[00:00:00] Hezekiah: Ladies and gentlemen, you're about to witness the most spectacular feat ever attempted by the greatest daredevil in the world. [00:00:18] Professor Fate: Push the button, Max!. [00:00:31] Matthew: Hello and welcome once again to the Inter Millennium Media Project, the IMMP podcast. My name is Matthew Porter [00:00:40] Ian: and I am the great Ian porter. Haha. [00:00:43] Matthew: I'm his dad. He's my son, and we've watched a movie. [00:00:49] Ian: That's right. You're about to witness a feat of podcasting like never before Heard. [00:00:56] Matthew: And we, we've gone back to the auspicious year of 1965. [00:01:01] Ian: My goodness. I it feels like a lot of films that came out there, at least someone was doing something in. , there's years there's like, wow, there's a lot of films coming out and, it felt like a lot of films came out then compared to everywhere else on either side. [00:01:16] Matthew: And I think that to some extent there was enough critical mass of film history at this point. [00:01:23] Ian: Yeah. [00:01:23] Matthew: Combined that with the experimental weakening of the production code. You got a lot of strange and innovative movies in that period. As the sixties developed, there were some movies that were very much like what we saw in the fifties. There were some things that were harbinger of the kind of of film that we got in the seventies, and then there were all these odd experiments. [00:01:52] Ian: Yeah. Like this one. [00:01:54] Matthew: Yes. Like this one. And the, the increasing competition with television, of course, a big part of that as well. [00:02:00] Ian: Um, that's a good point. [00:02:01] Matthew: As you observed when I, uh, kind of assigned you to watch this movie, this is a long movie. [00:02:07] Ian: Yeah. This is 160 minutes of chaotic film. [00:02:15] Matthew: And while I was certainly not a movie goer at that point, um, uh, being, uh, you know, less than a month old at the end of the year. I, I do think that there was a certain push to kind of give people theirs money's worth. If you're expecting them to buy a movie ticket and go to a movie theater, you've gotta give them a lot. You've gotta, they don't want to do that for a ni some 90 minute thing. So, yeah. Shove as much as you possibly can into a movie and sell them a ticket. [00:02:46] Ian: This film is almost, this film is right in between the sizes of things like the Hobbit films that came out. Yes. And it's like, there's no book reference or anything. This is just, you know, you've got enough time to either watch, Desolation of Smog or this, you know, 'cause they're both long and I'm just, I'm using that just 'cause it's a movie that I, I heard of being described as big and long at its time. [00:03:13] Matthew: Yes. [00:03:14] Ian: It's like this is long even by modern film standards, even in a post Avengers world. That length has not re, has not become more easy to use or easy to, to, to accept. And this is still going that far. [00:03:30] Matthew: And this was in the days of, movie palaces and small town movie theaters. This was not, the, world of multiplexes. So a theater deciding to screen a movie like this was making a commitment. You know, you're gonna get a matinee and an evening show and that's it. [00:03:48] Ian: Yeah. You're, you're, you're probably cutting an entire showing of another thing, an entire ticket sales of another movie to put this on. This must be good enough to warrant that. [00:04:01] Matthew: And they, they went big. This is a Technicolor epic. It has stars too. Big movie stars, Jack Lemon and Tony Curtis and Natalie Wood [00:04:12] Ian: I mean, those, they, they, they pull out all the stops, the amount of. Even outside the actors, the amount of sets and props and environments, [00:04:21] Matthew: this story. Yeah. So many location and, and yeah. Listeners, we haven't even told you the name of the movie yet. We've enthused about it so much. We are talking about The Great Race now. I do think we require a little disambiguation here. [00:04:38] Ian: Yes. [00:04:38] Matthew: We are not talking about, the book, the Passing of the Great Race by, anthropologist, lawyer, eugenicist and proponent of so-called scientific racism. Madison Grant from the 19 teens. Yeah. [00:04:56] Ian: Get that away from here. [00:04:57] Matthew: Uh, speaking of, appalling 20th century racists, we are not talking about the great race of Yith from HP Lovecraft's the shadow out of time. [00:05:09] Ian: And talking about, uh, strange elridge things, which terrify the mortal man. We are not talking about the 2016 musical comedy, Thomas and Friends, the Great Race. [00:05:20] Matthew: No, we are not. [00:05:21] Ian: Thomas The Tank Engine is far away from this too. [00:05:25] Matthew: And for the record, the Thomas and movie is not an adaptation of either the Madison Grant monograph or the HP Lovecraft story [00:05:34] Ian: or this film. I don't think, no, I'm not sure. [00:05:38] Matthew: We're, we're also not talking about the great race from Chinese folklore, which explains the, the pattern of the Chinese Zodiac. [00:05:48] Ian: Yeah. None of these, [00:05:49] Matthew: no, none of the above. If, um, if what you're looking for is a podcast about any of those things, sorry, you're not getting it here. What we are talking about is that 1965 movie with Tony Curtis and, uh, and Jack Lemon and, uh, Natalie Wood. [00:06:06] Ian: What was Director Blake Edwards thinking, his search engine optimization on this is horrible. Was he not, was he not planning for that? No. [00:06:15] Matthew: You'd think his marketing people would've known better, [00:06:17] Ian: you'd think, but no, it's, it's generic name to the extreme, I will admit. But, but my goodness. Just the first moments, you know, something's happening. 'cause this has a full intro with title cards and sound, but it's, it's almost a cinematic drum roll in a way that I was not expecting. [00:06:41] Matthew: Right. I talked about the fact that they had this critical mass of film history to comment on. They set this up not only as a period piece taking place, , at , the dawn of the automobile age, but they make the movie feel like. A movie from decades earlier, like you say, with the, the overture where we get to hear the score. Mm-hmm. The credits. Mm-hmm. Of course this was in the sixties, so all of the credits are upfront and they're a magic lantern show, complete with scratch slides and upside down slides and, and the like. [00:07:15] Ian: Yes. Uh, it's like immediately the format is doing comedy. Yes. No actor has appeared and the format is doing comedy bits that tells you how much effort they put into every slot of every moment. [00:07:32] Matthew: , you said the intermission with the full, interact, musical, segment. Yes. [00:07:39] Ian: There, there is a subtitled singalong section Yes. That's right in the middle of, in, in the middle of a film that has not had anything like that so far. Yes. And, and I love how it seems to confuse one of the actors when that starts happening. There's almost a moment where like, one guy didn't get the memo that that was the scene. He's just like, huh, okay. [00:08:03] Matthew: Are we doing a different movie now? What's happening? [00:08:05] Ian: Exactly what? Huh? [00:08:09] Matthew: And yet there isn't really any of that wink at the camera kind of thing. There's occasional confusion on the part of the characters, but one of the things that makes it work is that everybody stays committed to the characters in the scenario. And this strange world is just the world they live in. The closest we get is occasionally with Tony Curtis's character, who is the great Leslie. Who is a, a dashing, handsome, strong daredevil. And when he is introduced, we do get him barreling the camera and smiling. And there's a little artificial glint added to his smile later on. He's, when he's meeting someone, he gets to barrel the camera and we, we see a glint in his eyes added with a little animation. But apart from that, it's very, I mean, and even that, it's the character. He's staying in character, the character staying in the world. It's just a wink to us in the audience. [00:09:06] Ian: Yeah, that's the one time he gets to tap on the fourth wall [00:09:10] Matthew: right. At [00:09:11] Ian: all. [00:09:12] Matthew: Just a little. We know you're out there. [00:09:15] Ian: Yeah. Every other time the fourth wall is solidly intact, and yet the ridiculousness of the world's physics and the, the storytelling. There are action movies known for being Rule of Cool. Your character can, the characters can do this if it's a cool action scene. Yep. This is rule of funny. Yes. And that makes it very much like a live action Looney Tunes at times. [00:09:47] Matthew: Absolutely. It is. It is very much a cartoon. It's, it's dedicated to Laurel and Hardy. Yes. This was Blake Edwards trying to capture that kind of, of vintage slapstick that Laurel and Hardy are known for. And that's some, we haven't talked about Laurel and Hardy on the podcast, but we're gonna have to at some point. Okay. 'cause they influenced so much. But I, I don't think Edwards actually managed to capture the feel of Laurel and Hardy Films, but instead he created something different in his, in his effort to do that. But you're right. It's, if it's funny, it'll work. That is the, the guiding principle of this entire world. [00:10:27] Ian: There is a distinct video I had to go watch after I'd finished this movie. [00:10:32] Matthew: Oh yeah. [00:10:33] Ian: 'cause the mindset was so clear, and I'm gonna wait to say what it is until we're a little further along. [00:10:38] Matthew: Okay. [00:10:40] Ian: But it, it says something that, this is so reminiscent of certain types of comedy and media that I had to go look for more of it right after. [00:10:51] Matthew: And of course, Blake Edwards went on to, to become even more famous, making things like, uh, the, the entire Pink Panther series. And I don't honestly don't remember if the first Pink Panther movie came before this or not, but that's probably what he's best known for. Also, movies like Victor Victoria and I think 10. Uh, so, uh, he went on to make a lot of movies that in some ways were movies that defined a type of comedy for their various era. [00:11:22] Ian: The first Pink Panther was actually two years before this. It was before. Okay. Yes. The, that was in 63. This is 65. [00:11:28] Matthew: That may be what gave him the blank check to make such a big, weird movie as this. [00:11:33] Ian: I think it might've. Oh, and we were ta we're talking about cast and everyone in the set. But you know, just one more thing. There's Peter Falk in this! [00:11:41] Matthew: Yes, there is Peter Falk who plays, uh, the henchman to, to Jack Lemon's character, Jack Lemon. Uh, if, if Tony Curtis plays with the great Leslie, uh, Jack Lemon Plays Professor Fate, [00:11:54] Ian: professor Fate, who [00:11:56] Matthew: is, for whatever reason, they reasons don't matter. He is the great Leslie's sworn enemy and is always trying to undermine the great Leslie's daredevil feats and supersede them, you know, exceed them with his own. And he's got this Henchman Max played by Peter Falk. [00:12:17] Ian: Maximilian Mean according to the credits, which is just such a good name. [00:12:24] Matthew: And the premise of the movie, where it gets his title is that Leslie persuades an automobile company to promote their automobiles and the idea of automobiles. He persuades them to sponsor a great race. And, you know, with automobile race, they, the, the, the company isn't that interested. Automobile racing is, uh, a common thing these days when I'm talking about a long race, you know, we've already done New York to Albany. What else are we gonna do? New York to Paris, heading west from New York. [00:13:03] Ian: Amen. [00:13:04] Matthew: That is the race. [00:13:07] Ian: That's kinda wild. and of course if Leslie's gonna do it, professor Fate has to get in because before we even get that, we've started with multiple rounds of seeing Fate and Leslie's different stunts. Yes. And how Fates always go wrong and Leslie's go right. Even when Fate tries to sabotage them, which he does often. [00:13:33] Matthew: And Leslie's doing things like a straight jacket escapes suspended from a hot air balloon or speed records in a, a power boat. 'cause he's already beaten all the land speed records. And yeah, we see professor Fate with his sound guided torpedoes and , his giant catapult to pierce the balloon. [00:13:55] Ian: So, so where exactly in the family tree is the Great Leslie a Forebearer to Buckaroo Banzai? Oh, there's a similar level of character design here. I'm like these cha, I mean if this is a, this is a shared universe, these characters would be related for sure. [00:14:11] Matthew: No question. Oh, Leslie just needs to get his medical degree and he's all set. [00:14:16] Ian: Exactly. Oh, absolutely. [00:14:18] Matthew: And put a band together. And you talk about modern equivalents, there is so much that is influenced by Jack Lemon's portrayal of Professor Fate. [00:14:28] Ian: Oh my goodness. [00:14:29] Matthew: For one thing, professor Fate and Max, they are Team Rocket. [00:14:36] Ian: Yes. Professor Fade is blasting off again. I thought that Exactly. There's a scene where they're, [00:14:43] Matthew: they're in their, their submarine trying to infiltrate something that Leslie is doing, and they're wearing sweaters with a giant F on the front. This is Team Rocket. [00:14:55] Ian: This is Team Rocket. This is Yma and Cronk. [00:14:59] Matthew: Yes. Yes it is. [00:15:00] Ian: The, this is this. If there has been a bad guy and henchman combo, there's a fine chance that it is a professor Fate Max's, uh, reference in style [00:15:13] Matthew: and Jack Lemon's portrayal of Professor Fate. That is. Jim Carrey's, portrayal of Dr. Robotnik with Yes. Super superiority complex and scenery chewing, and there's so much. But, um, I, I, I can't believe that the people behind the, the Pokemon cartoons didn't love this movie because we literally see them in their, like pedal power dirigible spying on Leslie and their, their pocket submarine and all of these things. It's, it's the same kind of team rocket, ver amorphously defined mission, seemingly inexhaustible resources because they all have all these transport gadgets and absolute stupidity, inability to follow through on anything. [00:16:03] Ian: There is an underlying thing you've gotta have to make a character like this, and they do a great job kind of having that exist and never pointing it out here. Mm-hmm. Leslie. Our, our grand wearing white. I can sword fight you and not spill my champagne kind of hero. I works with an automotive company to build his vehicle. Professor Fate builds his own rival car himself out of other vehicles. He builds his own and it makes it to the end. [00:16:40] Matthew: Yes. [00:16:40] Ian: Just like Leslie's Professor Fate is a good engineer. Yeah. He is a bad villain and that is a powerful thing. Like have a bad guy who would be absolutely fine if he just gave up of being a bad guy and did the thing he's obviously better at. [00:17:01] Matthew: Yes. It's like he fixated early on on somehow needing to bring down Leslie and that derailed what could have been an amazing career. He could have been a captain of industry at this time. [00:17:14] Ian: Exactly. It's such a subtle thing, but we watched that happen multiple times where Professor Fates things work. He's just not good at using them and he's just not making what he needs in the moment. He makes other stuff, but it all works. [00:17:34] Matthew: And he'll, he'll make it by deciding what he needs. He'll design the, the, the Hannibal eight, the the yes twin eight, uh, vehicle that he's created for the race, but he'll then build it out of stolen parts Yes. And things like this and send Max out to procure what he needs by any means necessary. And, and also, oh, something else that I think is clearly influenced by this, I think it would be recognized by anybody who's a fan of mystery science Theater 3000. Yeah. The number of times we have Professor Fate saying, push the button max. [00:18:11] Ian: Yes, absolutely it is. Every single one of the bad guys in mystery science, theater, all of the, all of the evils have been calling back in some way to this. I think even, even after our initial pair. [00:18:29] Matthew: Yes. Uh, because Professor Fate will, he will give an as, you know, Bob about his latest diabolical gadget, but it'll, it'll kind of make sense because he's the kind of person who likes to rave about his latest diabolical gadget. And then he'll say, push the button in max, and of course something will blow up. Exactly. [00:18:50] Ian: That is part of the problem with talking about this though. We're giving the setup here. You know, here's the group we've seen, we've seen the two groups. They're established for like 30 minutes almost. Yes. Of other things, and then the race is happening and we're going to have New York City to Paris in Leslie, in the Leslie Special Built for him, spec built for him specifically, and Professor Fate in his own, Hannibal eight vehicle. And there's one more group to establish here and that that is Maggie dubois played by Natalie Wood. [00:19:39] Matthew: Yes, she is a suffragette and a proponent of women's rights and, social and, moral and sexual liberation so that the sexes can live in harmony and equality. But she will use aggressive tactics. To, to get there, such as chaining herself to the, the men's room door in the offices of the New York Sentinel newspaper until she's given a job as their first female reporter. [00:20:10] Ian: Yeah. Character wise, she, she does not fill a damsel in distress role. She fills a distressing damsel role. She, she is there, she's a perpetual, uh, pusher of the plot and a strong character who actually plays well off of everyone else in the cast. [00:20:33] Matthew: Yes. Because there's some way in which she, she can strike a spark off someone else. she's complicating things so that professor Fate's plans don't go as he expects them to. Leslie being the traditional gentleman. Doesn't like this whole equality thing very much. At least, uh, at first. [00:20:55] Ian: And that's the thing. She's, she's got this weird thing also with like, she kind of has a, a kinship with professor Fate on in terms of the like, oh yeah, we're both people who will manipulate what we need to things to happen. [00:21:07] Matthew: Yes. [00:21:08] Ian: Handcuffs can get me a job 'cause I'm chained to the building. You know, that seems like something both of us could agree on. Meanwhile, she'll turn to Max and it's like, can you believe it? Everyone's always putting us down and giving us the short end of the stick, [00:21:21] Matthew: right? [00:21:21] Ian: And she's got this, all this young, Ooh, I wanna call it a will. They, won't they, but it's a little bit more of a, do they want to, will it happen by the end of the film with her and Leslie? So yeah, she sparks with everybody. But she's going to be a reporter. Yes, she's. Blackmailed herself, that job. So she needs to be there on the race for every bit of the race. So she enters the race [00:21:52] Matthew: partly by persuading the, the wife of the newspaper's editor, she gets them mm-hmm. To sponsor hers and entry in the race and they get a car for her. It's a Stanley Steamer, not a great choice for a long distance auto race. Yeah. But it's, it's all the newspaper would provide. And very soon as after this race begins in New York City, it comes down to their three cars. Because Professor Fate has had Max sabotage all the other entrants. [00:22:26] Ian: Yes. In a very funny, like go first car one will go, but then car two, then car three and four. And then Car five. We're car five. Oh, [00:22:38] Matthew: Max got a little carried away. [00:22:41] Ian: He did. But yeah, it comes down to the three of them, and this is where it becomes a little bit more episodic. [00:22:52] Matthew: Very much it's little vignettes or episodes framed by the dispatches that, Maggie is sending back to the newspaper in New York via the inexhaustible supply of carrier pigeons that she has with her. [00:23:07] Ian: You know, just, just like a magic trick. Reach into this box, pull out a pigeon. Doesn't matter how many you've said. Pull out a pigeon. The infinite pigeon box is here, and she keeps that and her camera with her for a long part of the movie. [00:23:20] Matthew: So we get all of these little vignettes of Yeah, they're, they wind up in a western town. They wind up having to deal with getting supplies from a train depot in another western town. Uh Yep. They have to, of course, go up to Alaska because they, they're gonna cross the bearing strait to get to Russia to continue the race to Europe. [00:23:41] Ian: And then heading through Russia and into, small European kingdoms all the way over. Each of these are individual episodes that start out with an order in which people arrive, hi, jinx ensue, and everyone leaves in a refreshed order. [00:23:59] Matthew: Yes. [00:24:00] Ian: Each [00:24:01] Matthew: time it's kind of like, you know, the, the amazing Race, uh, competition show in that way. We have all these things that have to happen at each location, which churns up the order. Each one of these is an opportunity for Blake Edwards to essentially make another movie. They show up in this western town. The, the town insists that the racers stay as the guest of honor for this big shindig, this big celebration they're gonna have in the, the saloon that night, the music hall. And that devolves into a giant western barroom brawl as the singer, from the, music hall is hitting on the Great Leslie, of course, because he is the most handsome thing in the world, uh, which, and this does not please Maggie, of course. But then Texas Jack played by Larry Storch comes in and this is his gal. So he's fixing to fight with the great Leslie. And of course, everybody winds up fighting and the, the place is destroyed. But it gives Blake Edwards a chance to make that kind of a Western fight scene. [00:25:00] Ian: I wanna just grab that, the opening bit from that one where, professor Fate having arrived first is trying to just get the gasoline from the town and leave. Yes. And he in the, the, the happy welcome party when he rolls into town, turns into a bit more of a threatening time until he's literally being gestured at with the key to the city he was being given. And I just wanted to pa I just wanted to pause in and add Kingdom hearts sound effects as he gets a giant key shoved at him. [00:25:36] Matthew: Yes. The key to the city does become a weapon in the hands of the mayor, doesn't it? Exactly. [00:25:40] Ian: It's very, it's, no, you're gonna take this key and join us for banquets. [00:25:47] Matthew: It's, you know, you thinking about the structure, it is kind of kingdom hearts like too, there going into these different realms with a different. Conflict or adventure. Occasionally confronted with a violent person with a key. Exactly. And and then they succeed there and move on. [00:26:05] Ian: Yeah. And there's, and they build up little things across the way. You know, some, some supplies go missing, some vehicle damage gets repaired. The, it's not purely the same. It's like, it's not like arriving into the western town is the same condition they arrive over in Russia. In [00:26:24] Matthew: No, no. [00:26:25] Ian: But along the way, these things add up, but each one sets a starting point and has chaos ensue, going from, the bar brawl in the western town over to. Hi jinks involving, chaining. Leslie's assistant to a train. So he's sent back to New York. That way Maggie can, can, who Maggie's car is broken in that way, Maggie can say, oh, well you need someone to help you and stick around with, with Leslie in his vehicle. So doesn't get, uh, disqualified from the race for not continuing. [00:26:59] Matthew: Yeah, they needed fuel because Professor Fate had destroyed the, the extra fuel in the, the previous Western town. She arranged for the, the New York Sentinel to have fuel sent to the next town for them, but she won't sign for it unless they let her continue on and, and to get Hezekiah outta the way, she traps him in a train. Yeah. [00:27:21] Ian: That's another character. Keenan Wynn. Hezekiah is just the, the one man who is dealing with all of the worst parts of this. Something like Professor Fate. It's always a comeuppance for what he did. But Hezekiah is just like the muscle. Yeah. And he is, has kind of the roughest time. [00:27:43] Matthew: The character's full name is Hezekiah Sturdy. Yes. He's the guy who does all the stuff so that Leslie doesn't have to, so that Leslie's, suit or turtleneck can remain gleaming white. [00:27:56] Ian: It also means that when punches get thrown, he's kind of one of the first either punched or punching. Yes. [00:28:03] Matthew: And then they, we follow them through the west and they end up in Alaska. Again, they have a lot of jumps, , framed with these dispatches back to New York. And we see increasingly the, the suffragette protests that Maggie started when she was there, uh, have grown because the editor's wife is now the leader, and eventually they're, they're protesting outside the offices, nonstop. Then they're occupying the hallways. Eventually we get to the point where, oh, the editor has had to be sent away to a special hospital for a while, so his wife is now serving as editor in chief, [00:28:45] Ian: which is just such a brilliant thing because the, the editor's assistant has been getting these pigeons and like, but telling his boss what they, what they say, and we see one of these scenes. He gets a note, he reads it out, and then the newspaper, the desk goes down and it's the editor's wife who's taken over the job. Yes. In a brilliant shot reveal. [00:29:04] Matthew: Yep. Still editor in Chief Goodbody, but now it's Mrs. Goodbody Exactly. Being at least as tough as her husband, if not more. So in this job, [00:29:14] Ian: a little, a little rougher, actually, a little more like, a little more insistent about how they're gonna do things. [00:29:23] Matthew: And in, in Alaska, of course, every environment in every place is completely stereotyped and exaggerated. Oh yeah. So Alaska is just this place of nonstop blizzards and snow drifts and they wind up. This is where the two remaining groups, Leslie and Professor Fate, wind up together and sort of having to work together for a little while because they're stuck in a snowbank in this blizzard. They're parked right next to each other, which they don't realize at first, uh, [00:29:57] Ian: because the snow, the storm's that bad. [00:30:00] Matthew: And also partly because Professor Faith's, uh, vehicle. Is full of gadgets. Leslie's is just a big, beautiful, high powered automobile. Professor Fate has this lifting suspension so he can jack up the car, uh, 15 feet in the air. It's got a, a heated iron ram in the front so that he can break through obstacles and melt snow. It's got a cannon built into it. Wait, [00:30:29] Ian: wait a minute. A high powered supercar with a lot of weird gadgets, including lifting jacks built in, all powered by buttons. Go Professor Fate. Go. Professor Fate. Go. Professor Fate go. Yeah, this is just the Mach five, but the, the Hannibal Eight. [00:30:49] Matthew: Okay. A new set of the game unmatched, just dropped. We, we, [00:30:53] Ian: yes. [00:30:53] Matthew: We need the Great Leslie versus Professor Fate, and we need as part of the same set, Buckaroo Bonai versus Speed Racer. [00:31:00] Ian: Oh, that would be excellent. Oh, dang. Yes. Oh, that'd be good. [00:31:07] Matthew: Yep. [00:31:09] Ian: But yeah, it's, it's this weird technical supercar, but they wind up next to each other and it's, you know, we've got a huddle together for warmth in the blizzard. Uh, Leslie's got an infinite supply of champagne. Yeah. Soon kind of. Everyone's got an infinite supply of something. [00:31:27] Matthew: A polar bear comes, which chases Fate and max out of their car, which is how they wind up in, in Leslie's car. [00:31:34] Ian: Yeah. They weather out the storm and when the storm ends, the ice they were on is broken off. And they're adrift [00:31:42] Matthew: Yes. They're actually on an ice floe, so they're already heading across the straight and wondering if this ice floe is going to last long enough. [00:31:51] Ian: And we get to see all the characters in high stress situations, in their element, in, in various different scenarios here, which gives us a lot more personality to each of them as we, as than I thought. Le Leslie is a, a worrier who's more concerned with what his actions are going to cause in everyone else. [00:32:12] Matthew: Mm-hmm. [00:32:12] Ian: If he's scared of something, he'll handle it and not say Yeah, because he doesn't wanna spook everyone else. Professor Fate's really good at building something in the moment, but he's a perpetual whiner. Max cares about everybody and kind of sees Professor Fate's potential and is there helping him out because he wants him to do his best and maybe make something good of this. Like there's a lot of characterization in these silly characters [00:32:42] Matthew: there, there is, um, Maggie is there. She's rationing the food and trying to make sure that they can survive in some degree of comfort while they weather this out. You're right, Leslie is definitely the, well, I'm the strong one, so I need to shoulder this burden. I don't wanna distress anyone else. Certainly not the, the woman. By letting them know the dire situation is as he continues to measure the thickness of the ice and, uh, get a sense of how much time they've got left and also Fate and max in their conversations, they're sharp enough to realize that yeah, there's something going on there between Leslie and Maggie, and if there isn't yet, there will be soon. [00:33:20] Ian: Oh yeah, the two of them were just like gossiping completely. It's, it's adorable. [00:33:29] Matthew: And talking about Professor Fate and Max, this is a movie that I would not be surprised to see it show up in the Alamo Drafthouse's, queer film theory screening series. Oh, goodness. Yeah. Just because the way they set up that relationship there, the way, and this is the way things were coded in movies at the time, so often you've got this mm-hmm. Kind of devotion between two characters that isn't clearly explained by the movie, but it's not very difficult to read beyond that. Not suggesting this is a good or healthy relationship of any kind in any way, but it's interesting, no, to see the way movies kind of introduce this sort of thing, which is not necessary to understand and enjoy the movie, but it gives another dimension to it. [00:34:13] Ian: Oh, I, I think that, yeah, it's, there's a lot of, of fun depth, and there's a lot you can read into each of the characters, yet they are fully fleshed out. Yes. No one is a blank slate. And despite all the places they're going being full of weird archetypes. They are not completely archetypes themselves. Yes. [00:34:36] Matthew: And, and speaking of these kind of archetypes, max definitely falls into that. The same kind of thing that you see with, uh, Stan Laurel and other halves of those kinds of comedy duos. It's the, the little guy, the put upon guy, the abused henchman, who's actually the smartest person in the room. Oh, yeah. He's just for various circumstances in the position of trying to use that intelligence to keep things from completely falling apart because of the mistakes that his boss has made. [00:35:10] Ian: So them having their ice flow, heart to hearts going across the bearing Strait leads to them arriving in the Russian port. They were supposed to arrive in on a boat, which is kind of be brilliant and beautiful in its own right. But this is where the movie kind of, I think, loses a bit of steam and turns more into a completely separate movie. [00:35:34] Matthew: It really does [00:35:34] Ian: than it did anywhere else. [00:35:36] Matthew: Yeah. And oh, and Hezekiah is waiting for them at the Russian port. I guess he knew they were gonna get there eventually. So when he got free, he, uh, went across on a ship. [00:35:46] Ian: Yeah, it's almost like it's, it's like Sturdy's player couldn't be there for the bearing straight session. But they, they introduced him back next time. [00:35:54] Matthew: Pretty much. Pretty much. He would've been a, a fifth wheel there. [00:35:58] Ian: Yeah. Um, but they arrive in the tiny kingdom of Carpania. [00:36:06] Matthew: They do after going through revolutionary Russia. There's not a whole lot that happens there. But eventually, they wind up in this small European kingdom after they've crossed Russia. [00:36:17] Ian: Yeah, I'd say going across Russia, all that really does is reestablish who's in what car and that the bearing straight heart to heart isn't going to stop the race or, or make them friendlier. [00:36:29] Matthew: That's true. Um, Maggie is with Fate and Max as they go through Russia. And when the fact that she's multilingual suddenly becomes much more valuable. And she speaks French and Russian and Arabic as well as English, [00:36:43] Ian: uh, which is a combination that, uh, Leslie does as well. So each of them has a translator to help them get through. Yeah. But yeah, once they arrive, once they get out of Russia into the, uh, there this tiny kingdom, it becomes a completely separate movie because of the wildness of Crown Prince Frederick. [00:37:04] Matthew: It becomes a very, very specific movie. It becomes the prisoner of Zenda. It does, it becomes the thank you. It, in some ways, a shot for shot parody of the prisoner of Zenda. [00:37:25] Ian: I was so confused. [00:37:28] Matthew: This entire section would at another time have been. Its own movie. Absolutely. This would've been Blake Edwards parody of the Prisoner of Zenda, just the way Mel Brooks did his parodies of so many different movies, uh, and genres. [00:37:45] Ian: I around. Sometime in the bearing strai section is when the intermission is. Yes, that's right. I went to get a snack. I was still in the kitchen when the Carpania was going on and I was watching from the side. I thought the wrong movie started out at first. I confused. [00:38:11] Matthew: I don't blame you. [00:38:12] Ian: It's such, it is such a different film. It's great, but it's different than what in the world's happening. Suddenly there's, you know, a Crown Prince who's played by the same actor. Professor Fate. It, it gives Jack lemon. Jack Le such a [00:38:28] Matthew: great opportunity to show off his comedic range. [00:38:32] Ian: And when you said you thought that, um, this movie would show up on the Alamo draft house's, uh, L-G-B-T-Q viewing parties and such, I honestly think you were, thought, you were talking about Crown Prince Frederick was such a specific parody of a kind of portrayal. [00:38:48] Matthew: Yes. He is a, a, a laughing drunkard. Doesn't take anything seriously, doesn't seem to be interested in much besides having a good time and getting drunk. [00:39:00] Ian: Yeah. But he's very, but the things he does get to say it's a very specific time period stylization of a repressed guy. Yes. Who is like a gay guy who is not allowed to be himself and is drinking to ignore that. Right. Because, well, I'm going to have to be the prince. This is a problem, so I'm going to do it plastered [00:39:20] Matthew: and apart from drink and his doggies, he wants gossip and jokes. Yes. He wants to hear, hear all about, what Barron Von Stuppe has been doing? [00:39:31] Ian: Oh, goodness. I thought I recognized , the actor who played Barron von Stuppe, and I'm trying to think if it's from something specific. [00:39:39] Matthew: That was, Ross Martin, who was a character actor who has done so many things. He was probably best known for being one of the leads in the TV series, the Wild, wild West, where he played Artemis Gordon, but he also, did a lot of, of Cartoon voice work, and he's done a lot of movie and tv, character work. [00:40:02] Ian: Yeah. He was in an episode of Colombo. Okay. Yeah. He, he's one of those actors where even if he's in full makeup, even if he's looking like someone else, he's just got a face shape and a presence that you're like, that's that guy. [00:40:21] Matthew: Yes, he does. He has that presence. He has that, that kind of intelligence and ruthlessness that he can put onto that face of his that works. Yes. So very well, and that made him perfectly cast in this version of the role made famous in the prisoner of Zenda by James Mason, that kind of, mm-hmm. Ruthless, intelligent villain. [00:40:44] Ian: Because the, the entire thing, you know, for those who don't know, the, the car, the caria, a saga here is, wait a minute, we've got a guy who looks exactly like the prince, throw the prince in jail, have this guy play the Prince, and then he'll abdicate the throne after being crowned. And the baron will take over the country. [00:41:07] Matthew: Yeah. 'cause the general and the baron want power, and they don't want this weird drunkard running of the country. So they've cooked up this plan, and I gather they cooked up this plan in a hurry when they realized, hey, a lookalike has just dropped in our lap. [00:41:23] Ian: Yeah. A lookalike who is very happy to do this for, I'm very happy for Professor Fate, who's never quite completely happy of a guy, but he's willing to do this if we lock up the other racers in the jail until he gets to Paris. [00:41:38] Matthew: Right. At first he wants, he wins. He doesn't really want much to do with this. It sounds very dangerous. Sounds very bothersome. But eventually when he realizes has, he has no choice, he negotiates a pretty good deal about, yeah. At least making sure that he wins the race after this. [00:41:54] Ian: Mm-hmm. So we've got this, this wild, um, this wild little shell game of people. It's, you know, we'll put, put Prince Frederick in the jail, put Maggie in the jail, put Leslie in the jail, put Max in the jail. No, don't take, put Max in the jail. Put max in the car. Put Professor Fate in the car, put Professor Fate and Prince Frederick's clothing. It's like everyone switches around, people open doors, find other people. It's, it's classic comedy in that sense. [00:42:29] Matthew: It is. And Max winds up being the free agent in this because he hasn't been captured and he witnesses. Professor Fate being kidnapped from the palace and brought away to the prison and follows them and concocts this scheme to get them out. And he winds up disguising himself as one of the monks, who have an abbey nearby. [00:42:53] Ian: The random monks who wander around with lit torches [00:42:59] Matthew: and Max being the pragmatist whose focus is always what's best for the professor. [00:43:06] Ian: Mm-hmm. He [00:43:09] Matthew: Breaks out of prison, Maggie and Hezekiah. And I think, Leslie, because their help is the best chance he has at saving the professor. Mm-hmm. And that's all he's even telling them, save the professor. We need to save the professor quick. Get outta here. We need to save the professor. [00:43:28] Ian: He is, he is one track mind. He's good at the track. He is. And, and, and this also has the fun of the fact that everyone is changing outfits, doing everything else. Yeah. Which adds to the craziness because two specific things happen. Professor Fate and Max apparently packed a lot of the same outfit. Leslie is immune to looking dirty. Yes. Everyone else can fall into the mud and Leslie will walk over it and not fall in [00:43:56] Matthew: Always gleaming white with his hair perfect. [00:43:59] Ian: Yep. I will say Maggie started out in the biggest poofiest outfit and every single place they go, she loses something until she's in a corset and fury. Yes. It's like her, her outfits keep getting. More form fitting and more revealing, to be honest. Yes. [00:44:22] Matthew: Well, when, but there's, when you've got Blake Edwards directing and he's casting somebody like Natalie Wood, you sort of know that that's going to happen. [00:44:30] Ian: Yeah. But it is funny to see, to see Maggie kind of there angry as anything wielding like a stick and like ready to break things down Yes. In this disheveled outfit over time. The character design has a lot of fun with that, and the comedy has been ramping up. This gets to be a peak in terms of that. This is the, the big climax. In terms of the silliness. I'd say, [00:44:59] Matthew: I think you're right about that. This is like, you're right. It it, there's enough here to sustain its own movies, so it's definitely the. The, the peak of that for the great race, and we wind up with two main, or actually maybe three main scenes here. One is the coronation, where it's getting to the point where the, the really captive professor is being forced to go through the coronation as if he is the crown prince, so that they, he can then immediately abdicate, but then max sneaks into the coronation, and gets the professor out of there. [00:45:34] Ian: I do love that scene with the professor just in the middle of the coronation, stands up into the crown and starts walking out with Max in his big flowing robe as this little hump, having whispered him information and the two of them just, you know, quick, tiny step walking their way out of the building with all the coronation, trying to follow him to continue the work. [00:46:01] Matthew: And then we get the duel ah, yes. Between Leslie and Baron von Stuppe. [00:46:11] Ian: Yes. [00:46:13] Matthew: And this, it is, I don't know if it's literally, but it is practically shot for shot angle for angle. The, the Great climactic dual from the prisoner of Zenda. Yes. I, it really, I, I don't know. For all I know they used the same set because the set in which they're dueling the stone, atrium of this palace. It looks so much like the set in which that scene from the prisoner of Zenda. Took place and it's, it stands alone, it's well shot as a dueling scene, and we get the combination of the sword fighting and they've already established that. Leslie, of course, is a world class fencer and dueling is, Stuppe's great passion and it's just a well shot fight scene. The back and forth with the fighting, but also the quips and the dialogue. And at one point they agree to switch from foil to saber because the saber's a man's weapon. And there's this certain sense of honor along with the ruthlessness of Stuppe. [00:47:19] Ian: Yes. It's the moment where it's like, you know, ah, you prefer the foil that was available. They have their fight. You wanna switch? Yeah. Okay. And they both go for the same area? Yeah. Pick up the things, go back to where they were and keep the fight going. Yes. With [00:47:33] Matthew: their new weapon. I prefer a man's weapon. Sabre then? Yes, of course. And they're very gentlemanly about it. Nobody's trying to take advantage of the transition. [00:47:42] Ian: There is one, the moment at the very end of that dual is the point where I admit a positive sign for any comedy film is when if you can pause the film 'cause you're laughing so much. Yes. That was the end of the duel for me. [00:47:57] Matthew: Uh, Stuppe's Escape. [00:48:00] Ian: Stuppe's escape. I, I'm going to give away a joke here because it's so perfect [00:48:06] Matthew: and it because it is, that is exactly the point at which I said there's no question. This is precisely the scene from Prisoner of Zenda because in prisoner of Zenda, uh, James Mason gives this final farewell as he slept up to the sill of one of the great windows, and he does this swan dive into the moat to escape? [00:48:26] Ian: Yes. [00:48:26] Matthew: And that's the last we've seen him. [00:48:27] Ian: And this in this one, and in this one it's, you know, I have a boat waiting for me, and he goes, and he doesn't swan dive. He kind of just front falls into the moat and there's a boat sitting there and he hits the boat, [00:48:41] Matthew: he crashes through the boat [00:48:42] Ian: and he goes right through and sinks it [00:48:47] Matthew: and that's it. And that just cuts away from there. [00:48:49] Ian: That's all. It's just thinking about. I'm laughing myself red in the face because it was. Absolutely so perfect. And yes, it's a love letter to a completely other movie, like hiding a na, like hiding a file in a cake to help someone get out of a prison. They have hidden an entirely other movie's love letter inside of this film to get it past you, but it's here. And that little moment is the, is that rule of funny, I was describing where it's like, here's this perfect scene, all of the other moments there, but the moment it cuts to him at the top, it's a, I had a boat waiting. Okay, okay. There's a boat right where he's landing. Yes. That's, that's the, the, the shortest path from A to B to make the funniest thing you can do. [00:49:45] Matthew: I, I can almost imagine Blake Edwards going to Warner Brothers and saying, okay, now that the, the Pink Panther was, was it did pretty well. Now I wanna make. A 90 minute comedy remake of the Prisoner of Zenda and Warner Brothers says, go away. That sounds really dumb. That's, so, he comes back a week later and says, okay, I've talked to Tony Curtis and Jack Lemon, and we're gonna make a three hour Technicolor epic about a race from New York to Paris across North America and, and Asia and Europe, and it's gonna be full of all kinds of slapstick stuff. And they say, okay, yeah. That we'll make, and that was his secret plan to get this movie made. [00:50:36] Ian: Absolutely. Oh goodness. So now that, Von Stuppe has. Dealt with himself because he doesn't show up again. [00:50:47] Matthew: No, that's, that's it. [00:50:49] Ian: That is the last moment. He, he, he caught his boat and is gone, let's just call it that. [00:50:55] Matthew: Right. If he's really lucky, he has washed up on the shore of the moat with a severe concussion. [00:51:01] Ian: Exactly. But this is what we, what leads to, I believe from the research I did the largest pie fight ever on film. [00:51:09] Matthew: I did read that. It's like, who keeps that statistic? But okay. I'm not gonna argue with that. It took like five days to shoot this thing. [00:51:17] Ian: Yes, because it's the coronation. There's this giant bakery full of treats for this major event, and everybody winds up in that room. Professor Fate and the entire coronation, Leslie [00:51:35] Matthew: and Maggie, the Crown prince. The crown prince, and the Crown Prince is having a great time. [00:51:41] Ian: The Crown prince is loving it. It's like finally this stuffy place I've been in all of my life is having some fun. He's delighted. [00:51:52] Matthew: He gets hit with a brandy pie in the face. Oh, that's wonderful. Throw more brandy [00:51:57] Ian: gets hit with another rum. I don't mix my alcohol. This, what are you doing? I never mix my pies. Exactly. He's delighted. The funniest part of this though, is the fact that Leslie is perfect. [00:52:11] Matthew: Yes. [00:52:13] Ian: Everybody else, he's standing in the middle of the room pies flying left and right, everything. Leslie's just getting to stand in the middle of this pie fight, looking like John Travolta from Pulp Fiction just shrug and like, huh. Yeah. What's going on here? As everything people next to him get hit in the face and fall over and the splatter and nothing of it touches him, [00:52:34] Matthew: he'll just happen to, to. Turn or step or, or nod or something and be missed by, by inches with the latest pie being thrown so that his white outfit remains pristine. [00:52:48] Ian: I, I didn't expect to say this, but I'm complimenting the fight choreography of this pie fight because it takes so much precision to get this comedy to keep rolling 'cause the number of near misses keeps growing. [00:53:06] Matthew: I found myself wondering how many copies of that white turtleneck did they have to have? Because you know that in the filming they couldn't be that precise and Tony Curtis probably had to change his shirt and have his hair redone whenever there's somebody missed. [00:53:23] Ian: Mm-hmm. And in a brilliant moment, the one person who is at finally towards the end, able to hit, Leslie, is Maggie. [00:53:31] Matthew: Yes. [00:53:34] Ian: He seems as surprised and stunned by that looking at her as any, as anything like, huh. But everyone winds up, covered in pie and running outta the building, which does let them do some fun things where Professor Fate and Prince Frederick are theoretically in the same room, but they're so covered in pie that you can't tell which one of them is a stunt double for Jack Lemon and not. Uh, but yeah, the, this entire second movie happens inside the movie, but with that over, the race is back on. [00:54:09] Matthew: It is, and the, the rest of the movie kind of coasts into Paris from here. We have, we have a, a, a big, it actually, weirdly enough, it shifts towards characters in this last bit. Where finally there seems to be a little more warmth between Leslie and Maggie, and he is beginning, or at least claims to be, beginning to consider her positions about women's equality. But then he, he tries to kiss her while they're camped that the next night, and she wants nothing to do with that and thinks he's being terribly forward and, and inappropriate. Yeah. Although this is after she, covered in just a blanket is, playing the, the song that winds up being , the sing along follow of the bouncing ball. Yes. Karaoke version. Again, stuck right in the middle here for no apparent reason, which, [00:55:04] Ian: which, which confuses Leslie. The other like almost fourth wall break is him looking, and I almost think he looks down where the, where, where the, where the text is for a moment as part of like looking around the room, [00:55:16] Matthew: like has that always been there? [00:55:18] Ian: It's like, huh. [00:55:19] Matthew: Oh, and that is, that that song is definitely a brain worm. So warning, if you do watch this movie, The Sweetheart Tree will stick in your head for a while. [00:55:27] Ian: You warned me about that. It slid right off of my mind. [00:55:29] Matthew: Did it? [00:55:31] Ian: Oh, yes. So it, it's situational. Apparently one can have immunity. But with with Leslie and Maggie's relationship possibly happening, Maggie's now saying, oh, no, no, no. But Leslie's like, well, I'm listening maybe. Yes. He makes a grand gesture of stopping right before the finish line. [00:56:01] Matthew: Yep. Brings his car to a halt and turns to her so that he can focus on her and tell her how he really feels and sacrifice the race to prove how much he cares about her. [00:56:13] Ian: Which makes her concerned and bothered. Yes. Make, makes Hezekiah in the back of the car really concerned and bewildered. The person it upsets the most, the person it upsets the most is Professor Fate, who rolls past the finish line and wins and is indignant that Leslie let him win. [00:56:42] Matthew: He goes in an instant from Rah. I won to, no, he let me win. I have to win on my terms. I can't win just because he let me. I demand a rematch. [00:56:53] Ian: Paris to New York. [00:56:55] Matthew: So apparently they take enough of a break in Paris for Leslie and Maggie to get married and then they get back in their cars to race back to New York [00:57:03] Ian: and. The film ends with them starting off the race, and the immediate thing is professor Fate knocking over the Eiffel Tower in an attempted sabotage. As the race begins, a more fitting The End, I don't think has appeared in film. That's a, that's the right way to end this. [00:57:23] Matthew: I think so. Well, I think we might be headed towards our final questions then. [00:57:29] Ian: I think so. [00:57:31] Matthew: I think we've got a fair amount to talk about in terms of whether we recommend this movie, but also where we think it should go from here. Hmm. But first, if you're enjoying our IMMP podcast, please go to IMMProject.com because that's where you will find all of our back episodes. Where you will find, ways to contact us on our discord, on our contact page. You can also contact us, by email there and you can contact us by the genuine US mail at our post office box. And we would love to hear from you, what did you think of this movie? Are there any other movies like this that you think we should take a look at? and also you will find on immproject.com ways to support the podcast and that will would include our Patreon, where it's starting at $3 a month. You'll not only support us, but also get bonus audio content. Or if you join at the movie club level, you will get a mysterious DVD appear in your, mail periodically. [00:58:33] Ian: Hey, if you want to know what it's like to be me and not know what movie is coming up next, it's a really fun way to do things. [00:58:40] Matthew: You'll also find a link to our shop, if you like, t-shirts and coffee mugs and fun things like that. You will, be able to find designs not only for the podcast, but also for some of the things that we've talked about, like the prisoner and space 1999. And Ian, where can people find you? I [00:58:56] Ian: can be found most places is item crafting. Be that item crafting live on Twitch, or item crafting on Blue Sky. I'm always happy to talk movies and, uh, join me on any Thursday on Twitch for games crafting and hopefully a, a chill chat time. [00:59:14] Matthew: Those are fun streams. [00:59:15] Ian: How about you dad, [00:59:15] Matthew: I like the variety. [00:59:16] Ian: Oh, thank you Dad. How about you? [00:59:19] Matthew: Oh, you can find me as by Matthew Porter. So you can go to bymatthewporter.com and you'll find links to anything else I'm doing. that includes blog entries, that includes, blue Sky and Mastodon, and it includes my YouTube channel. Which features the Drafthouse diary, which is my record of every single time I use my season pass to go to the Alamo Drafthouse cinemas anywhere in the country. So, final question. So, [00:59:48] Ian: uh, screen or no screen, [00:59:51] Matthew: what do you think? [00:59:52] Ian: Oh, it's screen for me. It's a, it's a screen. It's long, it's not perfectly paced, but it's fine as a screen. [01:00:04] Matthew: I, I agree. I say screen. I think it is worth watching, especially if you are a fan. Of comedy in movies and television. There's so much that is influenced by this so much that still holds up in this. I think it is worth, screening. But I would say there is, there's no real downside and there's certainly no shame in treating this as a limited TV series. And if you wanna watch this movie, but you wanna watch it in pieces one night, you just watch all the setup. The next night you watch the Western segment, then you watch the Alaska Adventures, and then you watch the Russia and the, the prisoner of Zenda as its own thing. That's per, that's a fine way to do that. I think that might be the way this would've been made were it made today. so you don't have to treat it as one giant feature film. It works fine like that. That's how I watched it. but there are a lot of ways to approach this and still, you'll still be able to appreciate everything about it and it'll still hold up. [01:01:06] Ian: And that's part of where the Revive, reboot or rest in peace. Our other question hits an interesting, point because this has such a blatant spiritual sequel, which is the Animated series Wacky Races. Yes. Which is directly inspired by the film. [01:01:23] Matthew: Completely, absolutely. Inspired by this. [01:01:26] Ian: But I look at that and say, okay, that Wacky Races is fun, but it leans into different pieces of this. I would love a, the great Race revival. [01:01:38] Matthew: You would [01:01:38] Ian: I think doing, yes. I think doing a, uh, or, or not a revival, but reboot, I mean, revival would be the great race, but continuing. And you could have fun with like, what's the descendant to Professor Fate doing what's, what's Leslie and Maggie's kid up to kind of stuff. But honestly. Give me, the great race TV show. Give me something with the right set of comedians who are just, you know, each episode is a different, uh, leg of the race. They'll finish a race by the end of the season, but for some reason they'll need another season to go. I think it's excellent and I, I think that this comedy is fun. I went immediately after this and rewatched things like, the Dover Boys at Pimento U and that's their comedy, which the internet fell in love with all over again. That type of comedy still has a home. That's the thing where this, I immediately had to go watch it again, because there's pieces of this type of comedy the internet loves, and I'm looking at this and saying, you could have a lot of fun with a new version of this. You just need the right actors to do it. [01:02:49] Matthew: Yeah, and that's where I come down my, my decision on this is a rest in peace. I don't think we need a remake or reboot or even a sequel to this because I think it stands well for what it is, and all the things that I would like to see brought into the present day are already being brought into the present day by all the things that have been influenced by this and by this style of comedy. So I have to, you mentioned casting. If there were two or three or four actors who made me think, oh, they would be so good in a remake of the great Race, then I would say as a vehicle, no pun intended, for the right actors, then yeah, absolutely. It's great material. Fine remake it. But I wouldn't wanna, but I don't look at this and see, okay, this really should get a remake now who do we put in it? I'd have to work backwards if you've got somebody who can bring something as good as, but different from what we get from Jack Lemon and Tony Curtis and Peter Faulk and Natalie Wood. [01:03:57] Ian: So, so let me, we know our audience, hi to all the Hollywood executives who obviously listen to our podcast. We're suggesting that you have the great race in your back pocket if you've got the right set of actors there. But don't push it. I can, I can be behind that idea. [01:04:14] Matthew: Okay. Yeah, that works. [01:04:17] Ian: That works. But I can understand the rest in peace of like, the great race done poorly is not worth it. [01:04:25] Matthew: Mm-hmm. [01:04:26] Ian: But if you have the right combination, it could be fun again [01:04:30] Matthew: If all the right pieces came together, I certainly wouldn't be against that. Certainly would not be. It's also interesting to think about this in its context because I don't know what was going on in 1965, but there were at least one other movie that was weirdly similar to this one, or at least had follow ups that were weirdly similar because also in 1965, was the movie, those magnificent men in their flying machines. Yeah. Or How I Flew From London to Paris in 25 hours and 11 minutes, which was a British movie, but it was an epic race movie about this air race from London to Paris. And I don't know what was going on. Maybe it was like, the nineties with Comet Impact movies where we get deep impact and Armageddon in the same year. Then there was a sequel to those magnificent men in their flying machines. A few years later, those magnificent men in their jaunty jalopies about an auto race. [01:05:40] Ian: Wait a minute, wait a minute this, wait a minute. This movie starts with the two, with our two daredevils each doing, doing uh, plane tricks and then they do a, a car race. Did the, did someone cut this? This movie's, uh, you know, did someone steal from this film twice? What in the world? [01:06:00] Matthew: I'm also getting kind of a gumball rally in Cannonball run kind of vibe with the existence of all these movies. [01:06:06] Ian: Yeah. [01:06:07] Matthew: At the same time. [01:06:08] Ian: Oh, absolutely. [01:06:10] Matthew: And, uh, you know, I was not, not a huge fan of the, the Cannonball Run movies, but we did talk about the gumball rally previously on the podcast. [01:06:19] Ian: Oh, we did. Which was fun. Ah. But yeah, this was a fun movie and I'm glad I watched it. It was just long. I wish I'd broken it up the way you'd suggested that. [01:06:33] Matthew: Yeah. I'm, I, I'm glad I took it in all at once the way the movie was originally designed to do. But if I'm recommending it to other people, I would certainly flag that as an option and this is one of those movies that I remember it mostly from watching it when my dad would put it on tv. Very much my dad's sense of humor, he liked that slapstick. Okay. He liked Jack Lemmon, he liked Peter Faulk. And it seemed to me, because it was such a long movie, it seemed to me, looking back to when I happened to first be exposed to this, like my dad would put it on TV and it would last for days. It felt like he would put this on, on a Friday evening because it was on the Friday night movie on some, a TV channel, and it would just never stop. You know, Saturday and Sunday it would still be going. That's what it felt like. And there are certain images from the movie, like them on the i, the cars on the ice floe, uh, or them, the, the finish of the race at the Eiffel Tower that are stuck in my mind as these little benchmarks of this interminable movie, where as a little kid, I did not have the attention span for it. But I would drop in and watch five or 10 minutes with my dad, then I'd go off and do something else. [01:07:49] Ian: Hey, I will say that that makes it a very fun background film in that sense. There is that, you know, come in, see a, see a section go off kind of thing. [01:08:00] Matthew: Mm-hmm. [01:08:01] Ian: Well, there's been movies we've suggested as the background tone setting for a, a party or something. Could you use the great race like that? It's, you could not, maybe a bit of a vibe for that. Yeah. [01:08:11] Matthew: Yeah. You, you take this movie, pair it with the right music and turn the sound down off on the movie and that could work. Great. [01:08:17] Ian: That could work really well. [01:08:20] Matthew: And speaking of parties, we didn't acknowledge this at the beginning of the episode, but, we are headed into the holiday season. [01:08:29] Ian: We are, [01:08:30] Matthew: the air's getting colder. Pumpkin spice has given way to peppermint. So this has been the beginning of our holiday road trip. [01:08:40] Ian: Holiday road trip, yes. Uh oh. As, as they suggest here, you know, huddle an or a blanket and, uh, you add alcohol to a radiator, keep it from freezing. So have some champagne and keep warm. [01:08:54] Matthew: Indeed. There is no reason not to be civilized even on an ice floe, especially at the holidays. [01:09:01] Ian: Exactly. [01:09:05] Matthew: So we've got a theme set for this month with our, our holiday road trip means I have another movie in store for you, Ian. [01:09:14] Ian: Oh boy. Another one. Is it a big one? [01:09:19] Matthew: Uh, yeah, it is. Yeah. It's back from the days of, long movies. [01:09:25] Ian: Ooh. Well, I'm looking forward to it. [01:09:29] Matthew: And listeners, thank you for joining us. We hope join us in a couple of weeks for that, uh, that next leg of our journey. [01:09:37] Ian: In the meantime, go find something new to watch.