Article: Good bye, Tony Curtis
When I was a little girl I swooned over Tony Curtis as The Great Leslie in THE GREAT RACE, the 1965 screwball comedy costarring Natalie Wood and Jack Lemmon as competitors in a turn-of-the-century car race from New York to Paris. Older now, I appreciate Jack Lemmon’s contribution to the film more. Actually, he steals the show with one of the best comedic performances of his career, but to a young girl a pretty face and a soft voice somehow makes more of a lasting impact. Curtis had a chance to show his comic abilities six years earlier in SOME LIKE IT HOT, another screwball he starred in opposite Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe. Here, Curtis got to play dress-up as both a woman and as a Cary Grant-inspired millionaire bachelor (see clip above).