Monte Carlo or Bust! (AKA Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies)
Dir: Ken Annakin
1969
*****
After the success of Ken Annakin's 1965 mad-cap comedy Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines, a sequel seemed like a good idea. Monte Carlo or Bust! or Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies as it was known in the USA (to make clear which film it was a sequel to) took the same idea of the original and fast-forwarded it a decade or so to the age of the motorcar. The car comedy chase/race genre was in full swing during the 60s with classics such as The Great Race, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and Herbie's first outing, The Love Bug being among the best but I've always felt that Monte Carlo or Bust has been rather overlooked. The original film was a huge success, I believe the follow up is very different and should be looked as a very loose sequel but it is every bit as good, if not better. A few cast members return but are either new characters or the offspring of characters from the first film. It's an incredible cast that is hard to resist, including; Tony Curtis, Terry-Thomas, Eric Sykes, Gert Frobe, Susan Hampshire, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, with the great Jack Hawkins, Hattie Jacques, Willie Rushton and Richard Wattis in supporting roles and starring European favorites Bourvil, Lando Buzzanca, Walter Chiari and Peer Schmidt. The structure is very clever in that it follows the rules of the race, whereby competitors from around the world are timed and start from four different corners of Europe, which opens the story to various humorous situations in various different locations that leads to a creative and masterful exercise in hijinks. The main story sees Tony Curtis and Terry-Thomas settle a wager as to who would win a race, TT's car of choice being the 'Nifty Nine' and Curtis' being 'An overgrown roller-skate'. Eric Sykes is TT's long suffering assistant and Tony Curtis picks up the beautiful Susan Hampshire along route. In Italy, two traffic police Brothers (Lando Buzzanca and Walter Chiari) spend their life savings on a Lancia Lambda, one wanting to be the greatest Italian racing driver in the world, the other wanting to be the greatest Italian lover in the world. In Germany, ex-army inventors Major Digby Dawlish and Lt. Kit Barrington (Peter Cook and Dudley Moore) enter the race to test out their contraption heavy Lea-Frances O-Type alongside Gert Frobe and Peer Schmidt, escaped convicts forced to enter the race as a cover for a diamond smuggling attempt. Each car contains a wonderful double-act, with no pair letting the side down. Each story-arch leads to a climactic finish when all competitors meet in Monte Carlo for the last leg of the race. It's a fantastic comedy, consistently funny and also rather exciting. The performances are wonderful, the car chases and stunts spectacular and it's a lovely example of various elements of European humor coming together and working. An absolute classic and one of my favorite films of all time. If that weren't enough, the great Jimmy Durante provides one of the best theme songs ever.