Chairman

The Great Race (1965)

Actors: Mike Lally (actor), Kenner G. Kemp (actor), Richard Alexander (actor), Paul Bryar (actor), William Bryant (actor), Peter Falk (actor), Roy Jenson (actor), Sol Gorss (actor), Harry Harvey (actor), Robert Carson (actor), Chuck Hayward (actor), Tony Curtis (actor), Charles Horvath (actor), Charles Horvath (actor), Jack Lemmon (actor),

Plot: Professional daredevil and white-suited hero, The Great Leslie, convinces turn-of-the-century auto makers that a race from New York to Paris (westward across America, the Bering Straight and Russia) will help to promote automobile sales. Leslie's arch-rival, the mustached and black-attired Professor Fate vows to beat Leslie to the finish line in a car of Fate's own invention. The Blake Edwards style of slapstick and song originated with this movie. A dedication to Laurel and Hardy appears at the beginning of the film. Edwards' tribute to Stan and Ollie can be seen most clearly in the interaction between Professor Fate and his cohort Max, as well as in the operatic Pottsdorf pie fight.

Keywords: 1900s, actor-playing-multiple-roles, alaska, around-the-world, automobile, automobile-racing, bach's-toccata-and-fugue, balloon, bar, bar-fight
Genres: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Family, Musical, Romance, Sport, Western,
Taglines: THE GREAT LAUGH SHOW OF ALL TIME! The movie with 20,000-mile or one-million-laughs guarantee!

Quotes:

[On a melting iceberg]::Max: We gotta do something.::Professor Fate: Oh, don't worry. Before this iceberg melts and we drown like rats, we're going to do plenty.::Max: Yeah? What?::Professor Fate: We're gonna starve!

[On a melting iceberg]::Leslie: You better keep it to yourself.::Fate: Oh, of course I'll keep it to myself. [to himself] Until the water reaches my lower lip, and then I'm going to mention it to *somebody*!

Max: Red sky. Gonna be a storm.::Professor Fate: What are you babbling about?::Max: Red sky in the morning, sailor take warning.::Professor Fate: Why, you simple-headed gherkin, do you know the chances of a storm in this part of the world at this time of the year?::Max: No, what?::Professor Fate: Hundred to one.::[a great thunderclap; it begins to pour rain]::Max: Red sky in the morning, sailor take warning!::Professor Fate: Why you idiot!

Prince Hapnick: You! You're the cause of it all! It was your idea!::General: No, no your highness... Baron von Schtupp::Prince Hapnik: I don't care, I don't care! You're banished. I'm getting a new tucker-inner! Banished, banished, banished!

The Baron: He who fights and runs away lives to fight another day. So, until another day, Mr. Leslie.

Max: Rise and shine, Professor.::Professor Fate: You rise! You shine!

[repeated line]::Professor Fate: Push the button, Max!

Maggie DuBois: You mean amazing because I'm a woman.

[on the iceberg]::Fate: You're wasting your time!::Leslie: Perhaps.::Fate: We're melting!::Leslie: Slowly.::Max: We're gonna sink!::Leslie: Eventually.::Fate: Then you're wasting your time!

Prince Hapnik: Course there is one good thing, when one was young, one could play along the corridors. I used to ride my pony up and down this corridor when I was young, then I grew up, got drunk, and fell off!