Gems: The Great Race (Part One)

So I took so many screencaps for this movie that I'm going to split it into two posts (see part two here).

The film actually has an intermission / entr'acte, so that's where I'll cut off this first installment.

Obviously I could just use some restraint and post fewer images, but that's not my way! Don't you realize that by now?!?!?!

AMAZING TITLES, RIGHT?!?!

My enthusiasm continues for the entire movie.

The Great Race (1965) is pretty damn great. I just WISH that I'd seen it when I was a child - it would be up there with my very faves like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Mary Poppins and the such. If you have kids - make them watch it! I firmly believe in making children watch particular movies. If it's torture, it's the best kind. Watch out future spawn! Muahhhahaha.

Anyway. This summary (found here) also expresses a similar sentiment -

Director Blake Edwards, fresh from the success of the first two Pink Panther movies, indulged his love of classic slapstick comedy with this long free-for-all, which throws in everything but Laurel and Hardy's kitchen sink. The film reunites Some Like It Hot stars Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, ably aided by a spunky Natalie Wood. The subject is a New-York-to-Paris auto race in the early years of the 20th century, pitting the Great Leslie (Curtis), a goody-goody dressed all in white--even his teeth sparkle--against the malevolent Professor Fate (Lemmon), whose coal-black heart is reflected in his handlebar mustache. He looks like a bill collector from a silent- movie melodrama. Lemmon does double duty, also playing the pampered, drunken king of a small European country, whose laugh sounds like the wail of a cat in heat. The film may be too long for its own good, and you really have to love Jack Lemmon to put up with his over-the-top performance, but it's side-splitting in spots. It's one of those movies, if seen in childhood, that stays in your mind for years afterward. Some of the bigger routines, such as a pie fight of epic proportions, don't work as well as the simple chemistry between the perpetually exasperated Professor Fate and his much-abused assistant, Max (a terrific Peter Falk).

I disagree about the pie fight (I ONLY WISH I COULD BE IN IT), but - yeah. Over-the-top can be my jam, so I love it.

wikipedia / imdb / netflix / watch on amazon prime / buy

Natalie Wood gets to wear some marvelous costumes designed by..... Edith Head! You're my hero Edith Head.

I wouldn't mind living in a tent like this. When I used to play MASH when I was in middle school we added TONS of different living situations and people would always loathe getting tent. They obviously weren't picturing a luxurious tent like this.

Also - we didn't play MASH in the way described on the wikipedia page. A spiral? Weird. Not the Maine way.

Watching this movie is also a segment in the "Mallory Views Every Movie Featuring the Wonderful Natalie Wood" process. Previous posts devoted to this goal - Gypsy / Splendor in the Grass / Inside Daisy Clover / Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice.

If I had enough money to buy ridiculous unnecessary things that also happen to be expensive, I'd have a house that featured a trap door with a moon like this for me to rise up and down on. Like.... in the entryway. I'd have the front door automatically open for visitors and then I'd just casually drift down. "Oh, why hello. Welcome to my abode."

Sometimes I'd just jauntily sit on it jeans and a manic grin (for casual visits when I'm trying to be funny). Sometimes I'd lean on it in a gown (for formal events). Sometimes I'd languidly recline on it in lingerie (for romantic callers). Sometimes I'd sprawl out on it in the nude (for those times when I got really drunk and fell asleep up there or something - you never know).

I'd call the moon Daphne.