Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Great Race [Book Review]

"The Great Race" is a novel written by Marvin H. Albert. It was published in 1965. This book is a novelization of the motion picture directed by Blake Edwards of the same name released in the same year. It was a common practice at the time for a book to be released alongside the movie as a means to further promote the film. But in order to do this, the book had to be written while the movie was in production, leading the author to only have the original script as a source. This often caused a lot of these books to be different than the movie it was based on as the film deviated from the original script.

"The Great Race" is about a automobile race from New York to Paris happening at the turn of the twentieth century. The two main contestants were a dashing and brave paragon of a man named The Great Leslie, and his opponent and chief antagonist was the vile and dastardly Professor Fate. This is a story of good versus evil in the very raw sense of the terms. Leslie was perfectly good and Fate was perfectly evil. Leslie had to win by being the better racer, but Fate had to win by being sneaky and cheating whenever he could, and as far as anyone cared in the story, that was perfectly okay. May the best man win in whatever way he choses!

Despite the story being about an automobile race, the story is more of an adventure that keeps changing in style as they pass through different parts of the world. One part was clearly pitched as a western with a crazy saloon fight, and later on it turns into a political intrigue story where an evil baron is attempting to usurp the throne of his prince. Crazy stuff, but it all leads to a very full and fun story.

There is also a major plot point having to do with the women's suffrage movement happening at the time. A woman named Maggie is trying to prove to the world that she can be a reporter and cover the race. She, at first, claimed that she could enter the even win the race, but that fell apart real fast when she picked a steamer as her vehicle of choice. The male/female dynamic between Leslie and her are well done. A lot of the story has to do with him trying to prove that men are better than woman in some areas, where she believes that a woman can be equal if not better than any man. It's a debate that runs all the way to the end of the book, and I liked how it concludes.

My favorite character is easily Professor Fate. Yes, he is evil, but he is also quite clumsy. He has a loyal henchman named Max who always helps him with his gadgets and evil schemes. He was well represented in this book. It's hard to see Max as played by anybody other than Peter Falk, even in how it was written. The two were always fighting each other, since evil always turns on itself, but they stayed the course of villainy all the way to the end. I loved it.

As I mentioned earlier, this book is based on the original script, and it shows. If you have seen the movie then this book is still worth reading. There was completely changed scenes and some new ones that can only be found in the book. Some scenes that felt cut short in the film keep going in the book, and that was really cool to finally see what the original plan was. This sort of film novelization is exactly what I am looking for when I set myself to read them.

I do recommend reading "The Great Race," and I should also say that the movie is worth your time too. It's one of my most favorite films ever made, and I really think it's the villains that keeps me coming back. That said, this book is now considered obscure. For some reason, all the novelizations of the Blake Edwards movies are now considered "collectable" status. That means they are all very experience to buy. I was lucky to have a friend who wanted to give it to me as a gift. Great read!

This blog was written on April 14, 2025.

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