Scene of the Week: The Great Pie Fight

Great is an adjective that can be overused, but there are rare instances when it short sells the action. When I tell you that The Great Race has a great pie fight, I actually mean it has the greatest pie fight ever to be on film. You might think that is hyperbole, but let’s look at the facts. It took five days to film the 4+ minute scene and cost over $200,000, of which $18,000 was just for the pastry. There was a giant cake that got smashed and then over 4,000 individual pies made for the scene!

The Great Race is a classic 1965 Blake Edwards comedy romp that is made better by two things, the all-star cast and the aforementioned pie fight. Watching luminaries like Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, and Natalie Wood throw down via pies is as fun as it sounds… to watch that is, as the actual on set filming started out fun but turned into a painful chore for the actors and not to mention the poor saps who had to clean up the aftermath. Luckily we can all enjoy watching without getting messy with this week’s Scene of the Week… The Great Greatest Pie Fight.