Line #5 Trivia/TheGreatRace


1	* ActingForTwo: Creator/JackLemmon played both Professor Fate and Prince Hapnik. Their uncanny resemblance is a plot point.
2	* TheCastShowoff: The film has an example that is perhaps too ''brief'' as we only hear the character of Maggie - who is [[ChekhovsSkill established as being fluent in Russian]] as Creator/NatalieWood was in real life - speaking ''one'' mere sentence in Russian while addressing and winning over the sinister Russian villagers.
3	* 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 (it wasn't, and she suffered psychologically when making both movies).
4	* 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). ''Those Magnificent Men...'' would spawn a sequel in 1969, ''Monte Carlo or Bust!'', which starred ''The Great Race'''s Creator/TonyCurtis, oddly enough.
5	* EnforcedMethodActing: When Professor Fate uses the railroad rocket-car for his second stunt, depending on who you ask either Creator/BlakeEdwards decided not to tell the extras just how large of a pyrotechnic load was packed in the engine, or he didn't realize it himself. When the crowd scatters, what you see is genuine shock and terror on the faces of the extras.
6	* 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. Wood also couldn't get along with Creator/JackLemmon; apparently part of the reason that Wood was unhappy on the film was that she felt she was being sexually harassed by the both of them.
7	* NonSingingVoice: Robin Ward sang "The Sweetheart Tree" instead of Creator/NatalieWood (her real singing resurfaced in 2009, it can be heard [[https://youtu.be/APA1jFJjeXE here]]). Wood sang "My Country 'tis of Thee" herself earlier on... you can tell because she sounds off-key.
8	* OneForTheMoneyOneForTheArt: Creator/NatalieWood accepted to be in the film so that Creator/WarnerBros would accept to fund and release ''Film/InsideDaisyClover'', which was a passion project for her.
9	* ProductionPosse: Creator/BlakeEdwards, director and co-writer, apparently brought along a good number of the personnel he'd previously worked with on his [[Series/PeterGunn television]] [[Series/MrLucky shows]], most prominently Music/HenryMancini and Ross Martin.
10	* ThoseTwoActors:
11	** 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]].
12	** One out of six films to have both Tony Curtis and Creator/LarryStorch in its cast (they were friends, also).
13	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
14	** 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 first wanted Creator/GeorgePeppard, whom he had previously worked with, but Peppard was overseas filming "Operation Crossbow". Edwards then looked to 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.
15	** Edwards wanted Creator/JaneFonda for the role of Maggie [=DuBois=], but she was busy filming ''Film/CatBallou''. He also considered Creator/PattyDuke, Creator/ElizabethHartman and Creator/LeeRemick.
16	** Creator/MickeyRooney, old friend and past collaborator of Blake Edwards, was approached for the role of Max, but he was currently busy shooting the short-lived TV vehicle ''Mickey'' and -- much to his regret -- had to pass on it. The role went to Peter Falk.

Context Trivia / TheGreatRace