History Film / TheGreatRace

* WackyRacing

--->'''Max''': Necktie?! Well what kind of cheap present is that?

** Met with [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments dead silence]] by the (Russian-speaking) villagers.

* LaughWithMe: When The Great Leslie and Hezekiah meet Crown Prince Hapnik. The prince makes several jokes, each time gesturing for the crowd to laugh, which they dutifully do. At one point Hezekiah keeps laughing after every one else stops, until The Great Leslie [[BeQuietNudge elbows him in the ribs]].

* BarBrawl: One of the greatest. "Come on now, everybody stand back and give a man some FIGHTIN' ROOM!"

* CaptainObvious: "That was a pigeon!" Thank you, Max.

** After Fate is exposed at a board meeting, he dives out a window and hangs onto a convenient flag pole while making a BadAssBoast about how he'll build the greatest automobile in the world and win. Max is waiting for him below with a car equipped with a trampoline to catch him and it works. Briefly. If only Max had stayed put for another thirty seconds or so. Instead, Fate bounces up several feet, Max drives away and he falls right down an open manhole.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: The Professor's speciality. He gets gassed by his own security system, nearly mauled by his own attack dogs, blown-up repeatedly by his car's own cannon and is sidelined early in the race by his and Max's own mechanical sabotages.

''(Hapnik starts laughing and everyone else joins in)''

* ItsBeenDone: When Leslie proposes a race to demonstrate the superiority of the American automobile, he's immediately told that such races have already been done. He then reveals that his idea of a race is much longer than anything before. As in ''twenty thousand miles long.''

-->''(Leslie removes a model automobile from its base and places it on the conference table)

-->'''Leslie:''' New York. ''(pushes a model automobile down the length of a conference table into the Chairman's hands)'' To Paris.

* ItsBeenDone: When Leslie proposes a race to demonstrate the superiority of the American automobile, he's immediately told that such races have already been done. He then reveals that his idea of a race is much longer than anything before.

* ChivalrousPervert: Leslie, who can't resist the good will of any woman.

* InformedAbility: Texas Jack is described as the toughest man in the area and everyone is scared of him when he first shows up at the bar, and even the sheriff backs down from his threats, but once the fight starts he's not any better than Leslie, Hezekiah, or his own goons for that matter.

* ChekhovsGun: The cannon mounted in Fate's Hannibal Twin 8 is shown (twice) to bring down the entire garage when fired indoors. It gets fired multiple times during the movie. It was used to destroy Borracho's supple of gasoline, to signal people on shore when they're on the ice floe, twice during the rescue attempt at the Baron's castle, and as all the characters leave Potsdorf, but right at the end the cannon's special skill turns up as it is fired and [[spoiler: the Eiffel Tower collapses as a result.]]

* CoveredInGunge: Everybody (including Leslie) after a large pie fight.

* ChekhovsGun: The cannon mounted in Fate's Hannibal Twin 8 is shown (twice) to bring down the entire garage when fired indoors. It does get fired again to signal people on shore when they're on the ice floe, during the rescue attempt at the Baron's castle, and as all the characters leave Potsdorf, but right at the end the cannon's special skill turns up as it is fired and [[spoiler: the Eiffel Tower collapses as a result.]]

* ChekhovsGun: The cannon mounted in Fate's Hannibal Twin 8 is shown (twice) to bring down the entire garage when fired indoors. It does get fired again during the rescue attempt at the Baron's castle, and as all the characters leave Potsdorf, but right at the end the cannon's special skill turns up as it is fired and [[spoiler: the Eiffel Tower collapses as a result.]]

** After Fate is exposed at a board meeting, he dives out a window and hangs onto a convenient flag pole while making a BadAssBoast about how he'll build the greatest automobile in the world and win. Max is waiting for him below with a car equipped with a trampoline to catch him and it works [[spoiler:briefly. If only Max had stayed put for another 30 seconds or so...]]

* HighDiveEscape: Parodied. After Baron von Stuppe realizes that Leslie has defeated him, he says that he has a boat waiting, adds a WeWillMeetAgain, and jumps out the window into the lake. Unfortunately for him, his escape boat is small, wooden, and located right under the window, so he smashes through the boat and sinks it.

* HenpeckedHusband: Maggie's editor, Mr Goodbody. His wife is also the leader of the Suffragette movement that leads a protest march and later stages a sit-in at the New York Sentinel. [[spoiler:It eventually drives him into a mental breakdown that leaves her temporarily as editor.]]

* OutdoorBathPeeping: Max takes a peek at Maggie when she's bathing in a lake (though she's not naked). The Professor throws a bucket of water on him.

* HenpeckedHusband: Maggie's editor, Mr Goodbody.

* TheBigRace: Creator/BlakeEdwards' comedy film is about a long distance auto race in 1908. ''Really'' long distance. New York to Paris, traveling '''west'''.

* TheBigRace: Obviously.

* EvilChancellor: General Kuhster and Baron von Stuppe

** Leslie, as the hero, is constantly clean-shaven.

* BilingualBonus: Borracho means "drunkard" in Spanish.

* BulletproofFashionPlate: The Great Leslie's clothes never get stained. Lampshaded continually throughout the movie, culminating in a very funny rant by the Professor.
** They do at one point - during the massive pie fight. [[spoiler:Even then, he makes it mostly through clean. Then Maggie hits him with one completely by accident. And that one pie is the same color as his outfit - quite possibly the only pie in the entire pie fight that ''didn't'' have a colorful filling.]]
** Apparently, they had to stop the fight several times during filming so that Tony Curtis could change clothes - he was constantly getting hit by bits of flying pastry.

* CatchPhrase: Professor Fate's "Push the button, Max!" (It even has its own {{Leitmotif}}: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtoD6FiCmFQ sample here]].)
** Which was appropriated by a [[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 certain team of scientists down in Deep 13.]]
** That music (more strictly a "theme" than a motif) is associated rather with Professor Fate himself than with the button. If you listen to the track called "A Royal Waltz," you'll hear the same theme transformed into a Viennese style waltz-tune, reflecting how Prince Hapnick is the ''mitteleuropäisch'' version of Professor Fate, in a context where there is no button and no Max.

* ChekhovsSkill: The film early on sets Leslie up to be a master swordsman. Baron Von Stuppe as well is introduced as being a proficient duelist. A duel is imminent.

* CoveredInGunge: Everybody (except, of course, Leslie) after a large pie fight.
** Even Leslie gets this by the end. Not as bad as everyone else, but still...

* DisproportionateRetribution: Fate arrives at the city of Boracho and is presented with the key to the city and be their guest of honor. Fate just wants to refuel and continue the race. After a bit of arguing, the Mayor of Boracho gives Fate an ultimatum: either he accepts the key to the city and attends their party as their guest of honor or he can be a guest of honor "at a necktie party".

** It's subverted with Lesie and his friends when they arrive in town and given the same ultimatum. In their case, with Leslie being a NiceGuy, he was more than happy to accept.

* EscalatingBrawl:

* EvilLaugh: Professor Fate has a particularly memorable one.
** This trope is played with in the scene where General Kuhster gives Fate an impromptu lesson on laughing like Prince Hapnik. It doesn't appear to have any effect.

* IntimateHealing: In Alaska, Leslie explains to Maggie that they have to sleep under the same blanket to keep warm.
** And then they're joined by [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments Professor Fate and Max]].

* MeaningfulName: Borracho. [[BilingualBonus Which is Spanish for drunk.]]

** Not necessarily; during the bar fight, Lily punches Jack out rather handily.

* SmokingIsCool: Leslie smokes a white pipe.

* TemptingFate:

** With his approach to all his (painfully) failed attempts in various daredevil feats, Professor Fate is constantly tempting... well, fate.

* CarFu: Max storms the Baron's castle using the Leslie Special and then immediately switches to the Hannibal Twin 8; he blasts the main gates open and uses the car's cannon and smoke dispenser to take on the Carpanian infantry.

** As in either Fate accepts their hospitality or Fate and Max get hanged. Granted, Fate was rather rude, but this is probably the one time in the film where Fate was entirely justified in leaving town [[spoiler: as well as stealing the gasoline he needed]].

--->'''Max''': Necktie?! Now what kind of cheap present is that?
** As in either Fate accepts their hospitality or Fate and Max get hanged. This is probably the one time in the film where Fate was entirely justified in leaving town [[spoiler: as well as stealing the gasoline he needed]].