The Great Race The Great Race The Great Race is a 1965 American Technicolor slapstick comedy film starring Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and Natalie Wood, directed by Blake Edwards, written by Blake Edwards and Arthur A. Ross, and with music by Henry Mancini and cinematography by Russell Harlan. The supporting cast includes Peter Falk, Keenan Wynn, Arthur O'Connell and Vivian Vance. The movie cost US$12 million (equivalent to $ million in ), making it the most expensive comedy film at the time. It is noted for one scene that was promoted as "the greatest pie fight ever". The Great Leslie and Professor Fate
Jack Lemmon War II before returning to Harvard after completing his military service. After graduation with a degree in War Service Sciences in 1947, Lemmon took up acting professionally, working on radio, television and Broadway. He studied acting under coach Uta Hagen. He was enamored of the piano and learned to play it on his own. He could also play the harmonica, guitar, organ, and the double bass. Lemmon's film debut was a bit part as a plasterer/painter in the 1949 film "The Lady Takes a Sailor", but he went unnoticed until his debut, opposite Judy Holliday, in the 1954 comedy "It