This one is a misfire on all counts. Most of the cast is lousy, the story is dull, the direction nonexistent, and the film is too long. It drones on and on cutting from one group in the car rally to another. The Germans and Italians and the "girls" are almost impossible to understand, so that cuts what you can follow to three groups. But all the little subplots go nowhere and the special effects are hideously bad. Location shooting mixes with bad studio shots and the bizarre mix of 60s fashion in a 1920s setting is stupid. Other than the cars, nothing in this film would remind anyone of the 1920s. To be fair, Susan Hampshire is bright, Terry-Thomas is always good, and Peter Cook and Dudley Moore seem to find the right comic voice for this type of farce. Tony Curtis is dreadful. Eric Sykes and Hattie Jacques are wasted in nothing parts. Jack Hawkins is dubbed. Even the usually reliable Gert Frobe is defeated by the unfunny script. Not a sequel to THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES and nowhere near its equal in charm or comedy. Jimmy Durante for some reason sings the lame theme song but does not appear in this film. The film barely broke $1M at the US box office so I assume this was a huge flop ... and deservedly so.

If Those Daring Young Men In Their Jaunting Jalopies seems real familiar it looks many times like outtakes from The Great Race were used to make this film. In fact the folks at Paramount had the presence of mind to star Tony Curtis as well. Probably Jaunting Jalopies would have been better received if The Great Race hadn't preceded it by a few years. Curtis is not the pulp fiction hero he was in The Great Race. Rather he's an American who won a half interest in Terry-Thomas's automobile company and was busy putting his own stamp on it. Terry-Thomas heartily disapproves and he's the Jack Lemmon of this film. His sidekick is that Monty Python regular Eric Sykes whom he has a little something to which he can blackmail Sykes into doing his dirty work. But that's not his only ace in the hole, Terry-Thomas has Susan Hampshire a cousin of his sent out to provide feminine distraction for Curtis. She succeeds admirably, but nature does take its course between Curtis and Hampshire.Stealing every scene they are in are Peter Cook and Dudley Moore as a British army colonel and his batman orderly. Cook invents a series of Rube Goldberg like contraptions that are supposed aid in the race. Somehow they don't work out and usually at Moore's expense. Perhaps Cook should have studied under Rube.Some nice cinematography of the French countryside is a definite asset for Jaunting Jalopies. Still it all looks like it's been done before and it was by Tony Curtis.

My wife prefers "The Great Race" over this film. Both films are period comedies involving automobile races. Both star Tony Curtis. As for me, I prefer "Those Daring Young Fools in Their Jaunty Jalopies" (aka "Monte Carlo or Bust.") Why? The supporting cast.First of all, I'm a huge Terry-Thomas fan. So for me, this was reason enough to purchase a LaserDisc of this film. Eric Sykes, Gert Frobe, et al are all good too! This is also a sequel of sorts to "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines." Terry-Thomas plays the grown son of the character that he played in the earlier film. And, Eric Sykes is back as his side-kick. Both films also feature Gert Frobe as a German, and both films were directed by Ken Annakin.There is an awkward edit just prior to the final stage of the rally, but it appears to have been done on purpose (for effect).I've suddenly remembered that there are at least two versions of this film. The European cut of this film ran 122 minutes. The American cut ran 93 minutes. The LaserDisc release (which I mentioned earlier) is the longer European cut in widescreen with the American opening title sequence. I have never seen the shorter version, so I can't comment on it's relative merits as compared to the longer version.

This is the kind of movies I wish was much much better!A sort of free remake of "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines!" But filled with loads of humour, but that feals old fashioned by now, and awful back-projection that might have been OK back then, but is certainly awful nowdays. In the same time it could be one of the most accessible movies with britt comics Moore and Cook! One of the few films with Fleur Forsythe, or dark eyed Susan Hempshire.The song that old Jimmy Durante sings in the end (was this his last?) is better than the whole movie in itself!Tony Curtis, Susan Hampshire, Dudley Moore, Peter Cook, Gert Frobe, Terry-Thomas, Eric Porter, Jack Hawkins and french comic Bourvil! What a Cast!!!! Pity the movie isn't better!