What A Race!

 

I always wanted to be in some fun car race across the country because there are many films that make it fun..except for car crashes, blow ups and going through big signs. Yes, I am late…I’m getting home closer to 9 pm from work and am exhausted. I have to figure out how to use my time better without hurting my clients. Anywho, I am choosing 3 movies that are very funny and, yes, I am still into the cars this week. Here are my 3..

1. ITS A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD-1963

SYLVESTER!! My friend and I love this movie and it is soooo funny with some great comedians taking centre stage in this film  involving cash buried under the big W. It starts off with Jimmy Durante driving crazy along a windy road passing a number of vehicles before careening off the road and land at the bottom of the pass. All the vehicles stop and the men go down to help only to hear the dying man talk about this money buried under the big W. When he finally, and literally, kicks the bucket, the men climb back up and tell the women what they heard. After failing in trying to divide up the cash, they run for their cars all wanting to find the money before the other one. They don’t know that they are being watched by the cops headed by Spencer Tracy. Some of the people meet up with others whom, they think, will help but it just brings more greedy people into the mix. Each group end up in one calamity after another culminating in an abandoned building with a fireman’s ladder. You have everyone from Sid Caesar, Jonathan Winters, Milton Berle, Mickey Rooney, Buddy Hackett, the great Terry-Thomas and Phil Silvers. I love Dick Shawn playing Ethel’s son who is always high with his dancing girlfriend(Barrie Chase). How I fondly recall my dad laughing to the point of tears when they all ended up on the fireman’s ladder. It’s a brilliant film and Spencer Tracy, ill and cantankerous, enjoyed making this film because these comedians were in awe of him and would all try and make him laugh. 

2. THE GREAT RACE-1965

A Blake Edwards film that is so funny and inspired the cartoon with Penelope Pitstop. I haven’t seen this film in ages but it stars Tony Curtis as the hero( he wears white) who enters the race from London to Paris and his chief rival is the dastardly Jack Lemmon( he wears black) who’s sidekick, Peter Falk, tries to  sabotage hero Tony. They meet up with the beautiful Natalie Wood, a suffragette, who ends up with Tony to win the race. This is quite funny and it has the biggest pie fight ever on film. After 5 days of filming this fight, the actors were quite tired and Jack Lemmon would be knocked out by the pies. It’s ok because when Blake Edwards said, “ It’s a Wrap” he got hit with over 150 pies.

3. THOSE DARING YOUNG MEN IN THEIR JAUNTY JALOPIES-1969

This film is almost a sequel but more a brother to the equally funny film, “Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines” with many of the same cast from the airplane chase movie, now in cars where they travel from many places in Europe to Monte Carlo to enter a race. You have the Brits, played by the great comedy team of Dudley Moore and Peter Cook, the German, played by Gert Frobe( Goldfinger) and an array of others with, yes, Terry-Thomas in tow. There are many hijinks and it is just one funny film that I need to see again. 

B.onus…

The Keystone Kops were a hilarious group of old Vaudevillians brought into film by the Great Mack Sennett ( he was Canadian) who made a ton of short films in the teens and early 20s  with these Kops and the Mack Sennett beauties. There are always car chases and this is all real! There were no AI or trick film tricks, they are doing all these stunts that take one’s breath away. 

Which car chase movies come to your mind?