A couple of points that I don't think have been covered:
One review mentioned this film's chequered career on TV. This is one of several classic "spectaculars" with special cinema first road runs that have suffered evisceration since their original cinema release in the name of schedules which programmers once saw as their priorities. It's a festering sore that goes back many years particularly where ITV was concerned. With the development of DVDs this hated practice has been ameliorated somewhat with many cuts having been replaced (and even extras been added). One of the earliest "victims" was Karloff's "Frankenstein" & the notorious drowning of Maria,the young child.
In my mind the most ludicrous was the case of "It's A Mad....World" where nearly 40mins was lost to TV & DVD - very significant because many of its famous comic cast were listed but never seen, though briefly. There was a restoration a couple of years back but where is it? "S Pacific" lost about 20mins and remains so. Even a restoration of Wayne's "The Alamo" still loses nearly 15mins. We expect to be able to still watch the full versions.... Now in the case of "The Great Race" how many have seen the full version with the amusing "Bouncing Ball" singalong sequence about 20mins from the end after that great Mancini theme "The Sweetheart Tree" is sung by Natalie Wood on the river bank as she strums her guitar? Tony Curtis pauses his shaving to listen. It has been missing ever since the original release(supposedly in Cinerama). Last year (I forget the channel) I was staggered to happen by accident to catch the full version. Today I watched another rerun on Channel 5 and this sequence was still missing. So the full version does exist out there - somewhere.
Natalie Wood on a couple of occasions is seen to be swimming in a pool emerging displaying her ravishing figure. It must have taken some persuasion from Blake Edwards because of her deadly fear of water - the story goes that this arose when in an early film she was the victim of a trick by the director to have her plunged into an icy stream. Of course her drowning in 1981 during the filming of "Brainstorm" (still controversial today)was all the more horrifying because of its irony.
One review mentioned this film's chequered career on TV. This is one of several classic "spectaculars" with special cinema first road runs that have suffered evisceration since their original cinema release in the name of schedules which programmers once saw as their priorities. It's a festering sore that goes back many years particularly where ITV was concerned. With the development of DVDs this hated practice has been ameliorated somewhat with many cuts having been replaced (and even extras been added). One of the earliest "victims" was Karloff's "Frankenstein" & the notorious drowning of Maria,the young child.
In my mind the most ludicrous was the case of "It's A Mad....World" where nearly 40mins was lost to TV & DVD - very significant because many of its famous comic cast were listed but never seen, though briefly. There was a restoration a couple of years back but where is it? "S Pacific" lost about 20mins and remains so. Even a restoration of Wayne's "The Alamo" still loses nearly 15mins. We expect to be able to still watch the full versions.... Now in the case of "The Great Race" how many have seen the full version with the amusing "Bouncing Ball" singalong sequence about 20mins from the end after that great Mancini theme "The Sweetheart Tree" is sung by Natalie Wood on the river bank as she strums her guitar? Tony Curtis pauses his shaving to listen. It has been missing ever since the original release(supposedly in Cinerama). Last year (I forget the channel) I was staggered to happen by accident to catch the full version. Today I watched another rerun on Channel 5 and this sequence was still missing. So the full version does exist out there - somewhere.
Natalie Wood on a couple of occasions is seen to be swimming in a pool emerging displaying her ravishing figure. It must have taken some persuasion from Blake Edwards because of her deadly fear of water - the story goes that this arose when in an early film she was the victim of a trick by the director to have her plunged into an icy stream. Of course her drowning in 1981 during the filming of "Brainstorm" (still controversial today)was all the more horrifying because of its irony.