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The Great Race

Play trailer Poster for The Great Race Released Jul 1, 1965 2h 30m Comedy Play Trailer Watchlist
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69% Tomatometer 26 Reviews 83% Popcornmeter 5,000+ Ratings
A spectacular land race from New York to Paris in the early 20th century is planned, the two main competitors being the handsome, dashing hero in white, The Great Leslie (Tony Curtis), and the dastardly, black-suited Professor Fate (Jack Lemmon). While Fate's sidekick, Max (Peter Falk), attempts to sabotage Leslie and the other racers, Leslie finds an unlikely ally in Maggie DuBois (Natalie Wood), a suffragette and journalist-turned-racer whose car breaks down halfway through the event.
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The Great Race

Critics Reviews

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Nell Minow Common Sense Media Perfect family movie is fun from beginning to end. Rated: 4/5 Dec 28, 2010 Full Review Variety Staff Variety Lemmon plays it dirty throughout and for huge effect. Curtis underplays for equally comic effect. Wood comes through on a par with the two male stars. May 6, 2008 Full Review Nell Minow Movie Mom Rated: 5/5 Jan 1, 2000 Full Review Serge Daney Cahiers du Cinéma A relatively disappointing film, The Great Race is nevertheless one that Blake Edwards dreamt of making for years , the pure cartoon that his previous films foreshadowed. Was he wrong to strive increasingly towards the cartoonish? Feb 14, 2024 Full Review Pauline Kael McCall's It’s degrading to waste nights at these movies: The Great Race is a three-hour Tom and Jerry cartoon -- without animation. Sep 19, 2023 Full Review Tim Brayton Alternate Ending If The Great Race flubs the "comedy" half of a comedy super-production, it's pretty good at the super-production half. Rated: 2.5/5 Mar 1, 2022 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Tom Y Ok, this is a very dated movie & when I watched it as a kid countless times on TV I delighted in it. See? That’s the campiness of it. If it’s a choice between The Hunger Games or something else for your 8 yr old child, hopefully this is available as an option. So, to summarize, my rating as a 62 yr old Army, 3x deployed veteran, it’s maybe a 2 star…as an 8-9 yr old kid, without worries, it’s a 5 star greatest movie ever! Rated 3 out of 5 stars 06/23/24 Full Review David K Given proper context, it's an okay film but the 60's employed this type of humor way too much, typically leaving me pretty cold. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/16/24 Full Review Alec B If you hacked an hour off the runtime and recast the leads I think you'd have a solid comedic epic. As it stands, you've got a long slog where no one has an ounce of chemistry. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/10/24 Full Review Jack S Much of the slapstick fun in this early Edwards' effort scores, including standout bar/pie fight sequences. Unfortunately, these pleasures are marred somewhat by the film's over length. But most of the cast is just fine: Curtis is clearly enjoying himself, Wood is lovely and Falk steals his scenes. However, Lemon's work, in this as well as other films of the era, just hasn't aged well. He's sporadically funny here—but (regrettably) mostly just annoying. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 08/12/23 Full Review Paul K This is one of my all-time favorite films. A wonderful tribute the beauty and acting of Natalie Wood. Also, a great film for demonstrating the comic chops of both Jack Lemmon and Peter Falk. Professor Fate's scenes are all just fantastic. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/24/23 Full Review Audience Member If you hacked an hour off the runtime and recast the leads I think you'd have a solid comedic epic. As it stands, you've got a long slog where no one has an ounce of chemistry. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/13/23 Full Review Read all reviews
The Great Race

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Cast & Crew

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Blake Edwards

Director

Tony Curtis

The Great Leslie

Jack Lemmon

Professor Fate

Natalie Wood

Maggie Dubois

Peter Falk

Maximilian Meen

Keenan Wynn

Hezekiah Sturdy

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The Great Race

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Movie Info

Synopsis A spectacular land race from New York to Paris in the early 20th century is planned, the two main competitors being the handsome, dashing hero in white, The Great Leslie (Tony Curtis), and the dastardly, black-suited Professor Fate (Jack Lemmon). While Fate's sidekick, Max (Peter Falk), attempts to sabotage Leslie and the other racers, Leslie finds an unlikely ally in Maggie DuBois (Natalie Wood), a suffragette and journalist-turned-racer whose car breaks down halfway through the event.
Director
Blake Edwards
Producer
Martin Jurow
Screenwriter
Arthur A. Ross
Distributor
Warner Bros. Pictures
Production Co
Warner Brothers/Seven Arts
Genre
Comedy
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Jul 1, 1965, Wide
Release Date (Streaming)
Sep 30, 2016
Runtime
2h 30m
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