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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
During filming, Yves Montand spun out and subsequently was terrified to go fast again. The crew modified a racecar that was then towed behind a Ford GT40. This setup would reach speeds of 130 mph. Montand was more comfortable with this setup than with having to drive the car himself.

John Frankenheimer refused to film cars moving slowly, then speed the film up. He felt the average moviegoer would be able to notice the difference.

Toshirô Mifune's own voice was heard in his performance as Izo Yamura at the film's premiere, but afterward he was dubbed by Paul Frees in all general release and roadshow prints.

Of the 32 drivers who participated or were seen in the film, five died in racing accidents in the next two years and another five in the following 10 years.

James Garner did all his own driving. During breaks in filming there were several mini races in which Garner either tied or bettered the professional drivers hired for filming.

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