The Wacky Races

Began the morning with breakfast and Spring for Strawberry Shortcake, one of the specials that kicked off the 2003 series. Strawberry and her friends are upset that spring seems to be running late this year. If it doesn't show up soon, they won't be able to plant their crops, tend their flowers, or bake their goodies. Huckleberry Pie is more interested in goofing off with Custard the cat than planting anything. Strawberry and her dog Pupcake go off in search of spring, and learn how, if we work together, work can be fun in its own right. 

Headed off to work soon as the cartoon ended. Work didn't start off busy, but we got a huge spurt around 11. Huge and messy. I had to clean up a soda spill on one of the electric carts and put away a cartful of cold items that had been left laying around the store. That put me behind on doing the carts, which meant there were none up front by the time I did get to them. Thankfully, I was able to get them finished just minutes before I left. 

At least the weather was gorgeous. It remains sunny and warm, if humid. The breeze had picked up a bit by the time I hurried home. So did the traffic on Nicholson Road. No wonder we were busy earlier. 

(Also, I noticed as I cut through Oaklyn that Heartbeat Nutrition seems to have closed. There's no sign indicating hours on the door, the tables and chairs are pushed against the wall, and everything else is gone. On one hand, I'm not surprised. Given how overpriced they were and the competition across West Clinton and on the White Horse Pike, they're probably lucky they lasted as long as they did. 

On the other hand, they said nothing about closing when I bought that Irish potato milkshake there two weeks ago. I wish businesses would start giving people notice when they shut down and remember how it affects the community.)

Went straight home and into Let's Make a Deal when I got home. Monty started off acknowledging a group of people in similar pink, brown, and white striped outfits and scarecrow makeup in the audience. Turned out they were Baskin Robbins employees attending their "Ice Cream University." Two of them were in the costumed audience, though they didn't do well on a game that required them to price items and missed a car. The Big Deals of the Day went to a young woman dressed as an Arabian beauty and a guy in a fuzzy hat and poncho. I'm not sure he was too thrilled with a microwave, knives, and a small color TV, but I don't think she was complaining about a trip to Florida and the Bahamas.

Put on The Great Race while I rested and had a snack. The Great Leslie (Tony Curtis) and Professor Fate (Jack Lemmon) are rival daredevils in 1908 New York who constantly scheme to one-up each other with fantastic stunts. Fate hopes to finally get the upper hand on Leslie during a (real-life) car race from New York to Paris. Also taking part in the race is liberated journalist Maggie DuBois (Natalie Wood), who is driving for the New York Sentinel to get the inside story. 

Professor Fate's constant sabotage eventually leaves only him and his lackey Max (Peter Falk) and Leslie, Maggie, and Leslie's partner Hezekiah (Keenan Wynn) in the race. They have to dodge many obstacles, from a bar brawl out west to an epic pie fight and a Prisoner of Zenda takeoff at a small European country, in order to see who really is the most daring man around.

This wasn't a huge hit at the time, but for all the weirdness, I think it's worn pretty well. Lemmon and Falk put in some of their best performances as the silent screen villains who just can't win unfairly. Also look for Dorothy Provine and Larry Storch out west, Vivian Vance as the strong-willed wife of the newspaper editor who is the one that actually sponsors Maggie, and Ross Martin as the Rupert of Hentzau-esque Baron Rolf Von Stuppe in the Ruritania segment. He and Curtis even get into a bare-chested sword fight. If you love very goofy slapstick comedies or the cast and don't mind the 2 1/2 hour run time, you'll have a great time traveling with these wacky racers.

Sent the City of Camden my college transcripts for the clerk job I put in an application for, then worked on writing. Mrs. Rowland sends Kathleen to retrieve the few remaining flowers from the garden after she cuts a bouquet too short. Turns out rabbits got there first and ate the last of the flowers. She has no choice but to disobey Mrs. Rowland's orders and go into the forbidding dark forest for flowers...

Put on Match Game '73 while eating dinner. Brett sits in the ingenue seat next to Richard, while Loretta Swit is in the character actress seat this week. Charles returns, and Nipsey and Betty join in. In fact, this would be Nipsey's first week on the show. Nipsey's rhyming prowess comes in handy during a question about where a man who is no longer in the pink landed. The contestant said "Pokey"...and of course, there is a word that rhymes with pink and is another word for jail. There's also Gene's microphone breaking down suddenly. He and the contestant have to use the smaller wired mike on his tie. We also get our first Cleopatra question...and our first of many times we hear the same answer

Finished the night with another historical race set in the early 1900's. Those Magnificent Men and Their Flying Machines take to the skies in a somewhat similar race from 1910. This time, everyone's competing to see who can get from London to Paris over the English Channel first. Noblewoman Patricia Rawnsley (Sarah Miles) wishes her stubborn father Lord Rawnsley (Robert Morley) would let her go up in a plane. She generally settles for admiring her handsome boyfriend Richard Mays (James Fox) and his feats.

Mays is the one who suggests the cross-Channel trip for publicity purposes. He's really hoping to earn enough money to marry Patricia. She, however, finds the rugged American entrant Orvil Newton (Stuart Whitman) far more to her liking. Italian aviator Count Emilio Ponticelli (Alberto Sordi) keeps getting new planes and wrecking them. The German entrant Colonel Holstein (Gert Frobe) enlists an entire army to keep his plane in the air, while Frenchman Pierre Dubois (Jean-Pierre Cassel) keeps seeing what seems like the same woman with different accents and national costumes (Irina Demick). Japanese flyer Yamamoto (Yujiro Ishihara) is the nicest guy there, while the other English racer Sir Percy Ware-Armitage (Terry-Thomas) is determined to win the race by any underhanded means necessary. 

I give them credit for at least letting actors of the appropriate nationalities portray the flyers. No fake accents here. They did dub the Japanese guy, but otherwise, they're all the real thing...which makes the satire of national stereotypes even funnier and a lot easier to take. Whitman is a bit more interesting than Fox as the cowboy who spends his last dime to enter the race, but it's the supporting cast who really shine here. 

Cassel and Frobe in particular have a great time needling each other in the first half, and the gag with Dubois seeing the same woman everywhere in different outfits and accents is pretty funny, too. There's also Terry-Thomas as the spoiled nobleman who wants to win just because he can and Benny Hill as the fire chief. Miles has a great time as the strong-willed noblewoman who just wants to fly, and wishes Newton would quit tearing off her skirt.

Honestly, if you can handle the 2 and a half hour run time on both movies, this might make a nice double feature with The Great Race. I think Race is slightly better, but both are a lot of fun if you love comic period pieces, epic comedies, 60's comedy, or either cast.