![It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (Ws) [VHS]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/510KZGCNE1L._SL160_.jpg)
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Stanley Kramer's sprawling 1963 comedy about a search for buried treasure by at least a dozen people--all played by well-known entertainers of their day--is the kind of mass comedy that Hollywood hasn't made in many years. (Another example from around the same time is Blake Edwards's The Great Race.) After a number of strangers (including Milton Berle, Jonathan Winters, Sid Caesar, Phil Silvers, and others) witness a dying stranger (Jimmy Durante) identify the location of hidden money, a conflict-ridden hunt begins, watched over carefully by a suspicious cop (Spencer Tracy). The ensuing two and a half hours of mayhem has its ups and downs--some bits and performers are certainly funnier than others. But Kramer, who is better known for socially conscious, serious cinema (Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?), is in a mood for broad comic characterization, and some of his jokes are so intentionally obvious (Durante literally kicks a bucket when he dies), they'd have a place in Airplane! Watch for lots of cameo appearances, including Jerry Lewis (who had called Kramer and asked him why he hadn't been invited to participate). --Tom Keogh
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Reviews:
part of a movie
Doesn't have the full visual frame of the movie, doesn't have all of the movie- looks like about 45 minutes are missing. I'm pretty disappointed not to have gotten all of one of the greatest comedies of all time.
Berle, Caesar, Winters, Merman, Tracy, Rooney, Hackett, etc. etc. etc.
What can you say about this classic comedy that is not already been said? I have no idea, but I'll repeat what's been said before. This is an epic comical masterpiece; 2-and-a-half hours of pure comedy! The enormous ensemble of actors (Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Ethel Merman, Jonathan Winters, etc.) really delivers with their brilliant comic skills. The cameos are extraordinary (from Jerry Lewis to Don Knotts to even The Three Stooges). The movie itself never feels slow or tedious. It's one movie that no one should ever neglect. It's one of a kind, and I don't think there will ever be a comedy like this one.
Grade: A
It's a BAD BAD BAD BAD FILM
I'm thoroughly convinced Stanley Kramer had absolutely NO SENSE OF HUMOR WHAT SO EVER! What other reason would the director of heavy dramas want to gather all the most brilliant innovative comedy geniuses the world has ever known, and put them in a 3 hour film, and not allow them to IMPROVISE AT ALL! What follows is a LONG LONG movie with not many funny things in it, and lots of prat falls and gags from people who were strictly verbal comics. The ultimate insult was forcing the greatest comedians of all time to force laughter at someone slipping on a banana peel, a gag many of them would have slit their wrists rather than even been in the same room with such a pedestrian gag, even to be "ironic".
In interviews with Kramer, he clearly stated he didn't trust comics such as Jonathan Winters who would rip apart any lines he was given, so he made EVERYONE stick to the script verbatim. This is one of the most hateful crimes in modern cinema, I'd rank it with the butchering Magnificent Andersons.
mad mad fun
It is unbelievable how much talent was assembled for this movie, yet it is not rollover laugh 'til you cry funny. But it is a must have in terms of stars who either are part of the plot or play cameo roles. (The 3 stooges are in it for less than 30 seconds, but they are "in it".) I love this movie for just sitting back and name dropping this "who's who" of comedy.
The Greatest!
Simply the greatest comedy ever filmed. An unbelievable array of stars, many in small cameos that ensure you a surpise every few minutes and a reward for paying attention.
This movie could never be remade today, the salearies alone would make it impossible.
Hilarious from the scene of Jimmy Durante's character "kicking the bucket" through Ethel Merman losing the car keys to bewildered Three Stooges - and don't miss the banana peel!!!
