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

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

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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Every man -- including the old bag -- for himself!
Review: While "350 G's" doesn't buy what it used to, this madcap chase to find the ill-gotten loot buried by Smiler Grogan (Jimmy Durante) at Santa Rosita beach "under the big W" has not lost a single cent of its appeal over these many years. What a cast! It really proves that truly good comedy doesn't need to rely on endless profanity. Dick Shawn's beatnik-surfer character flyin' down the highway in his red convertible to rescue his "momma" has got to put you in stitches. Meanwhile, momma (Ethyl Merman) is conducting a reign of terror in the life of every male she encounters in her own greedy quest for the jackpot. Milton Berle is her hapless son-in-law, who winds up pairing up with Terry-Thomas out of sheer desperation while Jonathan Winters, as a simpleton moving van driver (whose own greed has diverted him from delivering his load to Yuma), is wreaking havoc in a desert gas station, where Phil Silvers does his double-talkin' best to have him tied up as a mental patient so HE can get to the treasure first; never mind that Mickey Rooney and Buddy Hackett have commandered the plane of heavy-drinkin' millionaire Jim Backus, while at the same time dentist Sid Caesar finds his own air transport in the form of a WWI-vintage craft that flies slower than the cars down below on the highway and all the while cop Spencer Tracy is tracking their every step -- with his own eye on the prize! Whew! This is truly the ultimate comedy-chase film, with a classic all-star cast the likes of whom we will never see again. You will treasure this movie!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Well, try me. I'm pretty gullible.
Review: I just hope this DVD contains the short version and not the awful extended mess I've seen a few times on one of the movie channels. I don't what actual review comments are needed, there are plenty posted here. If the only funny lines were Phil Silvers' it would still be worth the money. This is no place for a convertible!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A fabulous, timeless comedy
Review: My parents introduced me to "mad world" when I was very young. Since my first viewing, I think I've seen it roughly 200 times. Mad World takes every one who defined comedy in that era and inserted them into this long romp. Even the Three Stooges make a 5-second cameo.

The stars all shine and work together brilliantly to create the most quotable movie of all time. I find myself saying things from Mad World every day without regard to whether or not anyone has seen the movie. In fact, almost any situation calls for a quality quote from Mad World:

"That guy's dead...you better believe it." "LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER!!!" "I hate dentists...I hate them so much, I can't tell you how much in front of your wife!" "They're still alive!" "'Out baby, out baby, out!' 'Who you calling baby?'" "We fell into yellow." "We'll never get anywhere listening to this old bag!"

Do those lines seem unfamiliar and stupid to you? If so, it's cuz you haven't seen this 60's classic. Buy it, own it, live it, love it. This 19 year old college student can't be wrong about everything.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Greatest Comedy EVER Made!
Review: An absolute gem of a movie. From beginning to end this is the greatest cast ever assembled for a comedy. Watching this can be very addictive. Jonathan Winters is in perfect form and Milton Berle, Ethel Merman, Buddy Hackett, and Sid Caesar have never been funnier. The cameo by the Three Stooges was a nice touch. Too bad Hollywood doesn't have this kind of talent anymore. What a shame that brilliant comics like Phil Silvers and Don Knotts have been replaced by Adam Sandler and Tom Green. Oh well, that's what VCR's are for.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Absolute Best!
Review: I honestly feel sorry for anyone who lacks a sense of humor and doesn't just love this film. It is without a doubt one of the funniest films ever made and it's absolutely timeless. The dialogue is hysterical. Jonathan Winters' "that guy's dead", Buddy Hackett's "what are you, the hostess?', and Spencer Tracy's daughter on the phone saying "I'm waiting for the bus!"...I have tears in my eyes laughing at this wonderful movie. Also, the music by Ernest Gold is perfect. Melodic theme is used throughout, all played by the L.A. Philharmonic Orchestra. The cinematography is fantastic. Take a great script, an incredibly talented cast and a great director and you end up with what is arguably the funniest movie ever made.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This Is No Place For a Convertible!!!
Review: Stanley Kramer and most of the Screen Actor's Guild members in 1962 all got together for a few months and created what arguably can be called the greatest comedy of all time. Yes it's long, and yes it's repetitive, but somehow it all comes together at the end, under that "Big W" in Palos Verdes. From the time that Jimmy Durante kicks that bucket, until Ethel Merman slips on the banana peel, the picture incorporates every piece of humorous schtick in the lexicon of slapstick, culminating in the funniest end sequence that has come out of Hollywood since Thomas Edison pointed his camera at the Jersey shore. Kudos especially to the forgotten members of the cast, Don Knotts as the owner of a blue Ford, Jack Benny and the Maxwell, and Selma Diamond as a voice on the phone...

Take a plane, take a bus, take a cab to the nearest copy of this video and be prepared to laugh for the next 161 minutes.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: WE'RE IN THE IMPERIAL, AND WE'RE IN LAST PLACE?
Review: Ethel Merman IS "It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World." From her first shouting tirade "Now what kind of an attitude is that? These things happen..." to her final downfall, and every top-of-her-lungs scene in between... "Will you just shut up and listen to your mother!" ...she makes this the romp it is. Of course, she has lots of help from Spencer Tracy, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Dorothy Provine, Terry-Thomas, Buddy Hackett, Jonathan Winters, Mickey Rooney, Phil Silvers, Arnold Stang, etc., some great cameos by Jack Benny, Jerry Lewis, and the voice of Selma Diamond. Can't wait for the DVD. Check out the CD soundtrack, too!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The funniest, funniest, funniest funniest - ever
Review: All time great director Stanley Kramer (1913-2001), known for his serious and social aware commentaries as a producer and director in Hollywood from the forties and on, set out to make the comedy to end all comedies. To my view he pulled it off with this 1963 all-star, high speed giant screen Cinerama, sterophonic, Technicolor galore. He is skillfully helped by a cast containing almost everybody - and Jimmy Durante. Great music by Ernest Gold and a masterful crew behind the camera.

What makes something really, really, really, really fun? Car chases and lony-bin situations? People falling from airplanes and blasting hardware stores? A giant screen filled with action, adventure and great music in a hysterical pace? Fair enough! But what really makes this the biggest comedy of all times is that it never looses its sense of the insane and very, very humane. Within all the action you'll still find the chamber play of greed and corruption - just as old as Man himself. That tops Mad Word among the big roadshow 70mm comedies from the sixties.

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World was the first 70mm production ever to get the Cinerama optical treatment to fit the giant Cinerama curved screens. A successful blockbuster, it also more or less put an end to the Cinerama 3-strip era. The technical brilliance, high resolution from the 70mm film and the discrete six channel stereo still is way over anything you can see at the movies today.

Even if a DVD can only contain a fragment of all this, it is the best buy of all, for those of you that want to relive a cinematic era, since long gone, see a g-r-e-a-t movie and share it with your children.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: my all-time favorite movie!
Review: This is the best movie I've ever seen! When Jimmy Durante crashes his car; Milton Berle, Sid Ceasar, Mickey Rooney, Buddy Hackett, and Jonathan Winters stop to hear about his fortune in gold, which is buried near the Mexican border. The day now becomes a race, with everyone competing to get there in time by whatever means necessary. Along the way they meet just about everyone who was in comedy at the time, and half the fun is just picking everybody out. Even at 3 plus hours, there's not an ounce of fat to be found, and it even leaves you wanting more!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: That Guy Is Dead
Review: An absolute riot.

Sid Ceaser just kills me in this movie--"We fell in yellow"--and the casting against type of Milton Berle, here a mealy-mouthed hen-pecked husband, is pure genius.

One bit of advice: this film was made, like few other films were made, for a realllllllllly big screen. Get the widescreen version and watch it on the biggest TV you can find.


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