IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD (1963, U.S.)

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World

(1963, U.S.) Technicolor 154/192/174 minutes
Casey Productions / United Artists
Story & Screenplay: William Rose, Tania Rose
Music: Ernest Gold
Cinematography: Ernest Laszlo
Editing: Gene Fowler Jr., Robert C. Jones, Frederic Knudtson
Produced by Stanley Kramer
Directed by Stanley Kramer

With: Spencer Tracy (Capt. C. G. Culpepper), Milton Berle (J. Russell Finch), Sid Caesar (Melville Crump, DDS), Buddy Hackett (Benjy Benjamin), Ethel Merman (Mrs. Marcus), Mickey Rooney (Ding 'Dingy' Bell), Dick Shawn (Sylvester Marcus), Phil Silvers (Otto Meyer), Terry-Thomas (Lt.Col. J. Algernon Hawthorne), Jonathan Winters (Lennie Pike), Edie Adams (Monica Crump), Dorothy Provine (Emeline Marcus-Finch), Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson (Second cab driver), Jim Backus (Tyler Fitzgerald), Ben Blue (Biplane pilot), Joe E. Brown (Union official), Alan Carney (Police sergeant), Chick Chandler (Detective outside Chinese laundromat), Barrie Chase (Sylvester's girlfriend), Lloyd Corrigan (The Mayor), William Demarest (Police Chief Aloysius), Andy Devine (Sheriff of Crockett County), Selma Diamond (Ginger Culpepper), Peter Falk (Third cab driver), Norman Fell (Detective at Grogan's crash site), Paul Ford (Col. Wilberforce), Stan Freberg (Deputy sheriff), Louise Glenn (Billie Sue Culpepper), Leo Gorcey (First cab driver), Sterling Holloway (Fire Chief), Edward Everett Horton (Mr. Dinckler), Marvin Kaplan (Irwin), Buster Keaton (Jimmy the Crook), Don Knotts (Nervous Motorist), Charles Lane (Airport manager), Mike Mazurki (Miner). Charles McGraw (Lt. Matthews). Cliff Norton (Reporter), Zasu Pitts (Gertie (switchboard operator), Carl Reiner (Tower controller at Rancho Conejo), Madlyn Rhue (Secretary Schwartz), Roy Roberts (Policeman outside Irwin & Ray's Garage), Arnold Stang (Ray), Nick Stewart (Migrant truck driver), Joe DeRita (Fireman), Larry Fine (Fireman), Moe Howard (Fireman), Sammee Tong (Chinese laundryman), Jesse White (Radio tower operator at Rancho Conejo), Jimmy Durante (Smiler Grogan), Jack Benny (Man in car in desert), Paul Birch (Policeman), John Clarke (Helicoper Pilot), Stanley Clements (Detective in squad room), Frankie Darro (Plainclothed cop with hat at police station), Howard Da Silva (Airport Officer), Minta Durfee (Bit part), Roy Engel (Patrolman / Police radio voice unit F-14), James Flavin (Patrolman), Nicholas Georgiade (Detective at Grogan's crash site), Stacy Harris (Police radio voice unit F-7), Don C. Harvey (Policeman in helicopter), Allen Jenkins (Police officer), Robert Karnes (Police Officer Simmy), Tom Kennedy (Traffic cop), Harry Lauter (Police dispatcher), Ben Lessy (George), Bobo Lewis (Pilot's Wife), Jerry Lewis (Man who runs over hat), Bob Mazurki (Eddie), Barbara Pepper (Bit part), Eddie Ryder (Air traffic control tower staffer), Charles Sherlock (Crowd Extra), Eddie Smith (Extra), Doodles Weaver (Hardware Store Clerk)

+++

In 1963, producer Stanley Kramer, best known for his dramatic films JUDGEMENT AT NUREMBERG, GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER? and the screen version of INHEIRIT THE WIND, released his only film comedy, IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD, an homage to slapstick films as well as a satire on human greed. The story begins in the Southern California desert, where a fleeing crook, Smiler Grogan (Jimmy Durante, in his last movie role) is trying to outrun two detectives from the Santa Rosita police department. Fifteen years before, Grogan had stolen $350,000 from a tuna fish cannery, and had hidden the monies inside of Santa Rosita State Park. For years, the authorities had been trying to bring in Grogan for questioning, but he has refused to talk.

The elderly criminal drives his car at a dangerous speed, but unable to elude his pursuers, he is finally forced to run his car off of the highway and thru a guard rail, where he goes over a cliff and crashes to the bottom of the ravine. Some passing motorists, comedy writers Diney Bell and Benjy Benjamin (Mickey Rooney And Buddy Hackett), dentist and accountant Dr. Meville Crump and his wife Monica (Sid Caesar and Edie Adams), henpecked business executive J. Russell Finch (Milton Berle), his wife Emiline (Dorothy Provine), Finch's abusive and pompous mother-in-law Mrs. Marcus (Ethel Merman) and moving van driver Lennie Pike (Jonathan Winters) climb down to the site of the accident to help Grogan. Grogan is dying, but before he passes on, he tells the men about his cache of stolen monies.

Despite the cynicism of the women, the others accept the old man's story and soon head for Santa Rosita State Park to dig up the treasure, unaware that their every move is being watched by Santa Rosita chief of detectives, T.J. Culpepper (Spencer Tracy) and the Sheriff of Crockett County (Andy Devine). Along the way, the Finch's car is wrecked by Pike's moving van and they ask Pike to use a bike from his van to try and rent a car from the next town and send it back for them. Unable to wait, the Finches accept a ride from a former British Army officer, Lt. Col. Algernon Hawthorne (Terry-Thomas), who they take on as a partner. Mrs.Marcus also insists that her son Sylvester (Dick Shawn) also take part in the treasure hunt, much to her son in law Col. Hawthorne's displeasure. Pike tries to get a ride from con man Otto Meyer (Phil Silvers) but he drives off without him and Pike almost kills Meyer at a local gas station owned by Irwin and Ray (Arnold Stang and Marvin Kaplin).

The Crumps fly to Santa Rosita in a dilapidated airplane owned by a crooked pilot (Ben Blue) and they get themselves locked in the basement of Mr. Dinkler's Hardware Store (Dinkler and his clerk are played by Edward Everett Horton and Doodles Weaver). Bell and Benjamin manipulate a drunken millionaire, Tyler Fitzgerald (Jim Backus, the voice of Mr. Magoo) to fly the duo in his private plane. During the flight however, Fitzgerald gets drunk on too many Old-Fashioneds and during a mid-air mishap, he hits his head and is knocked unconscious. Bell and Benjamin contact the radio control tower at Rancho Conjeo airport, where a former Army officer and professional pilot, Col. Wilberforce (Paul Ford, Col. John Hall on “The Phil Silvers Show”) tries to talk them down. The plane just barely arrives at the airport, as it crashes into the front of a restaurant. Nevertheless, the hapless duo escapes from the plane and hire a cab (the cabbie is played by former Jack Benny Show regular Eddie “Rochester: Anderson), they head for the state park.

In the meantime, Capt. Culpepper asks his friend and fellow Police Officer Chief Al (William Demerest) to ask the mayor (Lloyd Corrigan) to raise Culpepper's pension and to allow him to take a three-week vacation with his wife. Unfortunately, the mayor turns down Culpepper's request for a raise in his pension and he also refuses his request for a vacation. To make matters worst, when he calls his wife Ginger (the voice of Selma Diamond) on the phone to tell her that they are going to Hawaii without their daughter Billie Sue (the voice of Louise Glen), she tells her husband that they can't go, because Billie Sue's boyfriend Oscar is coming to make final preparations for their wedding and when he arrives, he calls off the wedding. Billie Sue threatens to leave home and Mrs. Culpepper is taking legal action against her husband.

Unable to deal with the stress that he is enduring, Capt. Culpepper decides to steal the monies and manipulate the treasure seekers into giving themselves up and working with Jimmy The Crook (Buster Keaton) to get out the country with the cash. Culpepper's plans go awry, when Bell and Benjamin see him head towards the docks and the group gives chase. When he fails to report to the station, the Police Chief, the Mayor and the cops send out an APB to arrest Capt. Culpepper . The group chase the cop to the fire escape of a condemned apartment building, Despite the warnings to get off of the fire escape from a labor union organizer (Joe E. Brown), the men fight on the escape until it begins to fall apart. The fire chief sends in his ladder to save the fools but, the suitcase containing Grogan's loot falls to the streets below, where a crowd scrambles to get the monies and the fire ladder beaks and the men fall off of the ladder and they all get hurt.

The scene shifts to the intensive care ward of the prison hospital, where the men blame Culpepper for getting them hurt and for losing the monies. “I sure wish that I knew what they're going to do to us!” growls Meyer, “But no matter what happens, I hope that whatever happens to you is going be alot worse!” Culepper assures them that he they will get off lightly, because his wife has just divorced him, his mother in law is suing him, his daughter is getting her name changed and his pension has been revoked. The group laughs at his misfortune as Culpepper says, “In ten years, or maybe twenty, I hope that I have something to laugh at, anything!” Just then, Mrs. Marcus comes into ward and she begins to chew out the fools, only to slip on a discarded banana peel that Benjamin threw onto the floor, The interns come into the ward and strap the abusive woman onto a stretcher and take her away, while the men laugh uproariously at the miserable lady's misfortune.

The film was not a hit when first released during the winter of 1963, but it did become a popular attraction at Saturday Matinee rereleases during the 1970's and it has also gained a following in TV reruns and on the home video market. During the film's original run, a longer version of the film was seen. After the first screening, the extra footage was edited out of the film and was not seen again until it was found in the 1980's and restored to existing prints. The roadshow version of the film also had audio tracks of police calls and dialogue with Tracy's Culpepper and Keaton's Jimmy The Crook playing throughout the theater during intermission. This device was not appreciated by theater patrons and it was quickly abandoned. One scene, where Culpepper meets with Jimmy The Crook at a local Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream store to plot the crooked cop's getaway, is lost -- reportedly only some stills and the audio track of the scene has been known to survive. There was talk of adding the photos and the audio tracks of this scene to the film to help aid the plot, but the photos and the audio tracks have not been found. Despite the knock from the critics, the film's script is hilarious and the music by Mack David is wonderful. Aside from the performances from the leads, the film also features cameos from a large roster of well-known character actors and comedy performers, including Don Knotts, Carl Reiner, Roy Roberts, Alan Carney, Leo Gorcey, Tom Kennedy, Stanley Clements, Nick Stewart, Mike Mazurki, The Three Stooges, Charles Lane, Peter Falk, Edward Everett Horton, Doodles Weaver, Sterling Holloway and, in her last film performance, Zasu Pitts. There was another actor..who did some voice overs for the film. Comic/Character actor/mimic and voice over performer Mr.Lennie Weinrib was the third performer to do the voice of a police radio operator in the film. He was the one who told "Police Chief Al",The Mayor of Santa Rosita(Lloyd Corrigan) and the other members of The Santa Rosita Police Dept.s Detectives squad room that"A group of people are Chasing Capt.Culpepper". Mr.Weinrib was also the voice of the fireman..who warns the fire chief(Sterling Holloway)and the other fire fighters that "There's too many men"on the fire ladder. I first saw IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD! with my parents and brothers at a movie theater in the Bronx, New York in November 1963. My parents and brothers hated the film, but I enjoyed it!

- Kevin S. Butler