A bright and breezy British comedy filmed in glowing colour. "The Great Race" it isn't, as John Gregson and Kenneth More set out on the annual Brighton to London vintage car run, but a little bit of personal enmity between them, arising over More's past relationship with Gregson's wife of three years Dinah Sheridan, sees them privately wager £100 on who can get their old banger back to London first. This despite the fact that man-about-town More has a new girl in tow, glamorous American Kay Kendall. From there on it's a case of those way-out Wacky Races as both of them stoop to conquer, fair play thrown out the window in the quest for success.
I enjoyed the location shooting, vintage fashions and vintage cars, including those from 1953, never mind old jalopies Genevieve and More's Spyker and while Gregson and More are very much upper class toffs out on a jolly (one wonders for example how much the £100 they casually bet then would equate to now?), there's some ribald and even risqué humour as when Sheridan has to have her husband stop the car so she can answer a call of nature or when Kendall reveals to Sheridan that More's only two interests in life are cars and "the other" where it takes a second or two for the penny to drop as to what she's referring.
Otherwise there are plenty of high jinks on the low road all set to a jaunty harmonica-based soundtrack by Larry Adler, taking in encounters with a female shepherd and her flock, a jazz band where little girl Kay gets to blow her horn, an expectant father, two irritable policemen and Joyce Grenfell in another enjoyable cameo as the proprietress of the cheap-as-chips seaside hotel at which Gregson and Sheridan end up.
I have to say in conclusion that I enjoyed tagging along with my four co-passengers for this amiable 90 minute journey down the road apiece. Yes, the characters might have benefitted from being a bit less posh, the triangle with Sheridan, Gregson and More seemed somewhat forced and the situations a little picaresque at times but all in all this was a fun road trip to be part of.
I enjoyed the location shooting, vintage fashions and vintage cars, including those from 1953, never mind old jalopies Genevieve and More's Spyker and while Gregson and More are very much upper class toffs out on a jolly (one wonders for example how much the £100 they casually bet then would equate to now?), there's some ribald and even risqué humour as when Sheridan has to have her husband stop the car so she can answer a call of nature or when Kendall reveals to Sheridan that More's only two interests in life are cars and "the other" where it takes a second or two for the penny to drop as to what she's referring.
Otherwise there are plenty of high jinks on the low road all set to a jaunty harmonica-based soundtrack by Larry Adler, taking in encounters with a female shepherd and her flock, a jazz band where little girl Kay gets to blow her horn, an expectant father, two irritable policemen and Joyce Grenfell in another enjoyable cameo as the proprietress of the cheap-as-chips seaside hotel at which Gregson and Sheridan end up.
I have to say in conclusion that I enjoyed tagging along with my four co-passengers for this amiable 90 minute journey down the road apiece. Yes, the characters might have benefitted from being a bit less posh, the triangle with Sheridan, Gregson and More seemed somewhat forced and the situations a little picaresque at times but all in all this was a fun road trip to be part of.