IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World was a last-minute addition to my 2023 Film journey, recommended by a friend. I was familiar with it but had only seen bits and pieces of the film on television when I was a child.

The new week greeted me with some dreary skies, and I was experiencing a sense of heightened ennui. I thought a screwball comedy might offer some welcome levity. And that it did! It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is a large-ensemble comedy that succeeds where many similar type films fall short (and that includes Around the World in 80 Days which in my opinion is unworthy of the Best Film Oscar that it was awarded seven-years before Mad World’s release).

The story is a simple one. Five groups of random strangers are informed by a dying man that there is a hidden buried treasure waiting to be unearthed in a California park “under the big W”. At first, they all agree to split it. Then greed sets in and for 2-1/2 hours we watch as all the individuals attempt to out-pace and out-maneuver the others to get to it first! The primary cast features many of the era’s top comedic performers (including Milon Berle, Ethel Merman, Spencer Tracy, Sid Caesar, Mickey Rooney, Phil Silvers, and Jonathan Winters).

Director Stanley Kramer gives the film a nearly perfect pacing. The movie features some great long shots (using a new single projector widened screen Cinerama) that often make the characters seem like tiny ants running around chaotically! Notable cameo appearances include Jerry Lewis, Jimmy Durante, Carl Reiner, Buster Keaton, The Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Joe DeRita), and Jack Benny.

For telephiles like me, there’s also a large number of minor roles filled by actors who would later become well-known television icons including Peter Falk, Don Knotts, Jim Backus, William Demarest, and Norman Fell.

If there is a single reason why one should see It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, it’s to see that large ensemble-cast harebrained comedies can be done, and done well, in the right hands. The primary actors are all allowed to play off different characters throughout the film, it’s truly funny, and it doesn’t try to be anything other than what it is… a really fun time!