Main Cast: James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, Yves Montand, Toshiro Mifune, Brian Bedford
Release Year: 1966
Country: US
Run Time: 161 minutes
Plot
There's a few million dollars' worth of star power and a nickel's worth of plot in the lavish race-car melodrama Grand Prix. Among the participants in this annual cross-continent competition are characters played by James Garner, Yves Montand, Brian Bedford, and Antonio Sabato. Interested parties include Toshiro Mifune (his voice dubbed by Paul Frees), Adolfo Celi, and Claude Dauphin, while the women who agonize on the sidelines include Eva Marie Saint, Jessica Walter, and Françoise Hardy. The racing sequences are top-rank, cleverly utilizing those 1960s devices of helicopter angles and multiple screens. Oscars went to editor Frederic Steinkamp (among others) and the sound-effects supervisor Franklin E. Milton. Filmed on location, Grand Prix made back its cost about half a week into its run. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Although in no setting could Grand Prix be considered a masterpiece of the cinema, viewers fortunate enough to catch it on a widescreen in a movie house will get a great deal more enjoyment than those watching it at home. Clearly, Grand Prix is the kind of movie that loses a lot when shrunk from its Cinerama/Super Panavision origins. Lionel Lindon's exciting cinematography is thrilling, and the p.o.v. shots from the driver's seat are something to experience. Even more important is the superb work done by the four-man editing team, which is largely responsible for creating suspense and chills throughout and which plays the key role in pacing the entire film. Throw in further exceptional technical work from the sound department and a cast that mostly ranges from solid to pretty damn good, and it's hard to see how the movie could miss. But ultimately Grand Prix doesn't make it into the winner's circle, largely because of a terribly pedestrian screenplay and uneven work from the gifted director John Frankenheimer. Frankenheimer plays Grand Prix's racing scenes for all their worth, but he doesn't put nearly enough effort into the half-baked dramatics that play out between them. Even so, it's worth sitting through the overlong Grand Prix to experience the joyrides. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Jessica Walter - Pat; Antonio Sabato - Nino Barlini; Françoise Hardy - Lisa; Adolfo Celi - Agostini Manetta; Claude Dauphin - Hugo Simon; Enzo Fiermonte - Guido; Geneviève Page - Monique Delvaux Sarti; Jack Watson - Jeff Jordan; Donal O'Brien - Wallace Bennett; Jean Michaud - Children's father; Albert Remy - Surgeon at Monte Carlo; Rachel Kempson - Mrs. Stoddard; Ralph Michael - Mr. Stoddard; Alan Fordney - Sportcaster; Anthony Marsh - Sportcaster; Phil Hill - Tim Randolph; Graham Hill - Bob Turner; John Bryson - Photographer David; Evans Evans - Mrs. Tim Randolph; Arthur Howard - Claude; Bruce McLaren - Douglas McClendon; Jack Brabham; Jim Russell; Joakim Bonnier; Richie Ginther - John Hogarth
Credit
Phil Hill - Consultant/advisor, Joakim Bonnier - Consultant/advisor, Richie Ginther - Consultant/advisor, Carroll Shelby - Consultant/advisor, Sydney Guilaroff - Costume Designer, Lucie Lichtig - Continuity, John Frankenheimer - Director, Henry Berman - Editor, Stu Linder - Editor, Frank Santillo - Editor, Franz Steininger - Editor, Frederic Steinkamp - Editor, Maurice Jarre - Composer (Music Score), Maurice Jarre - Musical Direction/Supervision, Sydney Guilaroff - Makeup, Giuliano Laurenti - Makeup, Alfio Meniconi - Makeup, Guilaroff Giuliano - Makeup, Richard Sylbert - Production Designer, Lionel Lindon - Cinematographer, Edward Lewis - Producer, Milt Rice - Special Effects, Gordon Daniel - Sound/Sound Designer, Bill Hanley - Screenwriter, Robert Alan Aurthur - Screenwriter, William Hanley - Screenwriter
One of the ten highest grossing films of 1966, Grand Prix also won Academy Awards for Best Sound Effects, Best Film Editing and Best Sound in 1967 and gained cult status among racing fans.
Sub-plots revolve around the women who try to live with these men with such dangerous life-styles.
Production
The making was a race itself, as John Sturges and Steve McQueen planned to make a similar movie titled Day of the Champion[2]. Due to their contract with the German Nürburgring, Frankenheimer had to turn over 27 reels shot there to Sturges. Frankenheimer was ahead in schedule anyway, and the McQueen/Sturges project was called off, while the German race track was only mentioned briefly in Grand Prix.
The F1 cars in the movie are mostly mocked-up Formula 3 cars made to look like contemporary F1 models, although the film also used footage from actual F1 races. Some of this was captured by Phil Hill, the 1961 World Champion, who drove modified camera cars in some sessions during the 1966 Monaco and Belgian Grands Prix. This was some of the earliest experimentation with in-car cameras for Formula One.
The level of driving ability of the actors varied wildly - Bedford couldn't drive at all, Sabato was very slow and nervous, Montand himself scared very easily early in filming and was often towed rather than driving the car, but Garner was highly competent and took up racing and entering cars as a result of his involvement in the film.
Adaptation of real racing events
There are many incidents within the film that were inspired by real events in motorsport:
Yamura cars are based on the Honda Formula One operation, and Aron gives them their first win - American Richie Ginther had given Honda their first Grand Prix victory in 1965.
