Can Tony Curtis Survive Against Jack Lemmon And Peter Falk?

OK, "survive" is overstating is a bit. While Professor Fate (Lemmon) and Max (Falk) certainly have no problem with causing harm to the Great Leslie (Curtis) in The Great Chase, they don't seem interested in actually killing him. Well, at the beginning, maybe, but none of their attempts to sabotage his acts of derring-do are lethal to them when they inevitably backfire.

The movie is dedicated to Laurel and Hardy, but it reminds me of those Dick dastardly Wacky Races cartoons. Leslie wants to have an automobile race from New York to Paris*, and Fate is determined to finally beat him, on his own terms, naturally. Complicating matters for Leslie is one Ms. Dubois (Natalie Wood), who is determined to prove women's equality with men by covering and participating in the race. When the car she procures proves insufficient, she rides along with Leslie, through a combination or pleading, bribes, and wiles.

Wood's character bothers me some. She's a suffragete (to say the least), but she's presented in a way so as to not threaten the male audience. She's clever, but her attempts to prove herself Leslie's equal consistently fall short. He knows more languages than her, he's a superior fencer, her attempt to escape an evil baron's castle, ends with her literally falling into the Baron's arms, in her undergarments. I mean, credit for resourcefulness, using her dress as an improvised rope, but she didn't pull it off. Leslie ends up rescuing her (and his right-hand man, Hezekiah, and the drunk fool of a prince), by scaling a castle wall with a grappling hook, and swordfighting the Baron bare-chested (something for the ladies, to counter Natalie Wood in her underwear, perhaps). I think "plucky, yet overmatched" might be the best description of Ms. Dubois. At the end of the day, she still needs saving.

This was a comedy, so I'm not sure how serously I should be taking all of this. Dubois is part of a movement led by the wife of the editor of the newspaper Dubois convinces to hire her as a reporter, and get her a car to use. While Maggie's circling the globe, she's leading at sit-in at the newspaper, one that eventually sends her husband to the nuthatch, placing her in charge, Nothing much comes of that, other than she declares they won't be mentioning Leslie's car in the paper until the company that made it agrees to start hiring women. Which is the sort of biased reporting I'd resent from a paper I'd be paying to read.

I love Professor Fate. He's a great villain, all melodrama, disguises and dirty tricks, but with a certain code he follows. Not one that rewards honesty or honor, but one that demands he win his way. Which means he needs Leslie, as someone to push against. Going around the world wouldn't mean a thing if he wasn't doing it faster than Leslie. Which is kind of sad, but it gives him an anger that's very amusing, and it leads to all sorts of ridiclous stunts. Like leaping out a window to get a head start on designing his car for the race. Whatever it takes.

* I'm not clear on how they were supposed to cross the Pacific in their cars. I know how they ended up doing it, but I can't imagine that was the original plan.