It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
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It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is a comedy movie that followed the Hollywood trend in the 1960s of producing "gigantic" and "epic" films as a way to woo audiences into movie theaters. Television had sapped the regular moviegoing audience and box office revenues were dropping, and the major studios experimented with a number of "gimmicks" to attract audiences, including widescreen films. It premiered on November 7, 1963. As a sort of "pay-back," many of the set-ups and gags are ruined by "panning and scanning" the film to fit on a standard 4:3 television screen when it was subsequently broadcast.
Taglines:
- If ever this mad, mad, mad, mad world needed "It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world" it's now! (1970 re-release)
- It's The Biggest Entertainment Ever To Rock The Screen With Laughter!
- Everybody who's ever been funny is in it!
Background
Written by Tania and William Rose, not only was It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World filmed in Ultra Panavision and projected in Cinerama (becoming the first Cinerama film originated with one camera), but it also had an all-star cast, with literally dozens of major comedy stars from all eras of cinema making appearances in the film.The plot of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World follows the occupants of four vehicles on a narrow road in the Californian desert who stop to help Smiler Grogan (Jimmy Durante), a man who has just careened off the highway after passing each vehicle, honking his horn incessantly for everyone to get out of the way. With his dying breaths, he tells the bystanders (Mickey Rooney, Buddy Hackett, Jonathan Winters, Sid Caesar, and Milton Berle) about $350,000 that he hid in the town of Santa Rosita, less than a day's drive away, under “the big W”. A wild race across the desert follows, as each carload of people tries to be the first to find the money and claim it for themselves.
Stanley Kramer wanted to make the ultimate comedy film. At more than three hours (in its original roadshow version, including overture, intermission and exit music) it is certainly one of the longest. Terry-Thomas's character's rant against the American obsession with bosoms still strikes a chord with non-American audiences. The movie is a showcase for these successful comedians because each plays his role in his own comedic style. For example, preserved for all time is classic Phil Silvers, classic Milton Berle, even classic Buster Keaton.
The title was taken from Thomas Middleton's 1605 comedy A Mad World, My Masters. Kramer considered adding a fifth "mad" to the title before deciding that it would be redundant, but noted in later interviews that he later regretted it.
The film's theme song had music by Ernest Gold and lyrics by Mack David. They also wrote for the films You Satisfy My Soul and Thirty-One Flavors.
The airport terminal scenes were filmed at the now-defunct Rancho Conejo Airport in Newbury Park, California, though the control tower shown was constructed only for filming. Other plane sequences were filmed at the Sonoma County Airport north of Santa Rosa, California. The stunt scene where the Twin Beechcraft flies through the billboard was flown by Frank Tallman, but a communications mixup resulted in the use of linen graphic sheets on the sign rather than paper, as planned. Linen is much tougher than the paper would have been, and the plane was nearly destroyed on impact. Tallman managed to fly it back to the airstrip, to discover that the leading edges of the wings had been smashed all the way back to the wing spars. Tallman considered that the closest that he ever got to dying on film.
The gas station scene with Jonathan Winters and Arnold Stang was filmed at a specially constructed set built on composer Jimmy Van Heusen's property near Palm Springs, California.
The early scenes where Grogan went off the road, and the four vehicles briefly speed before slowing down to stop and talk, were filmed on the “Seven Steps” section of the Palms-to-Pines Highway (state highway 74) above Palm Springs, California. However, the movie features repeated confusing geography, probably for humorous effect or to thwart fans from trying to trace the journey themselves; Culpepper forecasts the vehicles, going east, will turn south (a right turn), but the movie shows the vehicles turning left. Also, Santa Rosita is a fictional town portrayed as tucked between San Diego and the Mexican border.
The final chase scene was filmed in downtown Long Beach, CA. The cars can be seen going by the Pike amusement park with its old wooden rollercoaster and around Rainbow pier. The Arcade under Ocean Blvd near Pike St. is also part of the scene.
- In the 1970s, ABC broadcasted the film traditionally on New Year's Eve.
Different versions
As mentioned previously, the movie originally ran 192 minutes in its roadshow release. It was later re-edited by United Artists for a 157-minute wide release. Some of the cut footage remains missing, although 20 minutes of material (much of it from the roadshow release, while others were never seen in any release version) was found in the late 1980s in an abandoned warehouse slated for demolition. Producer Stanley Kramer re-incorporated this missing footage into a 182-minute "restored" video version for VHS and LaserDisc. Because of the nature of the missing scenes, the extended version was mastered only on digital tape and not using film restoration techniques of the time, which is why this version is not available on DVD, although it has aired on Turner Classic Movies (TCM).Currently, the best existing footage is in the form of original 70mm elements of the General Release Version (recent restored versions shown in revival screenings are derived from these elements). However, some, if not all, of the remaining footage does exist in some form, although it is deteriorating due to the passage of time. A restoration effort is currently being made by preservationist Robert A. Harris (who helped restore Lawrence of Arabia and many Alfred Hitchcock films) in an attempt to bring the film as close to the original roadshow release as possible, but only time will tell whether or not it can be done.
Fans on message boards such as us.imdb.com have listed the few scene differences between the TCM Version and the DVD Version, since the DVD's deleted scenes are not properly organized to explain what the scenes are and are out of chronological order. Even though the deleted scenes were not added in, like the revivals and TCM has done, the current DVD version contains what general audiences saw in 1963. Fans hope that Harris can distribute a separate restoration roadshow version to DVD.
- Running Times are Listed on: [http://povonline.com/notes/Notes110203.htm]
- At the premiere showing during the Intermission, movie police calls would play in the theater lobby and restrooms.
Cast
Stars of this film included (alphabetical):- Edie Adams as Monica Crump, wife of Melville Crump
- Milton Berle as edible seaweed salesman, J. Russell Finch
- Sid Caesar as dentist, Melville Crump (a role originally meant for Ernie Kovacs before his death in a car accident)
- Buddy Hackett as gambler, Benjy Benjamin
- Ethel Merman as Mrs. Marcus, mother-in-law of J. Russell Finch and a very cranky woman
- Dorothy Provine as Emeline Marcus-Finch, wife of J. Russell Finch
- Mickey Rooney as gambler, Ding Bell
- Dick Shawn as Sylvester Marcus, Emeline's brother
- Phil Silvers as Otto Meyer
- Terry-Thomas as Lt. Col. Algernon Hawthorne
- Spencer Tracy as Captain C.G. Culpepper
- Jonathan Winters as truck driver Lennie Pike
- Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson as a cab driver
- William Demarest as the chief of police
- Jimmy Durante as Smiler Grogan
- Peter Falk as a cab driver
- Paul Ford as Col. Wilberforce
- Jim Backus as Tyler Fitzgerald
- Jack Benny as a man who drives by in a Maxwell, offering to help
- Ben Blue as the biplane pilot
- Joe E. Brown as the union official
- Alan Carney as a police sergeant
- Barrie Chase as Sylvester's love interest (next to his mother)
- Lloyd Corrigan as Mayor of Santa Rosita
- Andy Devine as the sheriff
- Selma Diamond (voice only) as Ginger Culpepper
- Norman Fell as a detective
- Stan Freberg as a deputy sheriff
- Leo Gorcey as cab driver
- Sterling Holloway as the fire chief
- Edward Everett Horton as Mr. Dinckler
- Marvin Kaplan as garage man Irwin
- Buster Keaton as Jimmy the boatman
- Tom Kennedy as the traffic cop
- Don Knotts as the nervous motorist
- Charles Lane as the airport manager
- Jerry Lewis as man who runs over hat
- Mike Mazurki as the miner bringing medicine to his wife
- ZaSu Pitts as the switchboard operator
- Carl Reiner as the tower controller
- Madlyn Rhue as Secretary Schwartz
- Arnold Stang as garage man Ray
- The Three Stooges as firemen
- Sammee Tong as laundryman
- Doodles Weaver as hardware store employee
- Jesse White as air traffic controller
Influences
- The plot of the novel Florida Roadkill by Tim Dorsey is an homage to the film, with a wide variety of characters chasing after a suitcase containing $5 million in stolen drug money, which was hidden by the thief before he died. There is even a direct reference to the movie, in a scene in which a man drives over a turtle "like Jerry Lewis running over Spencer Tracy's hat in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World."
- The New Avengers episode "The Tale of the Big Why" seems to have borrowed part of its storyline from It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World — at the end of the episode the characters realise they are looking not for a metaphysical "big why" but a physical "big Y".
- In an episode of Tiny Toon Adventures, the characters, following a treasure map, find that they have not been looking for an X marked in the sand, but the location where the shadows of two crossed palm trees falls. Of course, this would change throughout the day, but that does not matter in the greater scheme of the plot (see suspension of disbelief).
- The crossed palm trees are also used at (real world) In-N-Out Burger restaurants. Founder Harry Snyder's favorite movie was It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, which is why many stores have crossing palm trees in front, and some have two.
- A 1994 episode of The Simpsons, "Homer the Vigilante", features money supposedly hidden beneath a "big T", along with other elements borrowed from the movie, such as Otto Meyer driving into the river while yelling at Bart. The big "W" is in the background. Caricatures of Milton Berle and Buddy Hackett also appear during the scene where the money is being dug up.
- Phil Silvers, Otto Meyer in the movie, injured himself shortly before the shooting of the scene where everyone is chasing Spencer Tracy up the stairs and onto the ladders outside. The scene actually featured Phil Silver's stunt double, dressed in his wardrobe and glasses.
- Several references have been made to It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World in the infamous TV show, Mystery Science Theater 3000:
- *In Godzilla vs. Megalon there is a car chase of cars driving downs stairs and Crow T. Robot says in a Phil Silvers voice, "This is no place for a convertible!"
- *Similarly, during the film Eegah!, there is a scene that takes place outside a hotel where some palm trees are shown, and Crow says (this time imitating Jimmy Durante), "It's under a big W!"
- *During the film Laserblast, a gas station is blown up. One of the characters is heard to remark that the place had just been rebuilt "after Jonathan Winters' rampage."
- *At various times, characters in the series can be heard to say the line "out baby, out out out!" which (if not a direct reference) bears more than a passing resemblance to a line Dick Shawn's character says during the "digging" sequence.
- The Suite Life of Zack and Cody episode "It's a mad mad mad mad Hotel" the group serches for a hidden treasure, This is clearly based on the movie, as you can see in the title.
External links
- [It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World on the Internet Movie database]
- [Writer Mark Evanier has pages devoted to information about his favorite movie]
- [Widescreen Museum article on the film]
- [Road Scenes from It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World]
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