
The movie with 20,000-miles or one-million-laughs guarantee!
Overview
Professional daredevil and white-suited hero, The Great Leslie, convinces turn-of-the-century auto makers that a race from New York to Paris (westward across America, the Bering Straight and Russia) will help to promote automobile sales. Leslie's arch-rival, the mustached and black-attired Professor Fate vows to beat Leslie to the finish line in a car of Fate's own invention.
Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, Natalie Wood, Peter Falk, Keenan Wynn, Arthur O'Connell, Vivian Vance, Dorothy Provine, Larry Storch, Ross Martin, George Macready, Marvin Kaplan, Hal Smith, Denver Pyle, William Bryant, Ken Wales, Hal Needham, Raoul Retzer, Leslie Sketchley, Kenner G. Kemp
Curator Review
Verdict
A big, bright, meticulously staged slapstick adventure that turns a globe-trotting race into a showcase for elaborate gags, costume comedy, and cartoonish rivalries. Its length and broad style may feel excessive to some, but the commitment to absurdity, production design, and comic timing makes it a standout if you like old-school studio spectacle.
Best for
fans of lavish 1960s studio comedies
viewers who like broad slapstick and elaborate physical gags
people drawn to campy, high-energy ensemble farce
audiences who enjoy glossy costume design and period pastiche
Skip if
you prefer tight comedies with a lean runtime
you dislike exaggerated, cartoon-like humor
you want realism or subtle character drama
you are not in the mood for a very long, very busy comedy
Overview
The Great Race is one of those maximalist studio comedies that seems determined to outdo itself every few minutes. Blake Edwards builds the film like a live-action cartoon, with elaborate set pieces, outrageous vehicles, and a parade of sight gags that keep escalating until the whole thing feels gleefully unhinged.
Worth noting
What makes it work is the total commitment. Jack Lemmon’s villain is gloriously ridiculous, Tony Curtis plays the square-jawed hero with a wink, and Natalie Wood gives the film a sharp, stylish counterweight. The movie is less interested in realism than in comic momentum, and it has the confidence to keep stretching that joke for nearly two and a half hours.
Bottom line
It can be overstuffed, and its broadness won’t land for everyone, but the craftsmanship is undeniable. If you want a big Technicolor-era comedy that treats absurdity as an art form, this is a very easy recommendation.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Patrick Willems (4★) · 467 likes
Jack Lemmon has a foot-long mustache, Peter Falk as a sidekick, wears a dracula cape, and drives a car on hydraulic stilts. Every other movie needs to get on this level
eely (3.5★) · 337 likes
this is a PSA to let everyone know how wholeheartedly I support evil gay couple jack lemmon and peter falk in their diabolical transformer car named hannibal (of all things) on their quest to defeat shiny bisexual tony curtis in the most cockamamie race around the world in history (with perpetual third wheel miss trilingual suffragette lady reporter natalie wood)
theriverjordan (5★) · 220 likes
“The Great Race” is the most expensive-looking bimbo to ever show its face in celluloid.
With a budget that ballooned the film into the costliest comedy yet made, the money to buy its moronic antics is on full display in the movie’s imagined adaption of the famed 1908 New York to Paris race.
Turn of the century costumes by Edith Head, a fleet of custom vintage automobiles, a prop list of contraptions to make Wiley E. Coyote blush — director… more
robbie (3★) · 131 likes
jack and peter should have kissed at the end PERIOD!
phoebe 💫 (4.5★) · 118 likes
My enjoyment scale is SO MAXED right now!! I love lady journalist Natalie Wood spouting feminism in her amazing little outfits and smoking cigars and I love baby Peter Falk and I love the pie fight scene!!