Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies (1969)

An international car rally across Europe is complicated by smuggling, cheating, love at first sight, etc. etc.

Directors:

Ken Annakin, Sam Itzkovitch

Writers:

Jack Davies (original story and screenplay), Ken Annakin (original story and screenplay)

Stars:

Bourvil, Lando Buzzanca, Walter Chiari

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Bourvil	...	Monsieur Dupont
Lando Buzzanca	...	Marcello
Walter Chiari	...	Angelo
Peter Cook	...	Maj. Dawlish
Tony Curtis	...	Chester Schofield
Mireille Darc	...	Marie-Claude
Marie Dubois	...	Pascale
Gert Fröbe	...	Willi Schickel / Horst Müller (as Gert Frobe)
Susan Hampshire	...	Betty
Jack Hawkins	...	Count Levinovitch
Nicoletta Machiavelli	...	Dominique
Dudley Moore	...	Lt. Barrington
Peer Schmidt	...	Otto
Eric Sykes	...	Perkins
Terry-Thomas	...	Sir Cuthbert Ware-Armitage

Storyline

In an international car rally, competitors must travel from various points in Europe to Monte Carlo, then race their cars. Things are complicated by smuggling, cheating, honor, inventions, medicine, and love at first sight...

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Plot Keywords:

smuggling | cheating | race | monte carlo | road movie | 

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Taglines:

It was a race to the finish... if only they could finish!

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Genres:

Action | Comedy | Romance

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Certificate:

G

Details

Country:

UK France Italy

Language:

English

Release Date:

June 1969 (UK)

Also Known As:

Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies

Filming Locations:

Dino De Laurentiis Cinematografica Studios, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Box Office

Budget:

$10,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Arthur Conn, Basil Keys Productions, Champion

Technical Specs

Runtime:

125 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Jack Hawkins is dubbed by 'Robert Rietty (I)'.

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Goofs

During the start of the race at John O'Groats, some of the "snow" is blown off by the wind in clumps, revealing it to be soap suds strewn about the scene.

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Quotes

Lt. Barrington: I think we hit one of their chaps, sir.
Maj. Dawlish: On the contrary, he hit us.

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Crazy Credits

Closing sequence: Revolving Automobile Tire segues into the Paramount Logo.

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Connections

Follows Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 hours 11 minutes (1965)

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Soundtracks

Roses of Picardy
(uncredited)
Music by Haydn Wood

User Reviews

Paramount's Road To Ruin.

My comment above is not at all to dissuade you from watching this frequently funny film it is mostly to recognize the colossal amount of money invested in these all star road romps that raced thru the 60s. MAD MAD WORLD and MAGNIFICENT MEN and GREAT RACE and then this along with the whopper period musicals (DARLING LILI) had production accountants suicidal. From 1964 to 1970 I can count 33 massive 'roadshow' musicals and 20 'roadshow' comedy adventure epics. Cinemas were weekly opening something with 22 stars and costing 22 million and all in 70mm and on reserved seats. Like concert overload, these overloaded films became so frequent that they lost their appeal. Like eating a ton of fruit salad. I found this film: THOSE DARING YOUNG MEN IN THEIR JAUNTY JALOPIES as a 3rd rung on the 'race' list extremely well made but with an inordinate amount of back projection and insert studio shots edited into scenes that were already in the can from location shooting, almost duplicating the film indoors for small spot shots. The rear projection scenes even involved crowded backgrounds (see the Sweden scenes) and duplicates of the main actors who only were inserted in the close ups... so some major stars actually did not go to some locations, just the second unit and the extras and stand-ins ... all cleverly inserted together with studio pick-up and dialog bits. The Terry-Thomas scenes and the Pete and Dud pukka British dastardry are by far the funniest and the Italian nonsense by far the most grating, sadly because they also feature the adorable Walter Chiari. So overloaded with scenes, antics and pantomime J-JALOPIES almost becomes impossible to follow, a fact itself recognizes because of the frequent split screen 'where are they now' compilation assemblies. Tony Curtis is hilarious and replays his Great Leslie image from THE GREAT RACE. J-JALOPIES is all terrific expensive Euro fun and well worth watching with kids and teens on family movie night. But the cost of this production! eek!