It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) United Artists/Comedy RT: 161 minutes (theatrical cut)/197 minutes (restored cut) Rated G (mild language, comic violence) Director: Stanley Kramer Screenplay: William Rose and Tania Rose Music: Ernest Gold Cinematography: Ernest Laszlo Release date: November 7, 1963 (US) Cast: Spencer Tracy, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett, Ethel Merman, Mickey Rooney, Dick Shawn, Phil Silvers, Terry-Thomas, Jonathan Winters, Edie Adams, Dorothy Provine, Jimmy Durante, Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, Jim Backus, Ben Blue, Joe E. Brown, Alan Carney, Chick Chandler, Barrie Chase, Lloyd Corrigan, William Demarest, Andy Devine, Selma Diamond (voice), Peter Falk, Norman Fell, Paul Ford, Stan Freberg, Louise Glenn (voice), Leo Gorcey, Sterling Holloway, Marvin Kaplan, Edward Everett Horton, Buster Keaton, Don Knotts, Mike Mazurki, Charles McGraw, Cliff Norton, ZaSu Pitts, Carl Reiner, Madlyn Rhue, Roy Roberts, Arnold Stang, Nick Stewart, The Three Stooges, Sammee Tong, Jesse White, Jack Benny (uncredited), Jerry Lewis (uncredited). Box Office: $46.3M (US)
Rating: ****
There’s a funny, funny, funny, funny story behind the making of It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, a king-sized comedy with a big, big, big, big cast. Milton Berle got a telegram from Stanley Kramer, a director known primarily for serious movies like The Defiant Ones and Judgment at Nuremberg, saying he wanted him to meet at some hotel to discuss a role in his next picture. He was elated because he was finally getting a chance to prove he could do more than comedy and slapstick. He goes to the hotel where he bumps into Buddy Hackett who also got a telegram from Kramer. Then Jack Benny walks in followed by Dick Shawn. Sid Caesar walks in and says “What are you idiots doing here?” Berle goes, “Well, we got a telegram from Kramer. You here for a show?’ He says, “No, I got a telegram from Kramer!” Mickey Rooney comes in and says, “Wow, I got a telegram too. I’m finally going to do drama. People are going to see us. We’re all going to be in the same movie. This has to be an epic film.” Then Kramer shows up and says, “Hi. You’re all going to be in my first comedy!” Many thanks to my pal Bertram Gibbs for sharing this awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome story. Okay, I promise I’m done with that. You have my solemn, solemn, solemn, solemn word.
I was 11YO the first time I saw It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. It aired on TV one night and I was transfixed from start to finish. I never saw anything like it before. I loved the all-star cast despite not knowing who most of the actors were. It had me chuckling for days. I couldn’t wait to see it again, but I had no other choice than to wait. In 1979, you had to wait for it to be shown again on TV. There wasn’t a VCR in every home. “Streaming” wasn’t a thing yet. The public was basically at the mercy of the networks. If you wanted to rewatch something, you’d see it again when they were damn good and ready to reshow it. I can safely say that the rise of home video is one of the best things to come out of the 80s. Thanks to it, we can watch our faves anytime we so desire.
The plot of It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is a no-brainer. Actually, it’s less a plot than a premise. That’s not quite right either. It’s an excuse for a bunch of crazies to race around like maniacs leaving a path of destruction in their wake. Their motivation? Greed, pure American capitalist greed. A group of travelers en route to their respective destinations witness a speeding car careen off a winding mountain road and crash land at the bottom of a hill. They run down to help the driver (Durante, The Man Who Came to Dinner) who, in his dying breath, informs them that a suitcase containing $350,000 is buried in Santa Rosita Park “under a big W”. When he (literally) kicks the bucket, the race to get to the money first is ON!
The crazies in question are Finch (comedian Berle), a nervous businessman on vacation with his wife (Provine, That Darn Cat!) and shrewish mother-in-law (Merman, Anything Goes); Melville (Caesar, Your Show of Shows), a dentist on a second honeymoon with his wife (comedienne Adams); Benjy (Hackett, The Love Bug) and Dingy (Rooney, Andy Hardy), two pals on their way to Las Vegas and Pike (Winters, Mork & Mindy) a truck driver delivering a load of furniture to Yuma. They get other people involved in the madness including former British Army officer Hawthorne (Thomas, How to Murder Your Wife), sneering schemer Meyer (Silvers aka Sgt. Bilko) and Sylvester (Shawn, The Producers), the beatnik son of Merman’s character. What none of them know is they’re being watched by police under the leadership of Capt. Culpepper (Tracy, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner), a veteran cop on the verge of retirement. He’s been trying to locate the stolen loot for 15 years. He figures if he finds it, he’ll end his career on a high note.
Can you imagine what it would cost today to make a movie as massive as It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World? It cost almost $10M in ’63 which is roughly $80M in today’s money. Any way you slice it, it’s mad, mad, mad, mad expensive. Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. ANYWAY, my first viewing of It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World instilled in me a lifelong affinity for big-budget comedy spectacles like 1941 and The Blues Brothers as well as similarly star-studded affairs like Scavenger Hunt, Rat Race and the two Cannonball Run films. For me (and many others, I suspect), part of the fun of such films is playing “Spot the Star”. Here, you’ll also see Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, Peter Falk, Don Knotts, Norman Fell, Marvin Kaplan, Arnold Stang, Joe E. Brown, Andy Devine, Leo Gorcey, Edward Everett Horton, The Three Stooges, Carl Reiner, ZaSu Pitts and silent film comedian Buster Keaton. In addition, look for surprise appearances by Jerry Lewis and Jack Benny.
Everybody has their moments in It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, but two performers nearly walk off with the show. Shawn is a riot as nutty Sylvester, a mama’s boy to end all mama’s boys. He’s the kind of guy that will drop everything, including a gorgeous gal in a bikini, when Mom calls. My own mother always got a kick out of his character, especially the bits where he’s driving and crying and saying, “I’m coming, Mama.” Merman is hysterical as the mother-in-law from Hell. She is a textbook harridan, that woman. I can see why Berle’s character takes pills for his nerves.
There’s plenty of hilarious mayhem and destruction in It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World including a scene where Winters single-handedly destroys a desert gas station, crashing through walls like the Incredible Hulk. There’s also a funny bit with Hackett and Rooney attempting to fly a chartered plane after the alcoholic pilot (Backus, Gilligan’s Island) gets knocked unconscious while mixing a drink. Kramer not only packs more laughs into three hours (give or take) than most movies running less than two hours, he keeps up the frantic pace throughout. It never loses momentum; it hits the ground running and doesn’t stop until it finally fades to black.
Kramer does a great job for a filmmaker who never tried his hand at comedy before. He’s not just directing a movie, he’s also directing traffic. The on-screen madness is orchestrated perfectly, the highlight being a wild scene at the end where the greedy treasure seekers give chase to somebody who tries to abscond with the money. I have no qualms about calling It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World an epic. It’s an epic in every sense of the word. It starts with brilliant animated titles sequence by Saul Bass and goes from there. It was originally presented in Cinerama, the first such film made in the “one-projector” process. It’s more or less the equivalent of Super Panavision 70. In short, it’s HUGE!
I recently reviewed a restored edition which includes footage not seen since the studio trimmed scenes (against Kramer’s wishes) in order to cut down the running time. Apparently, they couldn’t find it all. Some scenes no longer exist (old film stock disintegrates), so they use still photographs with the original audio. A few scenes have Korean subtitles. There’s also an overture, an intermission and exit music. It was cool seeing it in the form in which it was originally intended to be seen.
It all comes down to this. If you like wild, crazy, OTT comedies, you’re going to love It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Then again, who doesn’t like this madcap, mammoth-sized, star-filled action-comedy classic? I don’t love it solely on a sentimental level, although that is part of it. I think it’s a great movie. It has a cast the likes of which we’ll never see again. As of this writing, the only surviving major cast member is Barrie Chase (Cape Fear) who plays Sylvester’s bikini-clad girlfriend. It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is comedy done right. It’s legitimately funny. It doesn’t try and force itself on you. It doesn’t aim low with a lot of unnecessary crude humor and foul language. It’s good, clean fun suitable for the whole family. It’s a great, great, great, great movie. LOL! I couldn’t resist one more time.
