Film

The Great Race

Name: The Great Race
Genre: Comedy, Adventure, Action, Romance, Western
Released: 1965
Cast: Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, Natalie Wood, Peter Falk, Keenan Wynn

Car-chase action
Comedy
Light-hearted

The Great Race is Blake Edwards' gigantic, affectionate throwback to silent-era melodrama and Mack Sennett slapstick — Tony Curtis as the spotless white-suited hero, Jack Lemmon cackling under a villain's mustache, racing automobiles from New York to Paris the impossibly long way round. It's loud, silly, gorgeously overlong, and contains the biggest pie fight ever filmed. Pure widescreen comfort food, not wit.

TMDb rating

3.6

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love big, goofy slapstick set pieces, pie fights and old-fashioned villains twirling their moustaches, and you don't mind a gleefully overblown comedy that happily goes on for ages.

Skip it if you find the broad, mugging physical humour wearing thin quickly, since much of the film is loud, repetitive and built around exaggerated gags rather than sharp wit or a tight story.

What it asks of you: It asks for a long sit, nearly three hours, with a patience for episodic detours and a willingness to let the chaos roll on at its own unhurried pace.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Some Like It Hot1959

Lemmon and Curtis in their defining comic partnership, years before Fate and Leslie — faster, sharper, and just as fearless. Essential if you love either actor here.

But Black and white, and the 'men in dresses' farce plays differently to modern audiences than it did in 1959.

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World1963

Same era, same instinct — cram every comic star you can afford into one enormous, escalating chase and let the stunts do the talking. Big-canvas slapstick joy.

But At three-plus hours it tests patience even more than The Great Race does, with humor pitched broader still.

Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours 11 Minutes1965

Released the same year, built on the identical joke — a ridiculous international race, gorgeous period machines, chaos at the finish line.

But Leans harder on cartoonish national stereotypes that have aged less gracefully than Edwards' version.

Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours 11 Minutes poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Great Race

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Wacky Races1968

Hanna-Barbera built this cartoon directly off The Great Race — Dick Dastardly and Muttley are Professor Fate and Max reborn in animation, right down to the black car and the scheming.

The literal cartoon descendant — eleven competitors racing cross-country while a mustached villain plots outrageous sabotage every episode, in twenty-two-minute bursts of Saturday-morning chaos.

But Thin and repetitive by design — it's a kids' cartoon formula, not a story, and the joke wears thin fast in a binge.

Around the World in 80 Days1956

The granddaddy of the lavish globe-trotting comedy-adventure, all-star cameos and travelogue spectacle included. This is where that appetite for scale came from.

But Stately and episodic rather than manic — closer to a postcard tour than a comedy engine.

The Pink Panther1963

Blake Edwards' other great comic machine, made just before this one, with the same appetite for elaborate farce and beautifully timed physical disaster.

But It's a jewel-heist caper, not a road race — the plot mechanics feel quite different despite the shared director.

Support Your Local Sheriff!1969

James Garner at his most charmingly self-aware, sending up the Western with the same affectionate, tongue-in-cheek tone Edwards brings to melodrama here.

But Smaller and quieter — a town comedy, not a continent-spanning spectacle, so don't expect the same scale.

Blazing Saddles1974

If Fate and Leslie's cartoon morality tickled you, Mel Brooks pushes genre-spoofing several steps further into outright anarchy and top-tier one-liners.

But Rowdier and ruder, far more willing to offend — a real tonal jump from the family-friendly Great Race.

The Cannonball Run1981

The unofficial spiritual sequel — an absurd cross-country car race stuffed with stars, stunts, and dumb charm, with a decades-later 70s hangover swagger.

But Thinner jokes and lazier plotting — this one runs on star wattage more than craft.

Support Your Local Gunfighter1971

James Garner again, in a loose companion piece to his Sheriff comedy, keeping the same wry, mock-heroic energy going for one more round.

But Slight and rarely discussed — more a pleasant curiosity than a must-see, best saved for genuine completionists.

The Wages of Fear1953

Same bones as the film you just watched — a hazardous, mismatched journey across brutal terrain where the vehicle itself might kill you — but played dead straight, as unbearable tension instead of slapstick.

A genuinely nerve-shredding thriller about truck drivers hauling nitroglycerin over mountain roads — the dark, serious mirror of every 'race across dangerous terrain' premise, this one included.

But Bleak, slow-burning, and in French with subtitles — about as far from The Great Race's cheerful tone as a film can get.

The General1926

The Great Race is a love letter to silent-era slapstick and melodrama; this is the real thing — Keaton's deadpan derring-do and train-chase stuntwork is exactly what Edwards was affectionately parodying.

Buster Keaton performing his own insane, precisely engineered stunts atop a moving locomotive, with a purity of visual comedy that still gets gasps a century later.

But Silent and slow-building by modern pacing standards — no dialogue or score to lean on, just Keaton's face and timing.