It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) (Movie Review)

    When it comes to sub-categories in comedy films, one of my personal favorites is the “Cross Country” sub-genera. This is when all the frantic set-pieces, and farcical events all occur out on the open road, in which anything goes, and all the fun laughs take the form of an adventure in of itself. Some of my favorites of this genera include 1965’s “The Great Race”, 1983’s “National Lampoon's Vacation”, and 2001’s “Rat Race”. However, the big one that really kicked off this category is the 1963 comedy classic “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World”. 

This is it, if you want a massive cast, insane cross-country destruction, crazy stunts, slap-stick brought to life on an epic scale … then this is the film to check out. For its time, this was one of the most expensive comedies ever made, and paid off as the third highest grossing film of the year. When adjusted for inflation, it earned a slot among the 100 highest grossing movies ever made. Over the years, the film has been regarded as a classic, and is frequently seen on lists of best comedies. While I personally wouldn’t place this among my absolute favorite movies, I do still look back on it fondly as one of the greats that launched my favorite sub-category in the comedy genera.  

    The movie opens with a delightful animated opening credit sequence, and as a side note, I really miss the days in which movies in general opened with colorful and creative credit sequences like this. Things then kick-off with a bang, as a car goes sailing over a cliff side … “He just went sailing out there!”. A number of random strangers get out of their cars to investigate, only to find a dying man, who before literally kicking the bucket, tells everyone that he berried 350,000 Dollars under “a Big W” in a small California Park. The group tries to be reasonable at first, but no-one can find any middle ground, and in a flash, they all take-off in this mad race for riches. Some travel by car, others by plan, some by water, and some with the misfortune of being stuck in one spot. All the destruction and chasses are all matched to the flow of a music track, which gives it the personality of a stage musical. In the end, it’s about ordinary people trying to escape their familiar lives in order to reach the unreachable fantasy.

   At the Academy Awards, this film won the Oscar for Best Sound Effects Editing, as well as five additional nominations for Best Original Sound Design, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Music Score by Ernest Gold, and finally Best Original Song, with Mark David’s “It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World” main theme, but it lost to "Call Me Irresponsible" from “Papa's Delicate Condition”. Through the picture, there’s many highs and lows, lots of crashes, lots of destruction, lots of stunts, and it makes for one heck of an epic comedy experience. One of my favorite scenes is the lead-in to the “Intermission”, which culminates into a hilarious montage of everything going to Hell in hand-basket for all the players in their different locations. My only reservation with this movie is its lengthy run-time, clocking in at 2 hours and 45 minutes. Supposedly, the original rough-cut was five hours long, was shortened to just over three hours for its theatrical premier, and finally scaled to the two-hour and forty-five minuet version on most home-video formats. Still, it’s a formidable length, and I can imagine the non-stop mayhem of the experience getting tiresome for some viewers.

    Of course, the films biggest claim to fame is its massive cast, which was comprised of some of the biggest names of the time, all coming together for this crazy event. We have Milton Berle, Spencer Tracy, Sid Caesar, Ethel Merman, Mickey Rooney, Jonathan winters, Buddy Hackett, Phil Silvers, and a slew of cameos from comedic talents like Don Knotts, Buster Keaton, Jerry Lewis, and even The Three Stooges. 

There are players you cheer for, and others you love to hate. Ethel Merman is the cranky mother-in-law, who you want to see get her comeuppance. Phil Silvers is a nasty Swindler named Otto, who wasn’t even part of the main group, but joins the race on his own. Watching over everyone are the State Police, who are so eager for some action, that they decide to let things play out as one big race for them to bet on. The Police Captain is played by Spencer Tracy, who’s the quiet one, with his everyday life getting so stressful, that he becomes the final contender, and aims to steel to loot out from everyone.  

   Mickey Rooney and Buddy Hackett are best friends, who get stuck in a hilarious side-quest, in which their both up in the air with a drunken pilot … who happens to have a mini-bar in his plane ... “Hit the button marked boos!”. 

Some of the biggest laughs come from these two in this crazy predicament … “Who’s flying the plane … no-ones flying the plane!”. My personal favorite side-quest is a business man played by Sid Caesar, and his attractive wife played by Edie Adams, who get a head start on everyone on a plane … only to get stuck in the basement of a hardware store after business hours end. Something about being stuck in one spot while the others play catch-up makes this situation hilarious, and the basement itself offers a number of funny slap-stick mishaps, including toppled over paint shelves, sudden fires, fork-lifts crashing through walls, and explosions.    

   We also have Jonathan winters, as a delivery man named Lennie, who’s on his own, and arguably the most lovable of all the cast. He’s the guy I find myself cheering for the most, as he’s so innocent, and always gets the worst luck. 

My favorite scene of the whole film, and subsequently one of my favorite action sequences of any comedy, is when he finds himself trapped at a gas station with two attendants who are preventing him from leaving. What follows is arguably one of the funniest and most destructive fight scenes ever put to film. The gas station itself is more fragile than an elementary school’s theater set, and seeing Lennie tear it apart is an absolute delight. As the fight rages, he continues to do more and more damage to the station in his effort to escape. By the time the fight ends, the entire station is completely leveled to the ground. It’s so funny and over the top that I find myself laughing all the way through to the next scene.

   There’s also a number of wildcards thrown into the mix, which keeps the films formula kicking. Dick Shawn plays an anger prone nut-ball named Sylvester, who’s related to Ethel Merman’s character, and can rivel Norman Bates with being emotionally obsessed with his mother. It’s around the half-way point in the film that Sylvester joins the action, and he starts by letting out his road rage on his brother-in-law, who got on mother’s bad side. This leads into a highly amusing car chase sequence, which plays out like a loving nod to the chases of old silent-comedies. Both the green-screen and stunt performers are obvious, and the sequence operates on cartoon logic … like our angry driver spending most of the chase out of the driver’s seat. He doesn’t even care about his vehicle going over a cliff into a pond … as long as he takes his snitch of a brother-in-law with him.

   Eventually, all the players reunite at the sight of the buried treasure … four bent-over trees resembling a “BIG W!” Just when you think the movie is about to wind down, it surprises us with a lengthy climactic chase, which culminates into a finale on a tall building. Everyone gets stuck on an out-of-control fire-truck ladder, and everyone gets their just deserts. One stand-out stunt is a guy crashing through pond-bridge … good thing this is a comedy, or else I don’t think he would have survived that. It’s also worth noting that the stop-motion effects on the ladder was one of the final accomplishments of the late Willis O’ Brien, who broke ground as a visual artist when he worked of the effects for the original 1933 classic “King Kong”. Thus, how do we finally close out such a lengthy and epic comedy as this … with the most classic trademark of slap-stick comedy … someone trips over a banana peel, and everyone has a big laugh over it. Honestly, it’s kind of a perfect way to end a comedy as direct and over the top as this.  

   When all is said and done … I personally have more fondness for the 2001 comedy “Rat Race”, which follows the same formula of random strangers racing after money, and is honestly one of my favorite comedies. It’s packed with more recognizable comedians from my generation, has a more reasonable length of eighty-eight minuets, and I just find it a funnier experience. Having said that … the original 1963 classic “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World” is still objectively the better made film. Beyond being a big spectacle, with an a-list cast on comedic legends, there’s just something about how the film is staged, edited, and structured that gives it an almost artistic quality, which balances out with all the fun and goofy mayhem. It really is one of the most epic comedies ever made, and if you’re willing to go along with its massive length, and anything goes sense of comedic cause … you might just find yourself having a wild and fun experience.

Thanks for reading my review of the 1963 comedy classic “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World” … and continue to enjoy the movies you love!