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

One of my favorite comedies of all time turns 50 this month. I first saw It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World during a re-release when I was about ten. I laughed like an idiot. Even after seeing it this weekend for about the 10th time, I still have a goofy smile plastered on my face.

Directed by, of all people, Stanley Kramer, who was known for social message films like The Defiant Ones and Judgement at Nuremberg, It's a Mad, etc. World is a rarity--an epic comedy. It was over three hours long in its initial release--the DVD version is 2:40. It even has an intermission. It also has a galaxy of stars, with most of the big comedians of the time (many from television) in its cast.

The plot turns on human greed. A car, racing down a desert road, crashes. A group of motorists stop to see if they can be of assistance. The driver, a crook on the lam (Jimmy Durante) tells them in his dying moments that there is $350,000 "buried under a big W" in a state park some two hours away. The motorists, not knowing whether to believe him, at first try to come to a common ground on looking for the money and splitting it, but they can't agree, and it's every man for himself.

Meanwhile, a police captain (Spencer Tracy, looking ill) has been following the case for years, as the money is from a tuna factory robbery. He has police crews follow the motorists, knowing they will lead them to the money. So, we have a no-holds-barred race across the desert of California.

The film has almost every element of comedy known to man. Primarily it's slapstick, and it has set pieces like an opera. My favorites are when the truck driver Pike (Jonathan Winters), chases down a motorist who has crossed him (Phil Silvers, in full sneer mode). This leads him to a gas station, which is manned by Arnold Stang and Marvin Kaplan. Heeding Silver's warning that Winters is an escaped mental patient, they tie him up, but Winters gets mad and proceeds, in spectacular fashion, to destroy the entire station. Best line: when the pencil-necked Stang turns to Kaplan and says, "We're going to have to kill him."

Another great physical scene is when Milton Berle, as the meek J. Russell Finch, gets into a fistfight with British colonel Terry-Thomas. It's one of the most timorous fights you'll ever see on screen, with the highlight being when they swing at each other and connect on each other's fists.

Then there's the scenes in which Sid Caesar, as dentist Melville Crump, gets locked in a hardware store basement with his wife, dumb blonde Edie Adams. It's quite a struggle, with several highlights, none better than when Caesar takes a final swing of sledgehammer against the metal door and ends up flying off the collapsing staircase.

The comedy is of the Loony Tunes variety, with nobody getting seriously hurt (at least not until the end). There's also a great deal of verbal humor. Terry-Thomas' rant about the American obsession with bosoms, or the wonderful scene in which the motorists try to divide up the money fairly, which leads to the pot being broken down into seventeenths. Or there's just the sweetly stupid lines, like Buddy Hackett saying "There's no rush, we're just in a hurry."

This film is also a great display for stunt work, particular drivers and pilots. The amount of cars involved is epic, and the planes perform two particularly difficult stunts: one flies through a billboard, another through an empty hangar.

The finale is exquisite. All of the men in the chase end up on a collapsing fire escape. A fire truck comes to the rescue, but they overload the ladder, which then careens about (all to the circus-like music of Ernest Gold) and flings them, one by one, to an inglorious end. Silvers ends up in a Murphy bed, which slams shut. Winters ends up in a cement mixer. Eddie "Rochester" Anderson ends up in the arms of a statue of Lincoln. Tracy crashes into a pet store, where he is licked repeatedly by a great Dane.

The cast is large and extremely funny. Some play it way over the top, but it works, especially Ethel Merman as Finch's braying harridan of a mother-in-law. Also great are Dick Shawn, as her beatnik lifeguard son. There are scores of cameos included, from Jerry Lewis to Buster Keaton to the Three Stooges.

I would say I've laughed out loud more at this film than any other. Now when I see it I start laughing knowing a good scene is coming up. It has never really been duplicated--a few years ago a film called Rat Race tried, but showed how difficult it is to catch lightning in a bottle like this.