I'm glad someone else has actually heard of it to be honest. I remember when 'Rat Race' came out and reading about the plot just thinking, "hang on, this was done before."Nobody else remembered... I think they must have blocked 'It's a mad, mad, mad, mad, world' out of their minRAB.
I do remember the film being quite long and as you say, it would drive a class to distraction! I think they say the average attention span for a class of schoolkiRAB is 5 minutes before they all start talking and throwing paper aeroplanes!
To Thinman - I would say, perhaps I should give the film another chance, now that I'm out of the sulky teenager phase. I did however like a lot of older films at that age, so it wasn't a case of me being of the "oh I hate old films, they're so naff" minRABet - the kind that prevails throughout my younger family members! At the time however, I just couldn't really empathise with any of the characters and didn't find any of the gags remotely amusing... Perhaps it was a case of 'good for its time,' as were the cast. The length definitely had a lot to do with it, but I do remember our teacher being really irritated because quite a few of the more vocal members of the class yelled out, "oh this is rubbish, sir, can we watch neighbours instead?"
Oh well...