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Grand Prix Overview:

Grand Prix (1966) was a Sports - Drama Film directed by John Frankenheimer and produced by Kirk Douglas, John Frankenheimer, James Garner and Edward Lewis.

Academy Awards 1966 --- Ceremony Number 39 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best Film EditingFredric Steinkamp, Henry Berman, Stewart Linder, Frank SantilloWon

Grand Prix BlogHub Articles:

Grand Prix (1966)

Grand Prix Directed by John Frankenheimer Written by Robert Alan Arthur 1966/USA Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/John Frankenheimer Productions/etc. First viewing/Netflix rental If not for the splendid racing scenes, this would just be another waste of some good actors on 3 hours of typical mid-sixties melodr... Read full article


Racing Cars ~ Grand Prix (1966)

About MeBlogger, Out of the Past - A Classic Film Blog and more. Please add my Google profile to your circles. There is no film quite like Grand Prix (1966). It is the quintessential racing movie and while it's not the best film out there we are very lucky to have it. Grand Prix was made during a g... Read full article


Racing Cars ~ Grand Prix (1966)

There is no film quite like Grand Prix (1966). It is the quintessential racing movie and while it's not the best film out there we are very lucky to have it. Grand Prix was made during a golden era of race car driving, when Formula 1 was glamorous, safety in driving wasn't all that important, race c... Read full article


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Grand Prix Quotes:

Izo Yamura: Some years ago, when I decided to race cars, I tried to buy the Jordan-BRM company.
Pete Aron: Oh yes, I had heard that.
Izo Yamura: Impatience on my part. I also manufacture radios and sewing machines. In order to save time, I wanted a proven product. That was not to be, however. Racing cars are not merely another product. They require great attention if any success is to be hoped for.
Pete Aron: Then that's why you're here.
Izo Yamura: I have been racing my cars in Formula One for two years, and have yet to win my first Grand Prix. I intend to win, by whatever means are open to me.
Pete Aron: That's the right attitude. All you have to do is go fast enough and long enough.
Izo Yamura: And with the best drivers! Do you want a job with me?
Pete Aron: Driving?
Izo Yamura: Driving, of course.
Pete Aron: Who are you dumping?
Izo Yamura: Dumping?
Pete Aron: Ah, which one of your drivers are you getting rid of?
Izo Yamura: Neither one. I am entering a third car.
Pete Aron: That'll be expensive.
Izo Yamura: Yes.
Pete Aron: You've got a driver.
Izo Yamura: My racing headquarters is at Silverstone, in England. Can you be there next week?
Pete Aron: Yes, sir.
Izo Yamura: We must begin to think about - Spa!
Pete Aron: Next week, then.
Izo Yamura: By the way, you are a terrible broadcaster!
[Aron turns and starts heading for the door]
Izo Yamura: Oh, Mr. Aron, if giving you the job would have meant firing one of the other drivers, would you still have taken it?
[Aron glares at Yamura]
Izo Yamura: Good!

Izo Yamura: Why do you drive racing cars, or do you not think about it?
Pete Aron: Oh, Mr. Yamura, I don't think there's one of us who doesn't ask himself at least once in the middle of a race, "What the hell am I doing here?" Of course, when it's over, we conveniently forget that we asked ourselves that question. I think about it and a lot of reasons I don't know. Maybe to do something that brings you so close to the possibility of death and to survive it is to feel life and living so much more intensely.

[Addressing Pete Aron at the Ferrari factory]
Agostini Manetta: What means far more to me than anything else is: our good name! Our reputation represents desire for perfection of the highest quality. I gamble that reputation gladly, because I have *absolute* faith in every car that leaves this factory. But I will not risk it on a driver in whom I cannot have an equal faith. There are fewer than thirty men in the world qualified to drive Formula One; a mere half-dozen, perhaps, to win. At this moment, I am inclined to think you are not one of them.

Izo Yamura: Right after the war, my house in Tokyo was used by an American general and his family. When it was returned to me, it had: flowered wallpaper, three new bathrooms, and four new closets. Americans, I think, are over-devoted to bathrooms and closets.
Pete Aron: Well, we accumulate things.
Izo Yamura: And then you lock them away in closets. And the bathrooms?
Pete Aron: No, no, you don't get me on that one.

Pete Aron: Ah, were you in the war?
Izo Yamura: Yes, and you?
Pete Aron: No, I missed it by a year.
Izo Yamura: In the war, I was a fighter pilot. I shot down 17 American planes.
Pete Aron: Okay.
Izo Yamura: I believe that some things must not be left unsaid. There will come a time when you will ask yourself, "What did he do in the war, this man, Yamura?"
Pete Aron: Mr. Yamura, I like you.
Izo Yamura: Why?
Pete Aron: Well, because... because you come right to the point.
Izo Yamura: In a sense, you are here because you drive a car the way I conduct my business. You come right to the point.
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Grand Prix Facts
Yves Montand's character, Sarti, tells how he no longer slows down when he sees an accident. He uses the exact words of the real life driver Phil Hill, as quoted by Robert Daley in his book "The Cruel Sport".

Early in the movie, Yves Montand's helmet design is that of John Surtees, who was driving for Ferrari at the beginning of the 1966 season. But Surtees left Ferrari for Cooper after two races, and therefore footage of the real Ferrari with Surtees driving was no longer available. Mike Parkes replaced him at Ferrari, and Montand's helmet design changes to that of Parkes for the remainder of the movie. No reason is given in the movie for the change.

Crowds can be difficult to manage simply because of the effort needed to maintain their concentration. During the filming of Grand Prix there was a scene where a flaming car is driven into the pits. It was about 4 o'clock in the afternoon and the director, John Frankenheimer, was disgusted by the crowd's lack of reaction to the dramatic action during the rehearsals. They appeared to be more interested in their tea break. Frankenheimer called his special effects man over and told him to 'blow up the tea van' when given the signal. The unit went for a take. The flaming sports car came into the pits. The crowd looked on. The signal was given and the tea truck exploded. The crowd reacted and Frankenheimer got his shot' This is an extreme example of how to direct crowds. (from "Production Management for Film and Video" by Richard Gates)

The Formula 3 car's smaller engines could not spin the wider Formula 1 tires realistically on starts, so the tires were wet with gasoline for those shots, which not only allowed them to spin realistically but also caused them to smoke realistically as they spun.

The film shows racing taking place on the banked oval section of the Autodromo Nazionale Monza in Italy, but in fact the oval section of that racetrack had not been used for the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix since 1961. This section of the track was still used, however, for races involving other classes of cars until 1969. The Monza 1,000 Kilometre, for example, reserved for the Sports, Prototype and Grand Touring categories, used the full 10KM course (including the high-speed banked oval section) from 1965 to 1969. Ironically, the tragic fatal accident in the 1961 Italian Grand Prix (which took the life of German driver Wolfgang Von Trips, and 14 spectators) did not occur in the banked oval section but just prior to the "Parabolic" curve, which is part of the Road Course section of Monza. This road course, with modifications for safety and since the retirement of the banked oval section, has comprised the entire circuit at Monza ever since.

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