The Great Race won the film an Oscar. In his Top 10 Favorite Comedies video, Doug Walker cited Jack Lemmon's performance as Professor Fate as a major influence for his "Nostalgia Critic" internet persona. 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 ),
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid characters did not flee to South America. When Goldman protested that that was what had happened, the studio head responded, "I don't give a shit. All I know is John Wayne don't run away." Goldman rewrote the script, "didn't change it more than a few pages, and subsequently found that every studio wanted it." The role of Sundance was offered to Jack Lemmon, whose production company, JML, had produced the film "Cool Hand Luke" (1967) starring Newman. Lemmon, however, turned down the role; he did not like riding horses, and he felt he had already played too many aspects of