Monte Carlo or Bust (1969)

Monte Carlo or Bust is a French film comedy first released in 1969, directed by Ken Annakin.  The film stars Bourvil, Lando Buzzanca, Walter Chiari, Peter Cook and Tony Curtis.  It has also been released under the title: Monte Carlo Rally.  Our overall rating for this film is: good.


Sir Cuthbert Ware-Armitage enters the gruelling Monte Carlo rally to win back his automobile factory from a young American Chester Schofield, using fair means or foul.  Other competitors in the car race include: the eccentric military inventor Major Digby Dawlish, a pair of love-hungry Italians, a women’s team led by a seductive female doctor, and a pair of German crooks attempting to smuggle jewels across Europe.  The race is on, but who, if any, will survive the harrowing ordeal?

Monte Carlo or Bust was a spirited, but not altogether successful attempt, to repeat the success of Annakin’s 1965 film: Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines.  This time, the chase is not between rickety aircraft, but involves vintage roadsters tearing across some of Europe’s most inhospitable terrain.  Monte Carlo Or Bust borrows many of the elements of that earlier film, including the magnificent Terry-Thomas-Eric Sykes pairing.  Despite that, the film lacks the magic and charm of its predecessor, partly because too much emphasis is placed on the mechanics of the race rather than on building characterisation (although some of the stunts are quite impressive).

Although the jokes are generally a little half-hearted, there are some deliciously funny moments and this is, overall, a fun film, helped by its jaunty, memorable theme song composed by Ron Goodwin.  The film features some of the best of British comic talent at the time, including the incomparable Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, and the indispensable Terry-Thomas.  The French comic actor Bourvil also turns in a delightful performance as the race organiser.

The film was one of the last in a tradition of high budget extravaganzas featuring a wide range of international locations and stars, which were highly popular in the middle to late 1960s.  Monte Carlo Or Bust clearly shows the weaknesses of this kind of film, crammed with high calibre actors, and shifting rapidly between locations, leaving little room for serious plot or character development.  For those hoping to make money out of the film at the time, Monte Carlo Or Bust must have been an appropriate title.

© James Travers 2002

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