It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World [Blu-ray]

Director: Stanley Kramer Stanley Kramer

Overview

With this all-star Cinerama epic, producer/director Stanley Kramer vowed to make "the comedy that would end all comedies." The story begins during a massive traffic jam, caused by reckless driver Smiler Grogan (Jimmy Durante), who, before (literally) kicking the bucket, cryptically tells the assembled drivers that he's buried a fortune in stolen loot, "under the Big W." The various motorists setting out on a mad scramble include a dentist (Sid Caesar) and his wife (Edie Adams); a henpecked husband (Milton Berle) accompanied by his mother-in-law (Ethel Merman) and his beatnik brother-in-law (Dick Shawn); a pair of comedy writers (Buddy Hackett and Mickey Rooney); and a variety of assorted nuts including a slow-wit (Jonathan Winters), a wheeler-dealer (Phil Silvers), and a pair of covetous cabdrivers (Peter Falk and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson). Monitoring every move that the fortune hunters make is a scrupulously honest police detective (Spencer Tracy). Virtually every lead, supporting, and bit part in the picture is filled by a well-known comic actor: the laughspinning lineup also includes Carl Reiner, Terry-Thomas, Arnold Stang, Buster Keaton, Jack Benny, Jerry Lewis, and The Three Stooges, who get one of the picture's biggest laughs by standing stock still and uttering not a word. Two prominent comedians are conspicuous by their absence: Groucho Marx refused to appear when Kramer couldn't meet his price, while Stan Laurel declined because he felt he was too old-looking to be funny. Available for years in its 154-minute general release version, the film was restored to its roadshow length of 175 minutes on home video; the search goes on for a missing Buster Keaton routine, reportedly excised on the eve of the picture's premiere.

Product Details

Release Date:	02/07/2012
UPC:	0883904242420
Original Release:	1963
Rating:	G
Source:	Mgm (Video & Dvd)
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	2:39:00
Sales rank:	13,035

Special Features

Something a little less serious: a tribute to It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World; Extended scenes; Theatrical trailer; Re-issue trailer (1970)

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Spencer Tracy	Capitaine T.G. Culpeper
Milton Berle	J. Russell Finch
Sid Caesar	Melville Crump
Buddy Hackett	Benjy Benjamin
Ethel Merman	Mrs. Marcus
Mickey Rooney	Ding Bell
Dick Shawn	Sylvester Marcus
Phil Silvers	Otto Meyer
Terry-Thomas	J. Algernon Hawthorne
Jonathan Winters	Lennie Pike
Edie Adams	Monica Crump
Dorothy Provine	Emmeline Finch
Jim Backus	Tyler Fitzgerald
Ben Blue	Airplane Pilot
Alan Carney	Police Sergeant
Barrie Chase	Mrs. Haliburton
William Demarest	Chief of Police
Paul Ford	Col. Wilberforce
Edward Everett Horton	Dinckler
Buster Keaton	Jimmy the Crook
Don Knotts	Nervous Man
Carl Reiner	Tower Control
Joe E. Brown	Union Official
Andy Devine	Sheriff Mason
Sterling Holloway	Fire Chief
Charles Lane	Airport Manager
Howard da Silva	Airport Officer
Charles McGraw	Lieutenant
ZaSu Pitts	Switchboard Operator
Madlyn Rhue	Police Secretary
Jesse White	Radio Tower Operator
Lloyd Corrigan	Mayor
Stan Freberg	Deputy Sheriff
Ben Lessy	George, the Steward
Bobo Lewis	Pilot's Wife,Mad Driver
Mike Mazurki	Miner
Nick Stuart	Truck Driver
Sammee Tong	Chinese Laundryman
Jimmy Durante	Smiler Grogan
Allen Jenkins	Police Officer
Harry Lauter	Radio Operator
Doodles Weaver	Salesman
Tom Kennedy	Traffic Cop
Eddie Ryder	Tower Radioman
Don Harvey	Helicopter Observer
Jack Benny	Man on Road
Chick Chandler	Actor
Barbara Pepper	Actor
Cliff Norton	Actor
Roy Roberts	Actor
Eddie Anderson	Actor,Cab Driver
Peter Falk	Cab Driver
Leo Gorcey	Cab Driver
Marvin Kaplan	Irwin
Arnold Stang	Ray
Selma Diamond	Culpeper's Wife
Louise Glenn	Billie Sue
Nick Stewart [Nicodemus]	Truck Driver
Norman Fell	Detective
Nicholas Georgiade	Detective
Paul Birch	Patrolman
Stanley Clements	Actor
Roy Engel	Actor
Larry Fine	Fireman
Moe Howard	Fireman
Curly Joe DeRita	Fireman
John Zaccaro	Actor
Ernest Gold	Composer

Technical Credits

William Rose

Tania Tania Rose

Stanley Kramer	Director,Producer
Linwood Dunn	Special Effects
Danny Lee	Special Effects
Carey Loftin	Stunts
Walter G. Elliott	Sound Effects,Sound/Sound Designer
William Rose	Screenwriter
Tania Tania Rose	Screenwriter
Marvin Willens	Stunts

Editorial Reviews

Only the super-wide screen Cinerama format could hold all of the comedy stars in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, not to mention the title itself. Just as the bloated Cinerama feature How the West Was Won sought to outdo any Western before it, World fancied itself the comedy to end all comedies. It paraded an unparalleled list of famous comics across the screen, in both feature roles and cameos: Jimmy Durante, Milton Berle, Buster Keaton, Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett, Mickey Rooney, Phil Silvers, Peter Falk, Jonathan Winters, Jack Benny, Carl Reiner, Jerry Lewis, Dick Shawn, The Three Stooges, and many more. The film operates under the belief that having all of these funny people on screen is enough to get laughs, and occasionally, World can't help but crash under the strain of its frenetic pace and oppressive running time. Director Stanley Kramer smartly puts the most solid of Hollywood stars, Spencer Tracy, at the heart of all the slapstick madness. This was quite a radical departure for Kramer and Tracy, considering their previous two films together had been the dramas Inherit the Wind and Judgment at Nuremberg.