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The Great Race Overview:

The Great Race (1965) was a Action - Adventure Film directed by Blake Edwards and produced by Martin Jurow and Dick Crockett.

Academy Awards 1965 --- Ceremony Number 38 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best CinematographyRussell HarlanNominated
Best Film EditingRalph E. WintersNominated
Best Music - SongMusic by Henry Mancini; Lyrics by Johnny MercerNominated
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The Great Race BlogHub Articles:

Film Albums: The Great Race : Music from the Film ( 1965 )

By The Metzinger Sisters on May 20, 2022 From Silver Scenes - A Blog for Classic Film Lovers

Blake Edward's classic zany comedy The Great Race featured a great cast of actors ( Tony Curtis, Natalie Wood, Jack Lemmon, Peter Falk, etc ), great location filming, great set design, AND a great soundtrack....by none other than Henry Mancini. This talented composer was at his peak in the 1960s and... Read full article

The Great Race (1965)

By Beatrice on Sep 18, 2018 From Flickers in Time

The Great Race Directed by Blake Edwards Written by Arthur A. Ross from an original story by Ross and Blake Edwards 1965/USA Warner Bros./Patricia/Jalem Productions/Reynard First viewing?/Netflixrental Any movie dedicated to “Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy” has set itself a high standard.  No... Read full article

The Great Race (1965)

on Feb 25, 2015 From Journeys in Classic Film

Director Blake Edwards wanted to craft a tribute to Laurel and Hardy films, turning out the 1965 road movie, The Great Race. It fits the “road movie” moniker in two ways: characters are literally on the road, and it also boasts a lengthy runtime (complete with intermission) as part of it... Read full article

New From Warner Archive: The Great Race (1965) on Blu-ray

By KC on Sep 22, 2014 From Classic Movies

To get in the proper mood for The Great Race, you need only read the title card at the beginning of the film that respectfully announces, "for MR. LAUREL and MR. HARDY." While the classic comedy duo never attempted a 160 minute comic epic in brilliant color, if they had, it might have turned out a b... Read full article

Professor Fate of "The Great Race" ( 1965 )

By The Metzinger Sisters on Apr 26, 2014 From Silver Scenes - A Blog for Classic Film Lovers

Blogathon season is in full force and Speakeasy, Shadows and Satin, and Silver Screenings have teamed up to devise the fiendishly clever Great Villain Blogathon to add to the mix. In our opinion there is no dastardly scheming archetypal villain greater than Professor Fate and so, naturally, we have ... Read full article

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The Great Race Quotes:

Maggie DuBois: I want to thank you again for this opportunity, Mr. Goodbody.
Henry Goodbody: I had very little choice after your conversation with my wife.
Hester Goodbody: Henry, if you can't be more gracious, shut up!
Professor Fate: The eternal struggle takes time, Max.
Professor Fate: Leslie escaped?
General: With a small friar.
Professor Fate: Leslie escaped with a chicken?
Maggie DuBois: You mean amazing because I'm a woman.
[repeated line]
Professor Fate: [shouts] Maaaax!
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The Great Race Facts
In the film's press kit, Natalie Wood divulges that she took fencing lessons, sidesaddle lessons and practiced smoking cigars, but her biggest challenge was driving the Stanley Steamer. The steering was difficult ("like turning a tractor, I suspect", she says) and going into reverse was nearly impossible.
Though not specifically stated, this movie takes place between 1901-1909. This was the period Theodore Roosevelt held presidency which in turn is hinted at by Maggie Dubois during her capture in the Potsdorf dungeons.
This movie is loosely based on an actual 1908 New York-to-Paris race.
Professor Fate's Rocket Car, torpedo, and one of the Hannibal 8's produced for this movie, are located at the Volo Auto Museum in Volo, Illinois. As of January 2010, these three items were for sale for $350,000.
The ice floe sequence was shot on what is now known as Warner Bros. Sound Stage 16, the biggest and tallest sound stage on the Warner Bros. studio lot. Originally, in the early days of the studio, it was known as Stage 7. If you look closely at the water that surrounds the actors and the automobiles on the slab of ice, you can see a multitude of reflections from the lights on the stage's catwalks. Stage 16 was originally a standard-sized sound stage, but when the studio needed room to film tall-masted ships in its earlier years, the entire stage was jacked up while steel and concrete pilasters were built underneath the structure for added support, doubling the stage's height after the new foundation was poured. Its floor is retractable to reveal a deep flotation tank as well as windowed camera cabins for underwater filming. In "The Great Race," a portion of the gradually "melting ice floe" was attached to cables that kept the slab of "ice" in position and the portion which gradually gave way underneath Professor Fate was pulled down by an underwater diver in the tank.
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