History Trivia / TheGreatRace

* HostilityOnTheSet: Creator/TonyCurtis and Creator/NatalieWood had previously costarred on two films (''King's Go Forth'' and ''Film/SexAndTheSingleGirl'') and had a very acrimonious relationship.
** Natalie Wood also couldn't get along with Jack Lemmon

** Creator/CharltonHeston was originally offered the role of The Great Leslie. He considered it a "funny script" but had to turn the part down when the production schedule for ''Film/TheAgonyAndTheEcstasy'' was delayed. Creator/BlakeEdwards wanted Creator/RobertWagner, but studio executive Jack L. Warner insisted on Creator/TonyCurtis, possibly because of Creator/NatalieWood's recent divorce from Wagner. Creator/BurtLancaster was announced at one stage.

* HostilityOnTheSet: Creator/TonyCurtis and Creator/NatalieWood had previously costarred on two films (''King's Go Forth'' and ''Film/SexAndTheSingleGirl'') and had a very acrimonious relationship. Part of the reason that Wood was unhappy on the film was that she felt she was being sexually harassed by both Curtis and Creator/JackLemmon.

* ContractualObligationProject: Creator/NatalieWood didn't want to be in the film, but Creator/WarnerBros executives talked her into it. At this point, Wood was unhappy with her career and her personal life, having recently divorced from Creator/RobertWagner in April 1962. Warner asked Creator/TonyCurtis if he would give a percentage of his film royalties to Wood, as an enticement, but Curtis refused. He said, "I couldn't give her anything to make her ''want'' to do the movie." What eventually convinced Wood to make it was the promise by Warner executives that if she completed ''The Great Race'', she could star in ''Film/InsideDaisyClover'', a role she greatly wished to have. She agreed, thinking that filming would be brief on Edwards' movie.

* ThoseTwoActors: Creator/TonyCurtis and Creator/NatalieWood in their third (and final) film together, and Curtis and Creator/JackLemmon in their second of two. Although, ask anyone to name a Tony Curtis/Jack Lemmon film, they'll probably think of [[Film/SomeLikeItHot the other one]].

* ContractualObligationProject: Creator/NatalieWood didn't want to be in the film, but Creator/WarnerBros executives talked her into it. At this point, Wood was unhappy with her career and her personal life, having recently divorced from Creator/RobertWagner in April 1962. Warner asked Creator/TonyCurtis if he would give a percentage of his film royalties to Wood, as an enticement, but Curtis refused. He said, "I couldn't give her anything to make her ''want'' to do the movie." Instead of more money, Warner promised Wood that if she completed ''The Great Race'', she could star in ''Film/InsideDaisyClover'', a role she greatly wished to have. Wood agreed, thinking that filming would be brief on Edwards' movie.

* DuelingWorks: The far more commercially and critically successful ''Film/ThoseMagnificentMenInTheirFlyingMachines'', which is also a {{Slapstick}} EpicMovie about a long distance race in the immediate pre-UsefulNotes/WorldWarI days and boasts some similar character archetypes, had been released not a month prior by [[Creator/TwentiethCenturyStudios Twentieth Century Fox]], which hurt ''The Great Race'' in both departments (though it still made over double its budget at the box office). Both have reached something of a CultClassic status since. ''Those Magnificent Men...'' would spawn a sequel in 1969, ''Monte Carlo or Bust!'', which starred ''The Great Race'''s Creator/TonyCurtis, oddly enough.

* ContractualObligationProject: Creator/NatalieWood didn't want to be in the film, but Creator/WarnerBros executives talked her into it. At this point, Wood was unhappy with her career and her personal life, having recently divorced from Creator/RobertWagner in April 1962. Warner asked Creator/TonyCurtis if he would give a percentage of his film royalties to Wood, as an enticement, but Curtis refused. He said, "I couldn't give her anything to make her ''want'' to do the movie." Instead of more money, Warner promised Wood that if she completed ''The Great Race'', she could star in ''Film/InsideDaisyClover'', [[OneForTheMoneyOneForTheArt a role she greatly wished to have]]. Wood agreed, thinking that filming would be brief on Edwards' movie.

* NonSingingVoice: Robin Ward sang "The Sweetheart Tree" instead of Creator/NatalieWood. Wood sang "My Country 'tis of Thee" herself earlier on... you can tell because she sounds off-key.