It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: Stanley Kramer Stanley Kramer

Overview

This side splitting, non-stop comedy remains one of the all time greats in the annals of cinematic film history. Produced and directed by Stanley Kramer, over 7 million dollars went into this timeless comedy classic that employed over 50 major motion picture stars. Smiler Grogan (Jimmy Durante) is the dying gangster who has driven off the road. With his last breath, he reveals the location of a suitcase of buried mob money. A car chase ensues reminiscent of the Max Sennett comedies as Ethel Merman. Milton Berle, Mickey Rooney, Buddy Hackett, Sid Caesar, and Jonathan Winters hear Grogan's last words before he literally kicks a bucket to emphasis his demise. Captain Culpepper (Spencer Tracy) is the embittered police veteran who monitors the mysterious convoy that grows with every turn in the road. Merman is hilarious as the shrill, overbearing loudmouth who forces her husband (Milton Berle) to search for the hidden loot. Dick Shawn plays her momma's boy simpering son who fanatically tries to aid his mother in her hour of need. When their car breaks down, Rooney and Hackett get a plane ride from an eccentric drunken millionaire (Jim Backus). The ever growing group of greedy fortune hunters eventually arrive at Santa Rosa State Park, where they search for the "big W" under which the treasure is buried. Comedy screen veterans Buster Keaton, Zasu Pitts, The Three Stooges join Jack Benny and Jerry Lewis in making cameo appearances. Over half the stuntmen in Hollywood were used in the scene where everyone clings perilously to a crane eventually collapsing with the weight of the avaricious advocates. Culpepper seizes the money for evidence, but decides to head for the border prompting yet another chase. All the principle characters end up in traction and penniless at a local hospital. Although the film is over three hours long, there is no let up of the non-stop sight gags and slapstick comedy. This could be the fastest moving, most entertaining epic comedy of all time. Don Knotts, Peter Falk, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Joe E. Brown. Carl Reiner and Andy Devine also lend their comic expertise. The film did tremendously at the box office, and repeated viewing of the film bring out something new everytime in this madcap comedy classic.

Product Details

Release Date:	10/10/2017
UPC:	0715515204712
Original Release:	1963
Rating:	G
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	A
Sound:	[Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	2:43:00
Sales rank:	3,834

Special Features

Restored 4k digital transfer of the general release version of the film, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio Soundtrack; High -definition digital transfer of a 197-minute extended version of the film, reconstructed and restored by Robert A. Harris using visual and audio material from the longer original road-show version, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack; 2013 Audio Commentary featuring It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World afcionados Mark Evanier, Michael Schlesinger, and Paul Scrabo; 2013 documentary on the film's visual and sound effects, featuring interviews with Visual-Effects Special Craig Barron and Sound Designer Ben Burtt; Excerpt from a 1974 talk show hosted by Director Stanley Kramer and featuring Mad World actors Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett, and Jonathan Winters; Press Interview from 1963 featuring Kramer and cast members; Excerpts about the influence of the film from the 2000 AFI program 100 Years...100 Laughs; Two-part 1963 episode of the TV Program Telescope that follows the film's press junket and premiere; The last 70 min Film Festival, a 2012 program featuring Mad World cast and crew, hosted by actor Billy Crystal; Selection of humorist and voice-over artist Stan Freberg's original TV and radio ads for the film, with a 2013 introduction by Freberg; Trailers and radio spots; Plus: An essay by film critic Lou Lumenick and illustrations by legendary cartoonist Jack Davis

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Spencer Tracy	Capitaine T.G. Culpeper
Milton Berle	J. Russell Finch
Sid Caesar	Melville Crump
Buddy Hackett	Benjy Benjamin
Ethel Merman	Mrs. Marcus
Mickey Rooney	Ding Bell
Dick Shawn	Sylvester Marcus
Phil Silvers	Otto Meyer
Terry-Thomas	J. Algernon Hawthorne
Jonathan Winters	Lennie Pike
Edie Adams	Monica Crump
Dorothy Provine	Emmeline Finch
Jim Backus	Tyler Fitzgerald
Ben Blue	Airplane Pilot
Alan Carney	Police Sergeant
Barrie Chase	Mrs. Haliburton
William Demarest	Chief of Police
Paul Ford	Col. Wilberforce
Edward Everett Horton	Dinckler
Buster Keaton	Jimmy the Crook
Don Knotts	Nervous Man
Carl Reiner	Tower Control
Joe E. Brown	Union Official
Andy Devine	Sheriff Mason
Sterling Holloway	Fire Chief
Charles Lane	Airport Manager
Howard da Silva	Airport Officer
Charles McGraw	Lieutenant
ZaSu Pitts	Switchboard Operator
Madlyn Rhue	Police Secretary
Jesse White	Radio Tower Operator
Lloyd Corrigan	Mayor
Stan Freberg	Deputy Sheriff
Ben Lessy	George, the Steward
Bobo Lewis	Pilot's Wife,Mad Driver
Mike Mazurki	Miner
Nick Stuart	Truck Driver
Sammee Tong	Chinese Laundryman
Jimmy Durante	Smiler Grogan
Allen Jenkins	Police Officer
Harry Lauter	Radio Operator
Doodles Weaver	Salesman
Tom Kennedy	Traffic Cop
Eddie Ryder	Tower Radioman
Don Harvey	Helicopter Observer
Jack Benny	Man on Road
Chick Chandler	Actor
Barbara Pepper	Actor
Cliff Norton	Actor
Roy Roberts	Actor
Eddie Anderson	Actor,Cab Driver
Peter Falk	Cab Driver
Leo Gorcey	Cab Driver
Marvin Kaplan	Irwin
Arnold Stang	Ray
Selma Diamond	Culpeper's Wife
Louise Glenn	Billie Sue
Nick Stewart [Nicodemus]	Truck Driver
Norman Fell	Detective
Nicholas Georgiade	Detective
Paul Birch	Patrolman
Stanley Clements	Actor
Roy Engel	Actor
Larry Fine	Fireman
Moe Howard	Fireman
Curly Joe DeRita	Fireman
John Zaccaro	Actor
Ernest Gold	Composer

Technical Credits

William Rose

Tania Tania Rose

Stanley Kramer	Director,Producer
Linwood Dunn	Special Effects
Danny Lee	Special Effects
Carey Loftin	Stunts
Walter G. Elliott	Sound Effects,Sound/Sound Designer
William Rose	Screenwriter
Tania Tania Rose	Screenwriter
Marvin Willens	Stunts

Editorial Reviews

Only the super-wide screen Cinerama format could hold all of the comedy stars in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, not to mention the title itself. Just as the bloated Cinerama feature How the West Was Won sought to outdo any Western before it, World fancied itself the comedy to end all comedies. It paraded an unparalleled list of famous comics across the screen, in both feature roles and cameos: Jimmy Durante, Milton Berle, Buster Keaton, Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett, Mickey Rooney, Phil Silvers, Peter Falk, Jonathan Winters, Jack Benny, Carl Reiner, Jerry Lewis, Dick Shawn, The Three Stooges, and many more. The film operates under the belief that having all of these funny people on screen is enough to get laughs, and occasionally, World can't help but crash under the strain of its frenetic pace and oppressive running time. Director Stanley Kramer smartly puts the most solid of Hollywood stars, Spencer Tracy, at the heart of all the slapstick madness. This was quite a radical departure for Kramer and Tracy, considering their previous two films together had been the dramas Inherit the Wind and Judgment at Nuremberg.

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