It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Stanley Kramer

Writers:

William Rose (story) &
Tania Rose (story)

Release Date:

7 November 1963 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Comedy | Crime

Tagline:

If ever this mad, mad, mad, mad world needed "It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world" it's now! (1970 re-release)

Plot:

The dying words of a thief spark a madcap cross-country rush to find some treasure.

Plot Keywords:

Race | Desert | Bicycle | Chase | Road

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 2 wins & 9 nominations

Cast

Spencer Tracy	...	Capt. C. G. Culpepper
Milton Berle	...	J. Russell Finch
Sid Caesar	...	Melville Crump, DDS
Buddy Hackett	...	Benjy Benjamin
Ethel Merman	...	Mrs. Marcus
Mickey Rooney	...	Ding 'Dingy' Bell
Dick Shawn	...	Sylvester Marcus
Phil Silvers	...	Otto Meyer
Terry-Thomas	...	Lt.Col. J. Algernon Hawthorne
Jonathan Winters	...	Lennie Pike
Edie Adams	...	Monica Crump
Dorothy Provine	...	Emeline Marcus-Finch
Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson	...	Second cab driver
Jim Backus	...	Tyler Fitzgerald
Ben Blue	...	Biplane pilot

Also Known As:

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (USA) (promotional title)

Runtime:

USA:154 min (edited version) | USA:192 min (original version) | USA:174 min (restored video version) | 182 min (Laserdisc version) (extended re-edit)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (Westrex Recording System) (35mm prints) | 70 mm 6-Track (Westrex Recording System) (70 mm prints)

Certification:

USA:G (1970) | Iceland:L | Portugal:M/12 (edited version) | Portugal:M/6 (re-rating) (uncut) | West Germany:12 | Australia:G | Canada:G (Manitoba/Nova Scotia/Quebec) | Finland:K-8 | Spain:T | UK:U | Canada:PG (Ontario)

Filming Locations:

Agoura, California, USA

Company:

Casey Productions

Trivia:

Don Rickles reportedly wanted to be in the movie but was never asked. He never let Stanley Kramer live it down, either, even heckling him about it from the stage whenever Kramer came to see Rickles' show.

Goofs:

Continuity: When the characters board the two cabs as they leave the park, Pike is refused entry by Sylvester's cab and then refused entry by the other cab, so he returns to Sylvester's cab and pushes his way into the cab next to Sylvester in the backseat. In the next shot of the cab's interior, Pike is not on the end nor he is he even next to Sylvester - he is the THIRD passenger from the door he entered. (Sylvester is closest to the door, then the Englishman, then Pike.)

Quotes:

Tyler Fitzgerald: Anybody can fly plane, now here: I'll check you out. Put your little hands on the wheel there. Now put your feet on the rudder. There. Who says this ol' boy can't fly this ol' plane? Now I'm gonna make us some Old Fashioneds the old-fashioned way - the way dear old Dad used to!
Benjy Benjamin: What if something happens?
Tyler Fitzgerald: What could happen to an Old Fashioned?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Jawan Muhabat (1971)

Soundtrack:

Thirty-one flavors

An Epic Comedy

This was the first time a comedy got the "epic" film treatment and after getting increasingly pretentious in his previous two dramas, Stanley Kramer just went all out for simple old-fashioned fun with the largest ensemble of comic talent he could get his hands on. How big? Consider that this is a film in which both Jack Benny and Rochester appear, but not together (also true of Phil Silvers and his "Sergeant Bilko" nemesis Paul Ford). Just about every big name in TV comedy of the 50s and 60s is here and the results, while not the greatest of its kind ("The Great Race" is a funnier film in my opinion) still manages to deliver the laughs.

It's too bad the remaining ten minutes (plus the police bulletins intermission) of the road show version still is missing, because the expanded version helped me appreciate the film a lot more than I did the first time out when I saw it on TV as a faded pan and scan atrocity. This is one film that makes great use of the widescreen.