GRIM PIX

GRAND PRIX (1966)
dir: John Frankenheimer

GRIM PIX
MAD #115, December 1967
w:Dick DeBartolo
a: Mort Drucker

Big three-hour blockbuster that seems to have fallen through the cracks of history about the various Formula One world racing championships in Europe, the fictional stories interspersed with real footage.

It begins with Pete Aron (James Garner), Jean-Pierre Sarti (Yves Montand) and Scott Stoddard (Brian Bedford) are all competing in Monaco.

Scott's wife Pat (Jessica Walter) is hung over in a hotel room while the race is going on, here she's pictured as a spectator.

There's an accident with Stoddard crashing off the road and Aron flying into the river.

A permanently injured Stoddard is in the hospital and Aron is blamed for the accident, though Aron had faulty brakes. In a scene they don't show in the parody, Pat has decided to separate from an unconscious Scott. Meanwhile, Jean-Pierre meets journalist Louise Frederickson (Eva Marie Saint) at an after party, and gives her a tour of the car museum where this is taking place. She is there to write about a fashion show but is unfamiliar with car racing.

We miss another party at a disco the night before the race, Louise covering her shoot where Pat is a model, and her husband Scott, paralyzed and going back to the UK, is oblivious to his wife leaving him.

At this next race, Pete Aron is a TV commentator and tries to interview businessman Izo Yamura (Toshiro Mifune), who turns him down but invites Pete to come to his garage later. [They've also taken parts out of Pete interviewing Pat, who denies there's any trouble in her marriage and they flirt off-camera.] Izo wants Pete to race for him.

Nino Barlini (Antonio Sabato) has a pretty big part as the young heartthrob racer, but his storyline is mostly ignored here, his girlfriend Lisa (Francoise Hardy) is ignored completely. Scott, not fully healed yet, returns and tells team manager Jeff Jordan (Jack Watson) that he wants to return to racing. At his family mansion are pictures of his older brother, who was also a driver and died while racing, which makes him even more determined to continue. Pat's relationship with Pete heats up. They don't use the part where Jean-Pierre tries to unionize and make racing safer for everyone.

Nino wins this next race, sparks fly between Jean-Pierre and Louise, Pat decides she's divorcing Scott, and the final Grand Prix race is coming up.

Scott Stoddard has won this race, overcome disability, and gotten back together with his wife. After the races are over, a lone Pat Aron is there at the empty tracks. This symbolizes how racing is his life, and he will live again next year. Forget it, Pete, it's Grand Prix-town.

I'd probably like this movie about the Formula One racing scene better, except I don't speak a word of Italian.

Actually, I'd probably be really disappointed. I've gone down an Italian comedy rabbit hole these past few months, mostly for the animated titles.