It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is a 1963 American comedy film directed by Stanley Kramer about the madcap pursuit of $350,000 of stolen cash by a diverse and colorful group of strangers. The ensemble comedy premiered on November 7, 1963.
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Although well known for serious films such as Inherit the Wind and Judgment at Nuremberg (both starring Spencer Tracy), Kramer set out to make the ultimate comedy film with It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. At more than three hours in its original roadshow version, including overture, intermission and exit music, the result is certainly one of the longest.
Filmed in Ultra Panavision 70 and presented in Cinerama (becoming one of the first Cinerama films originated with one camera), it also had an all-star cast, with dozens of major comedy stars from all eras of cinema making appearances in the film.
The film followed a Hollywood trend in the 1960s of producing “epic” films as a way of wooing audiences away from television and back to movie theaters. Television had sapped the regular movie going audience and box-office revenues were dropping, so the major studios experimented with a number of gimmicks to attract audiences, including widescreen films.
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 interviews that he later regretted it.
The film’s theme music was written by Ernest Gold with lyrics by Mack David.
In the 1970s, ABC broadcast the film on New Year’s Eve. The last reported showing of the film on major network television was on May 16, 1978. The movie aired on December 30, 2008 on the Retroplex network.
Cast
- Edie Adams as Monica Crump, wife of Melville Crump
- Milton Berle as edible seaweed company owner 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 comedy writer 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 comedy writer Dingy ‘Ding’ Bell
- Dick Shawn as Sylvester Marcus, Mrs. Marcus’ son and Emeline’s brother
- Phil Silvers as the out-of-work piano player Otto Meyer
- Terry-Thomas as Lt. Col. J. Algernon Hawthorne
- Spencer Tracy as Captain C. G. Culpeper
- Jonathan Winters as truck driver Lennie Pike