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 a recovering alcoholic. Lemmon's production company JML produced "Cool Hand Luke" in 1967. Paul Newman was grateful to Lemmon for his support and offered him the role of the Sundance Kid, later played by Robert Redford in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", but Lemmon turned it down. He did not like riding horses and he felt he'd already played too many aspects of the Sundance Kid's character before. Lemmon appeared in many films partnered with actor Walter Matthau. Among their pairings was 1968's "The Odd Couple", as Felix Ungar (Lemmon) and Oscar Madison (Matthau). The first film they starred