The big race around the world

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title The big race around the world
Original title The great race
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1965
length 152 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Blake Edwards
script Arthur Ross
production Martin Jurow
Warner Bros.
music Henry Mancini
camera Russell Harlan
cut Ralph E. Winters
occupation
synchronization

The great race around the world (Original title: The Great Race ) is an American adventure comedy from 1965 with Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in the leading roles. Directed by Blake Edwards , who became famous with the Pink Panther series . The film, which was also shown in Germany under the title The great racers in their rattling boxes , pays homage to classic cartoons and silent film cinema .

action

The United States at the beginning of the 20th century: the two sensational actors Leslie Gallant III. , called The Great Leslie (always dressed in bright white), and the devious-sly Professor Fate (always wrapped in deep black) try to outdo each other with increasingly daring feats. While everything always goes wrong with the sullen Fate, bon vivant and womanizer Leslie always emerges as the winner. In addition, the professor tries to sabotage Leslie's stunts at every opportunity with the support of his assistant Max , but this regularly backfires.

One day Leslie announces a project that is supposed to prove that the Americans also build excellent cars that need not hide behind the European competition from Mercedes-Benz and Rolls-Royce . To this end, he proposes an open race that should lead from New York via Asia to Paris . In addition to Leslie and several other drivers, Fate and Max also accept the challenge. Finally, a woman completes the field of participants, Maggie Dubois , a skilled, self-confident and emancipated journalist who wants to report on the race as a committed suffragette. With her persistence, her charm and the help of silk stockings she surprised Henry Goodbody, the editor of the New York Sentinel newspaper , who finally allowed her to participate, also cornered by his wife who was active in the emancipation movement.

Shortly after the start of the race, Fate and Max use their manipulations to ensure that only Leslie and Miss Dubois' cars remain next to theirs.

In the course of the race, in which, in addition to a wild west town, the Arctic as well as Russia and a small Central European kingdom are stage goals, Dubois becomes more and more the bone of contention among competitors. When she stops in the desert with her car, she first joins Leslie. For him and his partner Hezekiah , their brisk manner is a thorn in the side. Arrived in Asia, she is kidnapped by Fate and Max; then she joins the two again, also out of defiance to Leslie.

In the Kingdom of Carpania Maggie is captured together with Fate and Max and harnessed for an intrigue by Baron von Stuppe ; Fate is like the face of the naive heir to the throne, Prince Hapnik . With the help of Max, Leslie is ultimately not only able to free the prisoners, but also to thwart a coup.

When Leslie, Hezekiah and Maggie as well as Fate and Max can continue on their way, they are tied shortly before the goal. Leslie, who is ahead by a nose, is left with the constant squabbling with Maggie. But in the end they both get closer and closer. When they confess their love, Maggie demands a proof of love from Leslie. He stops his car just before the finish line and kisses her passionately while Fate and Max rush past and win the race.

Leslie and Maggie get married in the city of love - then it goes back the same way, because Fate does not want to be satisfied with the "gift" victory, he challenges Leslie to a new race ...

template

The first touring car rally around the world started on February 12, 1908 in New York and took the six participating cars via the USA and Siberia to Paris. The first German Lieutenant Hans Koeppen to arrive in Paris - who later was deprived of his victory - published the book In the Automobile Around the World in 1909 , in which he describes this adventurous race in his Protos car .

backgrounds

  • Originally, Charlton Heston was supposed to play the role of the great Leslie. He found the script "quite funny", but had to give up the role when the shooting schedule for the film Michelangelo - Inferno and Ecstasy (The Agony and the Ecstasy) , in which he was also to play the lead role, was delayed. Instead, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon were hired, who in 1959 were musicians friends with the comedy Some Like It Hot, a world success.
  • With the episode in the Kingdom of Carpania , the multi-filmed adventure novel Der Gefangene von Zenda (The Prisoner of Zenda) by the British author Anthony Hope was parodied.
  • The film contains the biggest cake fight ever filmed. The cakes used in the cake fight were all real. After filming the scene, the film crew had to eat more than 300 leftover cakes. For the running gag of the scene (he walks around during this battle and is not hit by a single cake) Tony Curtis had to change his wardrobe countless times.
  • Five Hannibal-8 vehicles were built for this film. Some were from a Volkswagen - motor driven, others with the air-cooled six-cylinder boxer engine of a Chevrolet Corvair . Three of them were with the famous concertina equipped -Hebevorrichtung. This technique was so sensitive that it kept failing.
  • The rocket-propelled rail vehicle is functional. It is also powered by a car engine from the Chevrolet Corvair, the magic flame in the rear is pyrotechnics .
  • The "acoustic" torpedo is buoyant and has an electric motor as a drive. Additional electric motors simulate the function of the automatic hearing trumpet .
  • The western town bears the name Boracho , based on the Spanish word "borracho" for "drunk".
  • When filming the ball scene at the Carpanic royal court, Jack Lemmon allowed himself to joke. You can see him among the dancing couples as he dances as Prince Hapnik with a military officer.
  • The ice floe scene was filmed in a Universal Studios backyard in Southern California during a severe heat wave . The temperatures reached maximum values ​​of up to 43 ° C. The actors couldn't wear the heavy winter costumes for more than a few minutes.
  • Like 14 years later in Meteor , Natalie Wood, born as a child of Russian emigrants, was able to present her Russian language skills.
  • Both main vehicles, the Hannibal 8 and the Leslie Special , can still be viewed today. You can find them in the Hollywood gallery of the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles .
  • Another Hannibal 8 with a Corvair engine was exhibited at the Movie World Museum in Burbank together with the rocket-propelled rail vehicle and the acoustic torpedo until the late 1970s . The ensemble can currently be viewed and even purchased at the Volo Auto Museum in Volo, Illinois . Allegedly, the Hannibal 8 should be street legal in the USA.
  • The Leslie Special car was built especially for the studio and the film. It is made up of parts from different vehicles and is not based on an actual automobile. The unique car has since been reassembled and is fully roadworthy.
  • The phrase “ Push the button, Max ”, which Professor Fate uses a few times, has established itself as a popular phrase .
  • Professor Fate makes a grand entrance when he sits down at the organ and begins the Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565 . But soon he gets hungry and gets up. The organ (a jukebox) continues to play.
  • When asked about the location of the next stage destination or the petrol depot, Hester Goodbody , who represents her husband, who is "currently in a mental hospital ", sensibly points to the heel of the Italian boot. The Kingdom of Carpania , however, should be a Romanian - Hungarian , but in any case Eastern construct.
  • Natalie Wood as Maggie Dubois wears 17 different cloakrooms throughout the film, despite her rather modest luggage.
  • As a homage to silent film cinema and the slapstick interludes that often occur in it, a dedication to "Mr Laurel and Mr Hardy" is displayed immediately after the film's overture music has subsided . Stan Laurel died a few months before the film came out.

Locations

  • Part of the film, namely those scenes that take place in the fictional, seemingly Hungarian kingdom of Carpania and its capital Potzdorf , were shot in Salzburg . At the entrance you can see the grandiose panorama of the capital city with fortress , cathedral , Franciscan church and Archabbey / St. Peter's Abbey from Mönchsberg . Leslie is welcomed in front of the impressive entrance portal of the Everyman backdrop on Domplatz with the enthusiastic participation of the population . The residential palace of Prince Hapnik of Carpania is located in Kleßheim Palace , from where he is kidnapped to the palace of Baron von Stuppe in Anif Palace , who planned a plot to take over power. Even after the false prince Hapnik was coronated , the cathedral portal and square were stylishly staged again. Anif Castle served as the backdrop for scenes of the kidnapping, the later liberation by Leslie and the duel with Baron von Stuppe . Then there is a cake fight in the Hof-Zucker-Bäckerei next to the wine house . Further scenes of the flight from Carpania take place on the street near Thalgau and on the avenue street of Schloss Ritzen near Saalfelden .

synchronization

The German dubbed version was made in 1965.

role actor German voice actor
Professor Fate, Prince Hapnik Jack Lemmon Georg Thomalla
Leslie Gallant III. Tony Curtis Michael Cramer
Maggie Dubois Natalie Wood Uta Hallant
Maximillian "Max" Meen Peter Falk Wolfgang Gruner
Hezekiah Sturdy Keenan Wynn Konrad Wagner
Henry Goodbody Arthur O'Connell Klaus W. Krause
Hester Goodbody Vivian Vance Friedel Schuster
Frisbee Marvin Kaplan Hugo Schrader
Texas Jack Larry Storch Arnold Marquis
Mayor of Boracho Hal Smith Alexander Welbat
Boracho Sheriff Denver Pyle Kurt Mühlhardt
Baron Rolfe von Stuppe Ross Martin Helmut Wildt
General Kuhster George Macready Fritz Tillmann
Steward Raoul Retzer Arnold Marquis

Awards

At the 1966 Academy Awards , the film was nominated in a total of five categories:

Finally, the sound engineer Treg Brown received the award in the category Best Sound Effect .

Reviews

  • “The lavishly and stylishly furnished film sees itself as an homage to Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy and pays homage to their situation comedy. The overflowing abundance of ideas and show effects offers gags as an end in itself, an immense cornucopia of grotesque-comic scenes that sometimes ignite, but sometimes also fizzle out. In its excess length the film is a bit tiring, but overall pleasant entertainment. ”- Lexicon of international film
  • “New York 1908: The 170-day race to Paris has started; Edwards' superclothes (...) have only superficially to do with this historical date, but the chase over unusual locations includes an amusing journey through film history. ”(Rating: 2 stars = average) - Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz in Lexicon "Films on TV" (1990)
  • “Old-style slapstick comedy, enhanced by modern technology, color and film format. Successful entertainment for young and old. ”- Evangelischer Film-Beobachter, Review No. 478/1965, p. 848

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The great race around the world (1964) in Arne Kaul's synchronous database ; Retrieved August 28, 2009
  2. ^ Lexicon of International Films. CD-ROM edition. Systhema, Munich 1997
  3. ^ Adolf Heinzlmeier, Berndt Schulz: Lexicon "Films on TV" . Extended new edition. Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-392-3 , p. 326