The Great Race (1965) First Time Watching Reaction & Review
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 ก.ค. 2024
- First time reaction and brief review of the movie "The Great Race". Future Reaction Polls + Early Access + Exclusive Content. Available on Patreon: / alexachipman
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:10 Reaction
14:28 Review
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No spoilers in the comments, please! If you would like to recommend a film, please include only the title and year (no actors, plot summary, etc that is instant disqualification).
Hello Alexa please reacts Chariots of Fire (1981) Driving Miss Daisy (1989) Revenge of the Nerds (1984) Cinema Paradiso (1988) Moscow on the Hudson (1984)
How To Murder Your Wife (1965)
The President's Analyst (1967)
Our Man Flint (1966)
Fantastic Voyage (1966)
Both Ross Martin and Tony Curtis came from the golden era of Hollywood where everyone learned to ride horses, fence, swim, dance.
"Push the button, Max!"
Fun Fact: Chris Lemmon, son of actor Jack Lemmon (Professor Fate), said in an interview on KMOX-Radio in St. Louis that he considers Lemmon's role in this film to be his father's finest. Jack Lemmon himself has said he got more mail about Fate than about any other character he played.
Cheesecake Is A Pie Fact: The pie fight scene lasts four minutes and was shot in five days. It is the longest pie fight sequence in movie history. At first, the cast had fun filming the pie fight scene, but eventually the process grew wearisome and dangerous. Natalie Wood choked briefly on a pie which hit her open mouth. Jack Lemmon got knocked out a few times. At the end of shooting the fight, when Blake Edwards called "Cut!" he was barraged with several hundred pies that members of the cast had hidden, waiting for that moment.
RIP Bullwinkle Fact: A moose head hangs on the wall of Professor Fate's (Jack Lemmon) dining room, but when the Professor and Max run out the front door you can see that the rest of the moose stands in the foyer, with just his head poking through a hole in the wall. Ernie Kovacs originally did this gag on one of his TV shows. Lemmon was a great friend of Kovacs and used this gag in the film.
Push the Button, Max! Henry Mancini th-cam.com/video/RHVQTiTrAIU/w-d-xo.html This and the organ tune in The Ghost and Mr Chicken are my absolute favorite creepy tunes from my childhood.
I can't believe someone is finally reacting to one of my favorite films! Sometimes I literally think my father and I are the only two people who've ever seen this.
@RetroRobotRadio - I was thrilled too! (Thank you So Much Alexa!) A newish reaction channel has “put it on the list”, at the request of yours truly: Henryellow’s movie reaction channel. Alexa was the first that I could find; I’m hoping more will react to it eventually; sadly younger generations tend to not know how many good films there are before from previous generations. But that fault is, I think, universal, not just a THIS generation thing. I was born the year this movie was in theaters, and I know less about movies from the 1930s than I do ones made later. I suspect a lot of my generation is the same.
Not sure when Henryellow will watch TGR, but hopefully it will be soon! He’s already watched, for instance, “The Producers” (the original), which was also a childhood favorite of mine.
I saw the film and love it.
Since I was born in '87, I had the same reaction. I subscribed immediately when I saw that Alexa reacted. I very much enjoyed her perspective.
After you watched this, I feel you need to see Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, which coincidentally was also released in 1965.
Also "Those Daring Young Men in their Jaunty Jalopies", which coincidentally also has Tony Curtis😄
The film was inspired by a real race of New York to Paris in 1908 and Professor Fate was the inspiration for Dastardly in Wacky Races.
Also this was the largest pie fight in the film and it took multiple takes for Tony Curtis to make it through without being hit.
The one thing I don't like about the film is the bickering before the finish line.
A couple of comedy films similar to this I recommend are:
Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines and It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World. The latter of which has nearly everyone who ever had anything to do with comedy in it even if they were just 5 second cameos. Just note that Mad World is around 200 minutes with an overture and intermission.
I’m also convinced the movie was the inspiration for Wacky Races. Besides Fate, Leslie is Peter Perfect; Maggie is Penelope Pitstop and Max is obviously Muttley.
“Push the button, Max!”😊
@@simongvs I love that name Penelope Pitstop lol, I remember that cartoon.
MUTLEY!!!!!!
For animation fans: Professor Fate and Max became Dick Darstardly and Muttley in 'Wacky Races' clearly based on this film, and 'Dick Darstardly and Muttley IN: Their Flying Machines' (usually known as 'catch that pigeon' after the title song) well worth looking up, if a bit repetitive. 'The Great Leslie' became 'Peter Perfect' in Wacky Races as well.
They are also ur-examples of the 'Steampunk' genre, long before the 'Wild Wild West' movie, or even the 1960s TV series of the same name.
There are a number of movies in this genre, branching out into 'Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines', 'Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea', 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang', 'The Assassination Bureau', and others about competing rockets to the moon, a race across Europe in the 1920s, can't recall all of them, but in the nineteen-sixties people's grandparents' time became a major source of nostalgia.
That 'ambiguous villain couple' idea also had quite an influence.
Professor Fate was a great villain with a great theme tune!
R.I.P. Larry Storch as Texas Jack, the last surviving featured actor in this movie. ("Fiddle-dee-dee" is a pretty funny opening line for a character that's been set up as the toughest man in the territory.) The music, by master composer and orchestrator, Henry Mancini, is really fun. Another, slightly less silly, race film you might enjoy is "Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines".
Now can I get a little fighting room!?
OP: And it's sequel, "Those Daring Young Men In Their Jaunty Jalopies".
i watch this movie every new years day. it has everything, slapstick comedy, music, a villain in black, a hero in white, a beautiful heroine, an old west bar room brawl, an alaskan adventure, an epic sword duel, a royal coronation, a classic pie fight,and a love story all revolving around a turn of the century road race from new york to paris. blake edwards' perfect casting of the stars and supporting actors made this one of the best comedies of all time.
I remember seeing this on TV on a Sunday afternoon when I was a kid and thinking the steampunk stuff was cool. Then I saw it again when I was 15 and my focus was completely on Natalie Wood. I mean, c'mon 😉
I loved this movie! Natalie Wood! Tony Curtis! Jack Lemmon! Peter Falk!
And let me say it again Natalie Wood.
My mom took me to see this when I was 7. It's been a favorite of mine ever sense. Tonight I got a random urge to see if anyone had done a reaction to it. The only one was you. I'm glad you enjoyed it as much as you did.
The first thing you do in a movie like this is disregard logic and just sit back and enjoy. I hope you do give it re-watch because this was just fun, and there is character development in both Lesley and Maggie. Also, it's a great comic showcase for Jack Lemmon.
To apply logic to comedy is ridiculous. Like seeing ET fly on a bicycle in the movie and yelling out loud in the theater "I'm sure! That would never happen! Bicycles can't fly..." missing the entire point of the fun.
I saw this movie when it premiered in 1965. I've always loved that torpedo with the grinning shark mouth. I remember the Tasmanian Devil (spinning) sound as that torpedo sped through the water after Leslie's speedboat. The tune, "The Sweetheart Tree" composed by Henry Mancini is romantic, nostalgic and heartwarming. What a fun movie! What a cast! Thank you, Blake Edwards! Now -- onto the great pie fight!
It's the live-action 'cartoon' ideas that I find fascinating: the periscope that can extend in surprise, the torpedo on land, distant explosions ending scenes, houses that fall like children's blocks, etc.
@@stevetheduck1425 -- Precisely! Many thanks!
Natalie Wood had Russian background and really did speak the language. That's wonderful Ross Martin as the evil Baron.
Natalie Woods' many exquisite costumes were designed by the one and only Edith Head. Also, Maggie's obviously excessive wardrobe was one of the many running gags in this film. This is, after all, a Blake Edwards movie. He was the king of over-the-top, cartoonish silliness. Just when you think a scene can't get any sillier, he says, "Hold my beer."
I think there's another film a bit like this called "Monte Carlo or Bust", AKA "Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies". Might be worth a look.
OMG I love this movie very classic The Great Race directed by Blake Edwards starring Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Natalie Wood. The most iconic scene in the film is the pie fight considered as the greatest pie fight ever just epic😄😄😄😄😄 thank you Alexa great reaction excellent.
Unlike earlier films with pie-fights in them, those were all real, edible pies, too!
When they are sharing Champaign and Caviar in the snow storm is my favorite part. It just tickled me as a kid that the bad guys were temporarily tamed by good manners and hospitality. 😄
I love the cartoon like quality to this movie. One of my faves that used to be playing all the time when I was little. Such a fun movie. Love the Fate theme.
I remember watching this years ago, but the only thing I remember is the protagonist stopped just before winning (I didn't even remember why) and after the antagonist celebrated (while the protagonist kissed the girl, but again, I didn't remember why). Said antagonist got angry because he assumed the antagonist let him win (although that wasn't exactly why, just what I had assumed/remembered for years) and rechallenged the protagonist in the other direction. The fall of The Eiffel Tower I also didn't remember, but howled with laughter at.
The Eiffel tower being blown up was edited out of TV showings for a few years after the World Trade Centre was destroyed. - and then re-instated. So September is officially over. ;-)
The general is played by George Macready, who plays a chilling villain in "Gilda" and who had a scar on his cheek from a real-life duel. A lovely, understated actor I hope you get to know better.
Blake Edwards loved slapstick humour. Practically all the jokes in this film wouldn't have looked out of place in a silent film.
Alexa, it was good to hear your take on this movie, which I have seen dozens of times over the years. You have a critical eye (and ear), as do I, but as we are from different generations, our reactions are different. Vive la difference!
The fun thing about this movie is that each main characters was almost supernatural in their abilities. Max could sabotage anything in bizarre impossible ways. Mrs. Dubois I had an infinite supply of dresses and hats, Leslie was always perfect in every way, Professor fate could build impossible devices and vehicles.
They were all minor superhumans!
Absolutely!
The actual extending Hannibal 8 car from this film is in a museum a few miles from my house in Michigan. They have it set up with hydraulics and I have a video of it.
th-cam.com/video/7JWVrKEI5GI/w-d-xo.html
I thought I recognized the voice - the Baron - Ross Martin - aka "Artie the man of a thousand characters" from the original "Wild Wild West"...James Bond + old time Westerns
Wow! This is such a good movie!!!! You are probably the only reactor I have seen that has reacted to it. Thank you!
Best pie fight in cinematic history.
My sisters and I grew up with this movie and absolutely loved it. There were a couple times where my dad would call home from work and he would ask to put one of us girls on the phone just to say the “I hate you” line that Fate says to the pug.
Anyone who thinks that slapstick comedy is dead has no sense of humor
I try to explain how a three-hour film that ends with a pie fight is one of the funniest movies ever made, and nobody believes me.
Peter Falk, the assistant to Jack Lemmon, both play the incompetent villains. Peter Falk later became extremely famous as Lt. Columbo on TV in the 1970's and beyond with TV movies. Comical cigar chomping detective in an old raincoat, with a broken down old car, who would generally annoy the murderer until he/she broke down and got caught, or Columbo finally caught them on a technicality etc., lol. Catch phrase: "Oh...just one more thing." Jack Lemmon, the great actor with a wonderful gift for comedy as well. Ross Martin, a great character actor known for the Wild Wild West TV show, probably just before he started on that show. I miss both of these gentleman terribly. Family movies when I was growing up always use some sort of slapstick from the old silent movies of the early 1900's... great stuff sorely missing today, replaced by fart jokes, kicking people in the groin, and sarcasm and insults and bad language. Yeh, sure, real "sensitive" today...check Natalie Wood out as a child actress in the Green Promise, 1949. She was fabulous even then.
"The Great Race" (1965), "Rollerball" (1975) now view "Death Race 2000" (1975).
Thank you so so much for reacting to this great great movie. My favorite comedy of all time.
My dad and I loved this at the cinema when I was nine or 10. It's fun on the big screen and on TV. I think Tony Curtis was at his best in these light comedy roles. Jack Lemmon as Professor Fate and a young-ish Peter Falk as his hapless assistant. And the great Natalie Wood. Also recommend Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines (1965), and Monte Carlo or Bust! (1969, US title: Those Daring Young Men in their Jaunty Jallopies).
I like this movie quite a bit and I am watching it once every two or three years. Any more often than that would be too much though.
What I really like about it are the antagonists.
I mean, Leslie is a character of his time and for what was intended with the movie he works well enough. However he is also the least funny of the main characters.
Professor Fate on the other hand is a great villain.
He always wants to be the bad guy, but throughout the entire movie I keep getting the impression that he doesn't want to do it for the sake of being evil. If that were the case he'd certainly be able to commit serious crimes and make life miserable for other people. But that is not what he does.
He seems to be doing it simply because it is fun.
Also he's not really good at being bad but he doesn't care at all, which further proves my point.
I mean, his inventions are actually quite amazing, but there is always something that goes wrong.
And as a matter of fact I think Fate and possibly Max as well are quite aware of that.
To me those two look as if they were playing a game and are constantly trying to win.
You have seen the ending.
Fate and Max win the race in the end but it is because Leslie refused to cross the finish line. So their victory is actually fair and square.
But that is not how those two want to win because it actually takes the fun out of the equasion.
That is why Professor Fate and Max are villains I can actually respect to some extend.
They aren't truly evil after all. They just want to win at least once.
Yes, on their terms. I find that they are a couple (to my 21st century mind) suggests why, as well.
For the 1960s, this was a progressive idea, while carefully masking the intent. Love it.
That his was the central theme of the Darstardly and Muttley cartoons as well, but then it had to be a man and his dog, which means they knew what they were doing, as well.
Good, fun reaction to this unique film. I saw this for the first time onboard a ship called The Buckner, traveling from New York to Bremerhaven in 1965. They played the reels out of order, but it didn’t seem to matter to this (then) 7-year old boy.
I've always thought the film lags in the middle. The main plot is put on hold so they can do a "Prisoner Of Zenda" send up.
thank you for watching this. i have asked so many to watch it.
I am no expert the fencing, but in this movie seems to be more realistic fencing and less "film stylized" fencing than usual.
Alexa, congratulations on a fine editing job. You managed to hit most of highlights, all the while keeping to 15 minutes or so - bravo!
As a kid, I stumbled on a segment of this film on TV ca. 1972-73, specifically, the sword fight around the 10:16 mark of your reaction. For decades, I didn't remember anything else about the film and the name, Leslie the Great. I didn't even know it was "The Great Race" until I figured it out from online descriptions some years back. I still haven't seen the film all the way through but should someday.
That swordfight copies one by Basil Rathbone and opponent in a film twenty years older than this one. - and that copied a silent movie made a generation before, as well.
If they ever decided to remake this, (without any politics, just pure remake for fun) I would KILL to play Professor Fate!!!
The late, great Larry Storch as Jack.
I rate this, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines in the same level of enjoyment if there is any one of those you have not seen yet.
And now we know where we got Wacky Races from.
Yes this movie holds the record for most pies in a pie fight. They still had hundreds left over for the cast and crew to eat .
Gal: I was the women's fencing champion.
Guy easily beats her: Now if you'd been the men's fencing champion...
"Nice patinando"... I realized that one🤺
I like this movie. My wife loves it! We're both Boomers, so more its target audience. The pie fight scene was really tough on the cast, as the pies kept going bad under the hot studio lights. Between that and keeping pies from hitting Tony Curtis meant a lot of takes.
Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (Fox), followed by its sequel Those Daring Young Fools in Their Jaunty Jalopies (Paramount). I also like It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (UA). The restored version runs 188 minutes.
One of the best movies ever made.
Also I highly recommend "those magnificent men in their flying machines".
10:50, which version (pretty sure there's more than 1) of Prisoner of Zenda would you recommend? Others are welcome to reply as reaction recommendation.
@@ericjanssen394 thank you.
As a kid I wanted to grow up to be Professor Fate.
Who wouldn’t, he seems to be a brilliant inventor!
I like that you watch movies other reactors ignore.
Thank you, although I cannot take credit; this was a suggestion in the comments section, I think after I posted Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
I remember seeing this and thinking it was a live-action adaptation of Hanna-Barbera's "Wacky Races".
Which came first?
Hm, y'now, I think this might have inspired the "Spy vs Spy" cartoons in MAD magazine.
Another movie in this genre is called "Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines."
The teachers at my school would rent this for the students way, way way back in the day.
Nice one, Alexa. Saw this at the drive-in as a teen a few years after release. Like you, I thought it was a lot of fun but felt no inclination to see it again, though I actually did on TV. Second time around I appreciated Dorothy Provine's catchy musical turn much better.
It was my first experience of Natalie Wood and she pressed all the right male buttons - not alone there. I was unaware of Jack Lemmon and Peter Falk at the time. I notice others have mentioned 'Those Magnificent Men' - just about the funniest thing I had ever seen at that time and even back then couldn't help thinking this movie was vaguely imitative. For some reason it was serialised in our daily newspaper, a phenomenon I'd never seen before. Fun choice which brings back memories, thanks.
@alexavchipman - thank you thank you Thank You! Watching a young person react to something that blew, say, me away as a _child_ is honestly elating! How different the world is compared to then! (Yet how much it is the same, and misunderstood in the way all generations inevitably are!) I know I speak for many of my age when I say, we oldsters long for things that bridge the gap between our generations. To be better understood is a longing everyone has, and watching old movies is a journey into a different world, one in which is familiar to people in which that movie existed, but somewhat unknown to those in which it is like archeology! Likely by accident, you almost perform a bit of a public service by doing so!I agree with you that at many points of this film (and surely most from before, say, 1975) the mysoginistic sub-themes are unpleasant. However, Leslie wasn’t liked by most boys and girls, even then. He represented, in many ways, the snobby jock and bully. Further, although intentionally cast to be physically handsome, the archetype he was meant to represent (especially as essentially a cartoon figure) wasn’t to be entirely positive; just as today, folks may find a character to be less than swoon-worthy, but enjoy the “star” playing the character all the same. Curtis’s character was mean’t to be ridiculous, perhaps even unlikable (meanwhile, we suspend our disbelief in giving a nod to old tropes, for the sake of continuity) we may enjoy the actor playing the smug, athletic, faux-charming “good guy”. My understanding from what I’ve read, Blake Edwards didn’t want us to side with or even like Leslie, and most of the audience didn’t, but (if they liked this film at all; it was a flop) everyone loved (and identified with) Fate and Max! There is more so much more I could say, but more would become more tiresome for everyone. All this is just to say, to whomever reads this, not just yourself (and even to remind myself of this): there’s _ALWAYS_ more nuance to everything that seems straightforward.
Seeing the wonderful Peter Falk, I wonder if you you could watch some whodunnits? For TV I love Columbo or Monk
As for the movies, my favorite is Peter Ustinov in Evil Under the Sun 1982 or Death on the Nile 1978. Basil Rathbone in any Sherlock Holmes movie is wonderful .
I did do one Monk :) th-cam.com/video/z24raBCNYzQ/w-d-xo.html
7:50, not bad. Every time get fooled by Maxe's line, and expect to hear her struggling with "Zdravstvooyte, Droozya".
Henry Mancini the perfect composer for this piece. He worked often with director Blake Edwards.
"Blake Edwards"
@@michaelminch5490 Oy! Thanks: I fixed it.
lots of steampunk air races and a few other action films of 60s-70s
warlords of atlantis and at earths core too
There's sadly a chunk of this great film that might literally be lost forever now - the Russian part of the race was edited out after the Soviet Union took offence at it (you can tell because there are two segments of the increasing chaos at the newspaper office back-to-back, when the rest of the film always has these interspersed between the segments following the racers on the road, and the racers have suddenly jumped all the way from the Pacific to a fictitious country in the Balkans off-screen), and in the last several decades I've never come across a fully intact copy of the film anywhere. Maybe the original footage is mouldering away in some vault somewhere, but I don't think it's ever been seen by the public since the original cuts were made.
This Brit recalls the cinema version having a melancholy scene of dour Russian peasants singing dully, getting the cars manually across a river while uniformed Cossacks yell at them and whips are brandished.
If you like great swordplay and a wonderful storyline might I suggest the Princess Bride, not a spoiler but the opening scene features Max (Peter Faulk) from this movie.
I could recite that movie to you 😂
@@alexachipman I'll play opposite, do you want be Wesley or Buttercup?
@@texasdustfart Inigo Montoya :) I want to say the iconic line!
such a gem of a movie
That was always a Cool Movie like Canonball Run
Natalie Wood could speak Russian for real. Her parents were Russian immigrants.
This is a great movie to watch. You don't see good movies today anymore.
More Brandy!
Good movie 💛
Artie must have took a break from Wild, Wild, West?!
i love this movie.
I believe this was loosely based on a real competition.
Nice choice. Another good one is It's a mad mad mad mad world.
Have you watched "The Man in the White Suit" (1951) yet?
Oh, great!
It's a romp.
Correct, a romp, and you are invited to romp with it.
MAAAAAX!!!!!!!!
so much happening
Try watching "Genevieve"...
Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines is better and funnier. Some of the same actors from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in that one. Some great British actors too!
Awsome movie without computer aided help.
Why did he take his shirt off, you ask? Fanservice!
Wonderful Natalie Wood almost succeeds in stealing the show from Jack Lemmon and Peter Falk, but not quite. She is the most flexible of the trio - you can kind of track where she's going to land by the shade of her costumes: the darker they are, the more likely she'll be dealing with Fate.
The pie fight scene was NOT fun to film. It took 3 days and they were well pleased to get it done.
Oh nooo!