Money Makes the World Go Mad!

 The Greatest Comic Cast Ever?

It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, World (1963) – When a career criminal dies in an automobile accident, he leaves clues to the secret location of a hidden fortune to a group of strangers.  A cast of some of the greatest comedians of the 20th Century take off running is this comedy chase classic.

Directed by Stanley Kramer

Starring – Spencer Tracy, Jimmy Durante, Milton Berle, Mickey Rooney, Ethel Merman, Sid Ceasar, Buddy Hackett, Dick Shawn, Phil Silvers, Edie Adams, Dorothy Provine (and dozens more!)

Why I Like It – Such a brilliant cast having silly fun.

Where to even begin with this movie?  Let’s start with the director.  Kramer is best known for serious movies (“Dr. Strangelove”, “Inherit the Wind”, “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”, “Judgement at Nuremburg”), so this is a complete curveball!  That is what Kramer was looking to do.  “It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” was the director proving he could do comedy.  And not just any comedy, Kramer includes smart wordplay, slapstick and physical comedy in this one.  He does it by filling the cast with a who’s who of comedy in the first sixty years of the last century.  Everyone from Buster Keaton to the Three Stooges to Jonathan Winters (in his film debut).  Greats from the early days of television like Milton Berle and Sid Ceasar, radio stars Eddie “Rochester” Robinson and voice over veterans like Edward Everett Norton.  There are almost too many stars here, which inflates the run time, but who would you cut?  The Three Stooges are on the screen for about five seconds and have no lines.  At the movie’s debut, they got a standing ovation.

In my family, we have a movie category of “Spot the Stars”.  The kind of movie filled with stars of that day, often joined by rising stars that became household names in later years.  This may be the ultimate Spot the Stars movie.  If you are a fan of early 20th century comedy, this movie is a must-see.  If you love comedy in general, this movie is your primer on where today’s comedy roots.  Buster Keaton is a genius from the days of the silent movies.  His comedy places him firmly next to Charlie Chaplin from that age, even if he isn’t as well remembered.  “Uncle Miltie” (Berle) and Sid Ceasar (“Your Show of Shows”) are giants of the early days of television.  Don Knotts, Peter Falk, William Demerest, even Sterling Holloway (the original voice of the animated Winnie the Pooh).  For younger movie fans, there will be plenty of names you won’t know, but trust me, you can use the cast list as a viewing guide for great comedies of days gone by.  

The huge cast created two issues.  The first, as mentioned above, was the length of the movie.  It takes a long time to find screen time for that many actors!  In the grand old tradition, there is an opening overture over a black screen, and an intermission/entre acte.  I’ve never been a fan of either at the movies.  The nice thing about it in this day and age is the ability to fast forward through them both!  The other issue was how to handle cast billing.  This cast includes HUGE names, and there was the potential for huge fights (and possible losses to the cast) over who got billed ahead of whom.  Kramer solved this nicely.  Since Tracy was the biggest MOVIE star in the cast, he got top billing.  Since Durante is only on the screen for a few minutes at the beginning, he got a “Also starring” note at the end of the cast list.  Everyone else?  Listed alphabetically.  So after Tracy’s name came Edie Adams, ahead of Milton Berle.

I can’t let the biggest name in the cast go by without a mention.  Spencer Tracy was nearing the end of his life when he took this role as the detective on the trail of the stolen money.  Captain Culpepper is the classic Tracy character: gruff, loveable, and dedicated to things the “right way”.  He had chased Smiler Grogan (Durante) for years, trying to recover the $350,000 Grogan had stolen.  Now he has to tag along as a madcap menagerie of strangers try to outsmart each other.  Tracy was treated with kid gloves during the production due to his declining health.  This would be his next to last movie.  His final appearance would also be with Kramer directing, this time in the iconic “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”.  Tracy is wonderful to watch, even in lesser roles.  He is the perfect straight man for the insanity that rackets around him in the movie.

“It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” is an time investment at three and a half hours long (including the overture and intermission).  It’s also a movie that you could stop at intermission and come back to later without a problem.  It’s a great movie for kids, and is filled with laughs and smiles.  And it’s an incredible introduction to some of the greatest comedians the movies have ever seen.

Rating – **** Recommended