Review of The Great Race (1965) by Yann F — 22 Jan 2010

A genuinely frustrating movie, because it mixes scenes which are funny with scenes which, like much of Blake Edwards' work, come off as desperately trying to be funny. The cast is mostly game, especially Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and Peter Falk, and it's the actors themselves that seem responsible for most of the film's bright spots.

In addition to the flimsy sense of humor, the plot is terribly constructed; the race begins with a number of teams, in addition to those of the hero and the villain. All other teams are wiped out immediately, negating their existence aside from a few feeble gags involving their sabotage by the villain's henchman.

In the second half, a lengthy PRISONER OF ZENDA-esque sequence in the fictional land of Potzdorf holds up the "race" aspect of the film annoyingly, and by focusing the international journey on three locations (the Old West, an Alaskan ice floe, and Potzdorf), the potential scope and flavor--not to mention opportunities for humor--of the story is muffed, and the film essentially cracks under the failure of its creators' imaginations.

Despite this, as noted before, there are some very enjoyable scenes, and the cast is generally excellent, as is the detailed period recreations. It's a film that DVD suits well; you can skip over the inane bits and pretend there was something worthy there instead.