This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Lack of good storyline.

good back-story, and good acting

Fantastic!

As the US title would indicate this is a sort of following to ¨Those magnificent men in their flying machines¨ (1965) . In an international car rally , competitors must travel from various points in Europe to Monte Carlo, then race their cars . As daring young men in noise slow cars trek 1500 miles across nation in the 1920s race . Contestants come from all over the world from Norway , Italy , America and other countries . Things are complicated by shenanigans , hijinks , double-crosses , honor , medicine , and love at first sight ; all of them are founded along the route . A dastardly villain (Terry Thomas) and his steward , an escaped inmate (Gert Frobe), an American hero (Tony Curtis) , a downtrodden manservant (Eric Sykes) , two military gentlemen (Dudley Moore , Peter Cook) are the competitors , among others . Meanwhile , a nobleman named Sir Cuthbert Ware-Armitage (Terry-Thomas) has sabotaged cars that start coming apart here , there and everywhere . Auto race in an uproarious European tour ,circa 1920 ,completed with crashes , cheating , snow-chases , smuggling , inventions , bounds and leaps . These spectacular old cars provide the most side-splitting moments in a picture whose greatest assets are the animated Ronald Searle cartoons and the beginning , middle and final . Dudley Moore and and Peter Cook have various fun moments , while Gert Frobe is great as an astute villain . There's rather too much romance between Tony Curtis-Susan Hampshire and Lando Buzzanca-Mireille Darc . Special mention to Terry Thomas again in dastardly form as a British nasty who plans to sabotage all his rivals in the Monte Carlo rally . This followup to ¨Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 hours 11 minutes¨ had the same director (Ken Annakin), writers (Jack Davies and Annakin), composer (Ron Goodwin), and five actors . Terry-Thomas played the son of his character in the earlier movie, and Eric Sykes' character was again an employee of Terry-Thomas'. Gert Fröbe, William Rushton, and Michael Trubshawe played unrelated roles. Lively and jolly musical score by Ron Goodwin and theme song was sung by Jimmy Durante , including a piece of music entitled "The Schickel Shamble" which accompanies many of Gert Fröbe's scenes . Colorful and evocative cinematography by Gabor Pogany . ¨Montecarlo or Bust¨ belongs to a trilogy in which old machines such as cars and planes participate into spectacular races across Europe : the first was ¨The great race¨ by Blake Edwards with Tony Curtis , Natalie Wood , Ross Martin , Arthur O'Connell ; the second was ¨Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 hours 11 minutes¨ (1965) in which a wealthy newspaper publisher is persuaded to sponsor an air race from London a Paris , being directed by Ken Annakin with Stuart Withman , Sarah Miles , Get Frobe , Terry Thomas , Red Skelton ,Irene Demick and the third this ¨Montecarlo or bust¨.This inferior sequel was professionally directed by Ken Annakin , though being sporadically funny and overly long : Ken was an expert on Adventure genre as ¨The new adventures of Pippi Longstockings¨, ¨Pirate movie¨ , ¨Paper tiger¨, ¨The fifth Musketeer¨ , ¨Call of wild¨, ¨The Swiss family Robinson¨, ¨Land of fury¨, ¨The Sword and the Rose¨, ¨The story of Robin Hood and his Merry Men¨, ¨Third man on the mountain¨ and Wartime genre as ¨Battle of the Bulge¨, and ¨The Longest day¨.

Like its near contemporaries "The Great Race" and "Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines", I always associate this film with my childhood especially at New Year. On New Year's Day we'd visit my granny and after lunch, while the adults talked, the kids would watch TV where invariably one of these three crazy race films would be on.For that reason alone, I really wanted to mark "Monte Carlo Or Bust" well but I fear I can't, the child not being father to the man on this occasion. By which I mean I can see all too clearly its faults and while I was tempted to smile occasionally, in truth I really wanted all the competitors to get to the end of the race long before they actually do.Of course it's dated by its stereotyping of nationalities and woman as the weaker sex and I also didn't much care for one or two stray, admittedly mild vulgarities which occasionally surfaced. More than that though, the cast, despite hamming it up outrageously just don't sell the film enough. Tony Curtis, in a trial run for his "Yank Abroad" turn in the TV series "The Persuaders", seems too old to be playing the young gallant, Terry Thomas just isn't dastardly enough, Eric Sykes is unbelievable as a dirty-minded Lothario while Gert Frobe as an overdone Teuton, is just weird doing camp comedy when you remember he was Bond's best villain Goldfinger. If anything the Englishers come off best - Susan Hampshire is at least engaging as a "bright young thing", suitably gamine as a posh flapper and although chained to the leash of the script Pete and Dud offer the most amusement as stiff upper lip army types, although even then the "Carry On" team did this so much better in "Carry On Up The Khyber Pass".Director Annakin tries everything to evoke the "Golden Silents", with lashings of slapstick, mistaken identity capers, speeded up camera shots, would-be dramatic stunts and some light romance, but there's no real tension for such a famous race and anyway the race-off at the end seems like another swizz.Actually I'd have given it another mark if they'd stuck to the alternative title "Those Magnificent Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies" but in truth the animated series "Wacky Races" did this so much better.

In the 1920's several international characters gather to compete in the gruelling Monte Carlo Rally. Some will employ fair means or foul to ensure victory.This film was a follow up of sorts to 1965's 'Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines', although it also bares similarities to 'The Great Race'(in which Tony Curtis once again starred). Sadly it is not in the same class as either. It lacks the coherence, wit and spectacle of 'Flying Machines', despite Ken Annakin being at the helm once more. In fairness to him the main problem is the screenplay - its simply not that funny. This causes an over reliance on the visual gags, and here again the film falls short. The effects aren't terribly special even for 1969. Some of the characters are also downright irritating - I'm thinking particularly of the Italians - bulging eyed, flailing armed, noisy oafs.There are some compensations however. Dear old Terry-Thomas and Eric Sykes repeat their double act from the previous film to some effect, and Susan Hampshire is every inch the English Rose. But its Peter Cook and Dudley Moore who steal the show as a British Army Officer/Inventor and his Batman respectively. They have all the best lines and manage to deliver them in a typically deadpan and upper class manner. Example:- As their car hurtles down a snowy hillside out of control, and having tried every concievable method of stopping it to no avail, Cook calmly announces "This simply won't do at all!" Priceless.Not a total disaster then, but considering the talent involved, with better writing and more careful work all round it could have been, and indeed should have been, so much better.

Like many other racing comedies, 'Those Daring Young Men in their Jaunty Jalopies' suffers from simply having too much going on at once. The film has so many different characters it tries to devote time to, it's easy to forget everything that's going on. It seemed like whenever Tony Curtis appeared on the screen I thought "Oh yeah, forgot he was in this." The film might be considered a multi-car wreck had it not been for Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. Cook plays a British inventor, Moore his trusty sidekick. These two have all the best lines in the movie, and their deadpan delivery is perfect.