The Great Race

The Great Race (1965) is a big-budget Hollywood comedy-adventure directed by Blake Edwards, available to watch online on iFILM. Tony Curtis plays the Great Leslie — a white-suited, white-toothed daredevil who organizes a transcontinental car race from New York to Paris at the turn of the century. Jack Lemmon plays his opposite in every sense: Professor Fate, a mustachioed, black-cloaked villain who will sabotage anything that moves if it means Leslie loses.

Natalie Wood joins as Maggie, a sharp-elbowed journalist chasing a headline. Fate and his long-suffering sidekick Max, played by Peter Falk, spend the entire race scheming, crashing, and failing spectacularly. The route covers the American West, the Arctic, a European kingdom, and a sword fight. The film runs 160 minutes and fills every one of them with chases, disguises, and slapstick that owes an obvious debt to silent-era comedy.

What makes it hold up is the casting. Lemmon is clearly having the time of his life being the worst person in the room. Curtis plays straight-arrow heroism with such commitment that the joke writes itself. Edwards keeps the tone light and the gags physical. Stream The Great Race (1965) online on iFILM.