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 Benny cartoon "The Mouse that Jack Built", Jack has himself and Mary driven by Rochester in a sputtering Maxwell car. Many people believe that Benny appears behind the wheel of his Maxwell in the 1963 film "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World", but in fact it was a 1932 Cadillac. The long shots for the scene were shot months before Benny was cast—with a stunt driver at the wheel—and the role was intended for Stan Laurel (which is why the character wears a derby, which Jack almost never did). When Laurel ultimately passed on appearing, Jack agreed to play it.