Monte Carlo or Bust! (1969)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Ken Annakin

Writers:

Jack Davies (original story and screenplay) and
Ken Annakin (original story and screenplay)

Release Date:

June 1969 (UK)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

It was a race to the finish... if only they could finish!

Plot:

An international car rally across Europe is complicated by smuggling, cheating, love at first sight, etc. etc.

Plot Keywords:

Cheating | Smuggling | Race | Monte Carlo | Automobile Race

Cast

Bourvil	...	Monsieur Dupont
Lando Buzzanca	...	Marcello Agosti
Walter Chiari	...	Angelo Pincelli
Peter Cook	...	Major Digby Dawlish
Tony Curtis	...	Chester Schofield
Mireille Darc	...	Marie-Claude
Marie Dubois	...	Pascale
Gert Fröbe	...	Willi Schickel & Horst Muller (as Gert Frobe)
Susan Hampshire	...	Betty
Jack Hawkins	...	Count Levinovitch
Nicoletta Machiavelli	...	Dominique
Dudley Moore	...	Lt. Kit Barrington
Peer Schmidt	...	Otto
Eric Sykes	...	Perkins
Terry-Thomas	...	Sir Cuthbert Ware-Armitage

Also Known As:

Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies (Australia) (USA)
Gonflés à bloc (France)
Il ralleye di Montecarlo... e tutta quella confusione (Italy)
Le rallye de Monte Carlo (France)
Monte Carlo Rally
Montecarlo Rally (France)
Quei temerari sulle loro pazze, scatenate, scalcinate carriole (Italy)

Runtime:

Spain:120 min | USA:122 min | UK:125 min

Country:

UK | France | Italy

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:L | UK:PG | Finland:S | Sweden:11 | USA:G

Filming Locations:

Dino De Laurentiis Cinematografica Studios, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Arthur Conn

Trivia:

The soundtrack features a piece of music by Ron Goodwin entitled "The Schickel Shamble" (which accompanies many of Gert Fröbe's scenes). This was later used as the theme for the BBC radio show "I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue" which featured William Rushton among the panellists.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: The scenes showing Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Gert Fröbe romping about on a frozen Swedish lake show mountains, reindeer and cable cars. Would had been OK if they hadn't been on their way to Malmö in the south of Sweden, where there are no mountains and no reindeer. Thus, the sign "Eslöv 5 km" (or whatever) got an extra laugh in Sweden.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue (2008) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Those Daring Young Men in their Jaunty Jalopies

At least Jimmy Durante sings!

This is the kind of movies I wish was much much better!A sort of free remake of "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines!" But filled with loads of humour, but that feals old fashioned by now, and awful back-projection that might have been OK back then, but is certainly awful nowdays. In the same time it could be one of the most accessible movies with britt comics Moore and Cook! One of the few films with Fleur Forsythe, or dark eyed Susan Hempshire.

The song that old Jimmy Durante sings in the end (was this his last?) is better than the whole movie in itself!

Tony Curtis, Susan Hampshire, Dudley Moore, Peter Cook, Gert Frobe, Terry-Thomas, Eric Porter, Jack Hawkins and french comic Bourvil! What a Cast!!!! Pity the movie isn't better!