The Rat Race

source: The Rat Race

Trailer—The Rat Race

The Rat Race

I'm a little surprised that this film is described here as a 'tender romantic comedy'. I remember it as anything but. Yes, there's a romance, but much of it is an acerbic take on the hard underbelly of New York, as indeed you'd expect with a screenplay by Garson Kanin. The scene where Curtis is robbed of his instruments by a phony jazz group, then tries to pick them up from the Police storeroom only to get involved in a convoluted argument with a recalcitrant officer, is one of the most cynical takes on big city life that I can remember. Add that to the scene where Don Rickles forces Debbie Reynolds to strip to her underwear because she can't pay a debt, then says to her, "Now...do you get the point!" and you've got anything but a tender romantic comedy. I don't know, maybe I saw a different Rat Race to everyone else's. But I should mention that the one I saw had a very good dramatic score by Elmer Bernstein, so maybe Elmer and I both got it wrong.

Tony Curtis plays a saxophone player again (as in 'Some Like It Hot') in this adaptation by Gason Kanin of his own play which follows the same raw narrative arc as Chabrol's 'Les Cousins' and Visconti's 'Rocco and His Brothers' of the culture shock experienced by a kid from the sticks arriving in the big city, to be taken advantage of by the slickers. With location work in New York and an unusual cast recruited locally (including musician Gerry Mulligan), the jazz milieu is also complemented by an appropriately surging score by Elmer Bernstein.

I loved this movie about two struggling young people and the friendship and love that grows out of those struggles. You won't find any glamour in this film, but it manages to be much more beautiful than many a movie oozing pearls, silk and mahogany. All characters are interesting, likeable and well-drawn. Rickles is fantastic as an uncouth, vulgar boss, the personification of a soul destroyed. Everything is just right. As usual, it is small movies that reach the greatest heights. I once saw screenwriter Kanin and his wife Ruth Gordon on "Donahue". I'm sorry I didn't take any notes.