The Great Race is a 1965 comedy film directed by Blake Edwards, written by Blake Edwards and Arthur A. Ross, with music by Henry Mancini.

It stars Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, Natalie Wood and Peter Falk.

It tells the story of a 22,000-mile car race in 1908 between New York and Paris in which two of the contestants, the evil Professor Fate (Jack Lemmon) and his sidekick, Max (Peter Falk), try to get rid of the rest of motorists by means of nefarious sabotage. The only racer who can escape their evil plots is Fate's nemesis, The Great Leslie (Tony Curtis), with the help of his sidekick, Hezekiah, and Maggie DuBois, a spunky journalist/suffragette (Natalie Wood).

"As a very wise English gentleman once said, 'He who fights and runs away may live to fight another day. So, until another day, Mr. Leslie, please excuse me." -Baron von Stuppe, preceding a perfect swan dive through his boat.

The film was a major influence on Wacky Races, a Hanna-Barbera cartoon series. The film's characterizations were themselves rather cartoonish.

There was an actual automobile race staged in 1908 from New York to Paris, before actual racing over public roads (as opposed to rallying) was made illegal due to the danger and the increasing volume of traffic. However, it was merely the "inspiration" for this film; the events depicted in it are in no way related to the actual events of the race, which have been documented in the book Road Race Around the World among other places.

External links

• The Great Race at the Internet Movie Database