= THE GREAT RACE =

With the overture for a starter, you're off on the zaniest race ever run by a horseless carriage. Except, of course, they didn't have starters then. They had cranks. Professor Fate is clearly one of them.

With his twirly moustache and beady eyes, he (Jack Lemmon) is an inspired looney, a foul villain, and viciously determined to beat the Great Leslie (Tony Curtis). His vehicle is equipped with more lethal gadgets than James Bond ever thought of, and with the help of Henry Mancini's sprightly opener, it's off and running.

Romance and races are never far apart, at least in the movies. Here, to prove it, The Sweetheart Tree is planted right in the overture. One of Mercer and Mancini's most haunting love songs, it calls to mind those romantic gems: Moon River and Days of Wine and Roses. Like those enduring hits, The Sweetheart Tree has the quality of timeless ballads rooted in the folk-song tradition. The romance, in this case, concerns suffragette Natalie Wood, an intrepid reporter who hitches a ride with Tony Curtis as the race trundles westward from New York around the world to Paris.

Push the button, Max ! Prof. Fate commands his assistant (Peter Falk). The trombone slides ominously to make it clear that the button will undoubtedly set off some nefarious devilry.

In arranging his film score for this recording, Mancini aimed at musical balance rather than plot sequence. As a result, events here are even more mixed up than in the movie. On Track 3, for instance, we're suddenly in Potzdorf, capital of Carpania, an imaginary kingdom somewhere along the way. A Royal Waltz swirls, full of Old-War glitter and elegance, and when His Royal Highness passes out from too much brandy, the celeste and harp tinkle him to sleep with Night, Night Sweet Prince. But this quiet interlude gives way to They're Off ! - a riotous flashback to the beginning of the race.

The Sweetheart Tree, this time featuring a pianola roll, crops up again, followed by The Great Race March, a blaring bagful of historical chestnuts - a sort of patriotic march to end all patriotic marches. While traversing the Texas prairie, the racers get entangled with Lily Olay (Dorothy Previne), a saloon singer with a wild eye and an itchy trigger finger: He Shouldn't-A, Hadn't-A, Ought'n-A Swang on Me !

Skipping to Carpania again, we're treated to a coronation march (Music to Become King By), and after an interlude with a polar bear on a fast-melting iceberg (Cold Finger), the windup is the sprightly Pie-in-the-Face Polka that accompanies the inevitable pie-throwing scene in the movie.

The score, as a whole, reveals yet another facet of Mancini's talent for spoof. While his soundtrack for "The Pink Panther" was a polished essay in sophisticated irony, he has created "The Great Race" as a slapstick memory of an era when motorcars always backfired and all the bands went omm-pah.

-- HANS FANTEL 
Contributing Editor, Hi-Fi Stereo Review