TCM was showing The Great Race this morning. It only took me 56 years to appreciate it. I just read on IMDB that Natalie Wood wasn’t a fan of it or the director Blake Edwards. Which is a shame, as I have found out over that time that farce is actually quite hard to do. The two principles (Curtis and Lemmon) had a cringe-worthy attempt in Some Like It Hot, where they dressed up as women. That movie just didn’t age well, this one did.

What really helped me appreciate this one, was seeing really bad farce. A guy who made movies locally loved to produce what he thought was great farce, when in reality it was just irritating. Much like the feeling I had when director Billy Wilder attempted it in the previously mentioned Some Like It Hot. Blake Edwards of Pink Panther fame, obviously had more of a knack for it.

You’d think farce was simply getting out there and acting silly, but its obviously much more than that. Just watch any high school play that attempts it, you’ll see what I mean. Its takes a talented director, a good script, and great actors. You’re not going to get over the bar without all 3.

Jack Lemmon has two roles in it, but the one that makes the movie is his rendition of Crown Prince Frederick Hoepnick. “Over the top” does not begin to do it justice. Another unrelated curiosity is Natalie Wood. One of her best performances I would have to say, after those train wrecks Splendor in the Grass and Rebel Without a Cause. But what’s funny about her success, which to a large degree was based on her beauty, it that it was her sister Lana that was the knockout.