It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World was released on November 7, 1963.
Director: Stanley Kramer
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World cast: Spencer Tracy, Sid Caesar, Edie Adams, Milton Berle, Ethel Merman, Dorothy Provine, Mickey Rooney, Phil Silvers, Buddy Hackett and way too many more comedians to count.
In interviews, director Stanley Kramer has said that with It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, his goal was, “to make the biggest slapstick comedy ever made.” And I believe he has succeeded; to this day, I can think of none bigger. Mad Mad World is an epic, three and a half hour long madcap comedy extravaganza, featuring several of the cinema’s most popular comedians from the silent era through the sixties, done in the old roadshow style with a brilliant, animated title sequence, an intermission, and extended end credits all magnificently supported from beginning to end by Ernest Gold’s infectious, circus styled score.
The story is a simple one: a criminal, desperate to escape the police who are tailing him, races down a desert highway passing the four vehicles carrying the eight people who will form the nucleolus of the wild treasure hunt that will soon begin. The criminal loses control of his speeding car and launches himself off the road in the spectacular crash, which is the first of dozens of truly amazing stunts (real stunts, not CGI) that are featured throughout the film.
The four vehicles stop, and five of the eight occupants (the men) run down to the crash site where the criminal, with his dying breaths, tells them the general location of $350,000 (about $3,150,000 in today’s dollars) buried in fictional Santa Rosita State Beach Park under a “big W,” and then kicks the bucket. Yes, a real bucket in one of the first of many of the film’s vintage, corny gags. The police arrive, and not wanting to get involved, the good Samaritans claim he made no dying declaration, but the cops are not convinced.
Among themselves, the five bystanders agree that the story was probably just the delusional ramblings of a dying man, but once back on the road, greed gets the better of them all and they each reveal their belief in the story, and that, despite their firm denials, the others believe it too, and thus, the race is on to get to Santa Rosita first by any means necessary, followed discreetly by the police who are already on to them. Along the way they all fall prey to numerous comedic misadventures on their way to reap the reward waiting for them at the park.
Nearly every top-flight comedian in the country, both the past and present, wanted to be a part of this film and most of them were. And in addition to the many features players, there are dozens of other well-known funny people appearing in special cameo roles. But almost as essential to the film as the actors were the stunt people, who with all the pratfalling called for in the script, took up nearly as much screen time as the stars.
There’s no subtlety here. It’s all-out physical, slapstick comedy as once played by Chaplin, Keaton, and the Keystone Cops. Fortunately, in following the exploits of the four separate parties, and the police who are following them, the action never stops. And that helps to make this long, but very entertaining film, seem much shorter than it is.
In the years since its release, the filmhas been criticized for its size, and its lowbrow humor and hammy actors. And I can’t refute any of it. This is not a Royal Shakespeare Company production. It’s just a rip-roaring, star studded, comedy classic done purely for fun, and it was fun back in 1963, and I think you’ll find it’s still quite enjoyable today. So, next time you find yourself with 230 minutes to kill, It’s Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World might be an excellent way to do it.
Featured Califormulants
This film was shot entirely in Southern California during the summer of 1963 (the very apex of the Cpop era) and most of it was done on location in and around Palm Springs, Long Beach, Santa Monica, San Pedro, and Palos Verde Estates, so there is an abundance of material to work with here, starting, as the filmmakers do, out on California State Route 74, or just Highway 74. But I’ve found that the filming locations (which are all Califormulants) for this beloved film have been so well documented by others that I am just going to link you to some of these amazing fan sites. Really, I don’t know how they do it, but some of these guys can pinpoint the location of every principal camera setup for every shot in the movie showing how it looked in the movie and how it looks now.
But I will mention that Dick Shawn’s tiki styled beach shack is quite well appointed and worth a look as is his lovely, bikini clad companion, Barrie Chase, who surprisingly (at least to me) also appeared in a small role in my favorite Christmas movie White Christmas as the chorus girl who didn’t go to Smith—“well have an apple!”
Mad World site number one features an amazing little video presentation show the then and now look of many of the locations, and Mad World site number two shows a collection of still photos.