This wacky comedy classic directed by Stanley Kramer features one of the largest collections of American comedians ever brought together on celluloid, resulting in the kind of far-out comic gem that only the 1960s could dish out. Filled with sharp one-liners, plenty of pratfalls and double takes, and unstoppable slapstick humor, this film never stops entertaining. The laughs come mostly from vehicle accidents of all kinds: car crashes, bike accidents, airplane failures, and almost everything else imaginable. But a good amount of humor is also lent to major wrestling matches, terrible mix-ups and misunderstandings, and increasingly absurd personalities such as Mrs. Marcus (Ethel Merman), the screeching and impossible mother-in-law. The film even laughs at itself, showing its flimsy cardboard sets as characters punch out walls or accidentally explode whole boxes of dynamite. The cast includes such favorites as Jonathan Winters, Phil Silvers, Milton Berle, Buddy Hackett, Mickey Rooney, Sid Caesar, Spencer Tracey, Terry-Thomas, and Dick Shawn, among countless others.
Brilliantly simple, the plot concerns a caravan of motorists who witness a terrible accident on a dangerously windy California highway. The auto-crash victim (Jimmy Durante) reveals in his dying words that he has hidden a fortune of stolen cash, sending the drivers on a rambunctious race to see who can claim the loot first!
Theatrical Release: November 7, 1963.
Jerry Lewis reportedly called director Stanley Kramer and asked why he wasn't cast in the film, and Kramer in turn gave him a cameo.
Cameo appearances are also made by The Three Stooges and Jack Benny, among other popular comic personalities of the time.
Directing a raucous comedy was a big departure for Stanley Kramer who was known for dramas like TO SIR WITH LOVE, INHERIT THE WIND, and GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER?
The film is loved for its tongue-in-cheek humor such as a scene right at the start where Jimmy Durante dies while kicking a bucket.
The DVD includes 30 minutes of extra material including outtakes and deleted scenes, as well as the theatrical trailer.
DVD Features:
Region 1
Keep Case - Checkpoint - Sensormatic
Anamorphic Widescreen - 1.78
Audio:
(Unspecified) - English
Distributor Notes: Spencer Tracy heads a hilariously zany cast that stars Hollywood's greatest comedians (Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett, Ethel Merman, Mickey Rooney, Dick Shawn, Phil Silvers, Terry-Thomas and Jonathan Winters) and features cameo appearances by every joker and jester in the business from DonKnotts and Jerry Lewis to The Three Stooges. Nominated* for 6 OscarsĀ®, It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is "an explosive motion picture experience" (Variety)! On a winding desert highway, eight vacation-bound motorists share an experience that alters their plansand their lives! After a mysterious stranger divulges the location of a stolen fortune, they each speed off in a mind-bending, car-bashing race for the loot and the most side-splitting laughfest in history.
Source: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Stars
Spencer Tracy: Oscar winning american actor, BOYS TOWN
Mickey Rooney: American actor, singer, THE BOLD AND THE BRAVE
Ethel Merman: American singer, actresss
Buddy Hackett: American Actor/Comedian
Sid Caesar: American Comedian/Actor
Milton Berle: American actor
Jimmy Durante: American Comedian
Dick Shawn: American Actor/Comedian
Jonathan Winters: American Actor/Comedian
Terry-Thomas:
Phil Silvers: Actor, THE PHIL SILVERS SHOW; COVER GIRL; A FUNNY THING HAPP
Carl Reiner: American actor/writer/director, THE JERK (1979)
Dorothy Provine: American Actress/Singer/Dancer
ZaSu Pitts: Character actress of '10s, '20s, '30s, '40s, '50s, & '60s
Buster Keaton: Prolific silent comedy star/director
Sterling Holloway: American Actor/Comedian/Cartoon Voice
Leo Gorcey: American Actor/"Bowery Boys"
Paul Ford: American Character Actor
Peter Falk: American actor, COLUMBO
Edward Everett Horton: American Character Actor
William Demarest: American Character Actor
Director
Stanley Kramer: American Producer/Director
Producer
Stanley Kramer: American Producer/Director
Screenwriter
William Rose: Screenwriter
Tania Rose: American Screenwriter
Composer
Ernest Gold: Composer
Editor
Frederic Knudtson: American Editor
Robert C. Jones: Film editor
Gene Fowler: American Author
Art Director
Gordon Gurnell: Art Director
Cameo
Jerry Lewis: Actor/Director/Comedian, THE NUTTY PROFESSOR (1963)
Cameo
The Three Stooges: Moronic triumverate
Director of Photography
Ernest Laszlo: Hungarian Director of Photography/in USA
Special Effects
Danny Lee: Special Effects, early '60s-'80s, Disney fare, THE LOVE BUG
Review 1:
"...[An] all-star epic....The film is also one of the zippiest of its length ever made..."
Source: USA Today
p.5E 09/21/2001