I first saw this movie as a kid in a theater during a re-release during the 1970's and I recently introduced the film to my wife Andrea.
Today, Cinema Sunday turns the spotlight on It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
Before the advent of "home video" in the 1980's, the only way to see older movies other than when a TV station or network might choose to run one was through occasional re-releases. It was during one such re-release that I first saw It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
I have a distinct memory of being somewhat enthralled by the increasing damage to Edie Adams skirt in the sequence where she and Sid Ceasar are trapped in the hardware store basement.
God! I couldn't have been more than 10 years old and I was perving on the advancing torn slit in Edie Adams' skirt?
OK, I do have other memories from that childhood viewing.
Mickey Rooney & Buddy Hackett trapped in an out of control airplane with an inebriated pilot played by Jim Backus (Mr. Howell from Gilligan's Island).
Jonathan Winters going all "Hulk out" and destroying a gas station with his bare hands.
The extended fire truck ladder flinging cast members all over Santa Rosita.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
The film begins with a speeding car flying off a curving road over the side of a hill and crashes.
Five motorists stop to help the driver:
Melville Crump (Sid Ceasar), a dentist on a second honeymoon with his wife Monica (Edie Adams).
Lennie Pike (Jonathan Winters), a furniture mover.
Ding Bell (Mickey Rooney) and Benjy Benjamin (Buddy Hackett), two friends on their way to Las Vegas
J. Russell Finch (Milton Berle), a seaweed-business owner, traveling with his wife Emmeline (Dorothy Provine) and his loud, obnoxious mother-in-law Mrs. Marcus (Ethel Merman).
Just before he dies, the driver (Jimmy Durante) tells them about $350,000 buried in Santa Rosita State Park under “a big W”.
Unable to find a way to satisfactorily split up the money, the motorists immediately engage a reckless madcap race to get to Santa Rosita State Park.
Unknown to this bunch of knuckleheads, Captain Culpeper, chief of detectives of the Santa Rosita Police Department, has them under surveillance to track down the missing stolen money.
In the mad headlong rush to get to the money first, this collection of idiots engage in ridiculously reckless levels of reckless behavior and really, really, really bad decisions.
Other people get roped into this mad chase for the money.
Vacationing British Army Lieutenant Colonel J. Algernon Hawthorne (Terry Thomas) offers a ride when Finch wrecks his car and now wants his share of the money.
Forced to hitchhike due to damage to his truck, Pike hitches a ride with motorist Otto Meyer (Phil Silvers) who betrays and abandons Pike and lies and cons his way into the hunt for the money.
Loud mouthed mother-in-law Mrs. Marcus calls her her dimwitted son Sylvester (Dick Shawn) for help and he completely misunderstands her and winds up on the chase for the money.
It's mad, I tells ya.
It's a mad world.
It is, I dare say, a mad, mad, mad, mad world.
In addition to all these people, there are dozens and dozens of cameos of comedy stars from film and television of that era.
- Don Knotts.
- The Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Curly Joe DeRita)
- Jack Benny
- Buster Keaton
- Edward Everett Horton
- Joe E. Brown
- Eddie "Rochester" Anderson
- Peter Falk
- William Demarest
- Andy Devine
- Stan Freberg
- Norman Fell
Mark Evanier is a big fan of this classic film and speaks of it more eloquently than I ever could. For some of Mark's posts on the subject, click on these links from December 5, 2002 and April 10, 2021 and July 6, 2020 among the many, many times Mark has written about this motion picture.
While Mark Evanier will declare It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is his favorite movie, even he will not say it is objectively the best film ever. His affection for this movie is less about what it is and what it represents.
Mark was a young boy when he saw it for he first time on a certain late November Saturday, mere days after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Everyone, adults and children, were in shock in the aftermath of that tragedy. Seeing It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World was permission to forget that trauma for awhile, to remember that life and laughter are still part of the world.
I don't have anywhere near a similar connection to this movie but it was I think the first comedy for grown ups that I saw on my own in a theater. I remember being wowed by the sheer scope and spectacle of it all and felt like I was peeking behind a door kids like me weren't supposed to see. Here were adults, the people allegedly allowed to run the world, behaving with utter stupidity for the base reason of greed.
In many ways, one might argue It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is an overstuffed mess and I might agree with that assessment. Director Stanley Kramer basically made this movie on a dare that he made to himself, that as a director of dramatic movies he too could make it a comedy and cast with every TV and movie comedy star he could.
If nothing else, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World serves as a bright and colorful time capsule of the comedy universe circa 1963.
Just check your brain at the door and get comfortable because this movie is LONG! (There's an intermission, for crying out loud!) It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is a diverting spectacle with some good laughs along the way.
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