It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World **** (1963, Spencer Tracy, Milton Berle, Ethel Merman, Jimmy Durante, Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett, Mickey Rooney, Phil Silvers, Terry-Thomas, Peter Falk) – Classic Movie Review 5094

Producer-director Kramer delivers what it says on the tin – ‘a comedy to end all comedies’ – in a bright and breezy epic madcap cross-country chase farce that skilfully piles up daffy turns, funny gags and awesome stunts. It was nominated for six Oscars, but won only for Best Sound Effects (Walter Elliott).

It certainly offers a cast list to end all cast lists, and some of the venerable performers are seen at around their best – among them Jimmy Durante, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Ethel Merman, Buddy Hackett, Mickey Rooney, Phil Silvers, Terry-Thomas, Peter Falk, Edward Everett Horton, Buster Keaton, Joe E Brown, and Carl Reiner. There are cameos from The Three Stooges (with just five seconds of screen time as airport firemen), Jack Benny (car driver) and Jerry Lewis (car driver).

It is hardly the sort of company you expect to find main star Spencer Tracy keeping, but he keeps a lid on the bubbling pot as Captain T G Culpepper, a corrupt cop who joins the money-grabbers on the rush to find some treasure when news of a $350,000 stash of bank job cash hits town following the dying words of a thief, Smiler Grogan (Jimmy Durante). Just in case you think this caper is much ado about nothing, the $350,000 treasure is equivalent to $2,750,000 in 2017.

Story and screenplay writers William Rose and Tania Rose are up to the difficult demands of providing the epic comedy script – the movie runs 192 minutes in the original version or 205 minutes in the roadshow version.

Among the lovely cast,  Merman, Berle, Silvers and Terry-Thomas are particularly effective.

Also in the cast are Eddie ‘Rochester’ Anderson, Edie Adams, Jonathan Winters, Dorothy Provine, Jim Backus, Leo Gorcey, Dick Shawn, William Demarest, Paul Ford, Ben Blue, ZaSu Pitts, Sterling Holloway, Alan Carney, Wally Brown, Arnold Stang, Marvin Kaplan and Stanley Clements. It’s a great film for old time movie star spotting.

It was shot in Ultra Panavision 70mm by cinematographer Ernest Laszlo and shown in the huge screen Cinerama format, which included a prelude, an intermission and news inserts reporting the characters’ progress in searching for the buried loot. It was also released in a 35mm version, shorter than the Cinerama one.

The various versions are: 154 minutes (edited), 174 minutes (restored video), 182 minutes (extended re-edit and Laserdisc), 192 minutes (original) 197 minutes (extended) and 205 minutes (roadshow).

An ailing Tracy worked on the film for only nine days, three to four hours a day. A stunt double was used in desert exterior and action scenes.

Jonathan Winters died on 11 April 2013, aged 87.

Mickey Rooney died on 6 April 2014.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5094

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