Rating: 
Summary: An all star cast of comics, great comedy
Review:
Director: Stanley Kramer
Format: Color
Studio: Mgm/Ua Studios
Video Release Date: September 26, 1995
Cast: Spencer Tracy ... Capt. T.G. Culpeper
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 Culpeper
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 Culpeper
Leo Gorcey ... First cab driver
Sterling Holloway ... Fire Chief
Edward Everett Horton ... Mr. Dinckler
Marvin Kaplan ... Irwin
Buster Keaton ... Jimmy the boatman
Don Knotts ... Nervous man
Charles Lane ... Airport manager
Mike Mazurki ... Miner
Charles McGraw ... Lt. Matthews
Cliff Norton ... Reporter
Zasu Pitts ... Switchboard operator Gertie
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
Roy Engel ... Patrolman/Police radio voice unit F-14
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
Tom Kennedy ... Traffic cop
Harry Lauter ... Police dispatcher
Ben Lessy ... George the steward
Jerry Lewis ... Man who runs over hat
Bob Mazurki ... Eddie (miner's son)
Jack Benny ... Man in car in desert
Eddie Ryder ... Air traffic control tower staffer
Paul Birch ... Policeman
Doodles Weaver ... Dinckler's Hardware Store clerk
Stanley Clements ... Detective in squad room
Bobo Lewis ... Pilot's wife
Minta Durfee ... Bit Part Intended to be the comedy to end all comedies, with a cast including virtually all the name comedians at the time. Jimmy Durante plays a guy who is in a fatal auto accident, but before he dies, tells 5 bystanders where there is $350,000 hidden under a "W", whuch leads to a chase to find the money. Meanwhile, Capt. T.G. Culpeper (Spencer Tracy) is aware of the stolen money and he and his policemen observe the chase with interest through the desert, mountains, and along the California coast, with the contestants using aircraft, cars, trucks, a bicycle and every method of transportation in their attempt to be first to reach the money. Tracy was ill when the film was shot, and so only worked four hours per day. The long shots and physical stuff was performed by stand-ins. This is a fun movie. If there is a criticism, it is that the comedy is perhaps overdone. With so many top comedians, there is certainly no dearth of funny lines, pratfalls, and laughs--that's for sure. Joseph (Joe) Pierre
author of Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenance
and other books
Rating:
Summary: It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Review: It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World is comedy at it's finest. Before foul language and vulgarities, you had truly funny people that were given a fantastic script. Lots of old stars populate this movie, and make it even more hilarious than it already is. You have to watch it multiple times to really accept ALL of the comedy in this movie. This remains in my mind when considering the greatest comedies of all time. You can watch this movie 100 times and still laugh. Buy this one for your collection and share it often with your family.
Rating: 
Summary: Kramer Plays This One Strictly For Laughs
Review: Stanley Kramer was known for "message films" that probed the mind and conscience as well as entertained, such as "The Defiant Ones" and "On The Beach", but in this 1963 release his focus is on mad, slapstick comedy, as the title implies. Since this was a Cinerama road show presentation the wide range of special effects such as hairpin turns on mountain roads and vehicle smashups were meant for the wide screen and living color.
This is a picture where director Kramer seized audience attention in the manner that Mike Todd did in "Around The World in 80 Days" by providing all kinds of cast surprises. Todd had Frank Sinatra showing up as a pianist in a bar while Kramer utilized comedy greats Jack Benny and Jerry Lewis in brief drive by appearances.
The madcap comedy begins when Jimmy Durante's car fails to execute a difficult turn and crashes. Before he dies other drivers on the desert road for varying reasons listen to him talk about a buried treasure. This supplies motivation for the drivers to outflank each other for the rest of the film as they rush to anticipated riches.
While Sid Caesar is compelled to blow up a building in which he and wife Edie Adams are locked, Milton Berle and British comic Terry-Thomas begin exchanging anti-American and anti-British insults respectively. They end up engaging in a hilarious fight displaying excellent slapstick reminiscent of Three Stooges' battles.
Terry-Thomas soon realizes that his most fearsome adversary is not Berle, but his loud and aggressive mother in law, played with appropriate off the wall comedic gusto by Broadway singing legend Ethel Merman. Merman has an explosive temper and swings a mean purse, as the men who get in her way learn to their detriment. Her daughter, Dorothy Provine, who is also Berle's wife, is unable to calm Merman down anymore then Berle or anyone else. When her disco-crazed, wildly dancing son, played with appropriate fervor by Dick Shawn, is summoned by Merman to help in the treasure pursuit, their adversaries are compelled to deal with double trouble.
When a stranded Jonathan Winters offers to cut Phil Silvers in for half of his prospective treasure take, the latter double-crosses him at the first opportunity by driving off and leaving him temporarily stranded. This leads to a slapstick battle royal at a gas station.
Spencer Tracy, playing the local chief of police, is ostensibly staking out the action in the interest of law and order. In that a terrible home life and being nagged by his wife and daughter depress him, he decides instead to use his legal authority to grab the booty and make an escape.
When the hungry treasure seekers all arrive at the scene in question at the same approximate time there are plenty of literal and figurative fireworks. Eventually they learn that a price must be paid for their shenanigans.
Rating:
Summary: The last gasp of Vaudeville! Deserves 6 stars!
Review: You will either love this movie or hate it.
This movie contains the greatest flying stunt ever filmed, one which nearly killed legendary pilot Frank Tallman, and it is only FIVE SECONDS of this absolutely hilarious classic.
The reviewer who complained about "nobody says anything" when the Three Stooges appear, go look at it again -- what could anyone say which is better than going from all the urgent preparations for a plane crash to seeing those three waiting firemen? And how about Jim Backus, giving one of the finest performances of his career without saying a word?
This is a great comedy with no sex. It is a great comedy with no filth, no dope, no hate and no preaching. It is a great comedy with nothing that you would be embarrassed to show your date -- or your kids. Or your grandmother.
For some people, this film just isn't funny. These are people who have forgotten how to laugh. Look again! Nearly everyone that we laugh at "asks for it" by being greedy -- the only exceptions being the gullible Don Knotts and MAYBE Sylvester, who should have just listened to his Momma, for once in his life . . .
Even the title sequence is funny. The first time you see it, you don't realize that it gives away the climax!
This was the end of Vaudeville -- and Vaudeville quit winners!
Rating:
Summary: Hillarious!
Review: A classic. I've seen it once every ten years and I still laugh. Now I own it! I only own 4 other movies. For me to own a movie is silly, unless it is great!
Rating: 
Summary: Missing special features
Review: I loved this movie the first time I saw it. When christmas was beginning to roll around this year, I happened upon the DVD in my local suncoast. So I immediately added it to my wishlist. I ended up getting it for christmas, so I was happy. I open it up and pop it into my DVD player to inspect the special features. It's a one-sided DVD, yet the main menu says To Access Special Features Insert Other Side of Disc. What other side? The top of the disc has printing on it, it's not readable by a DVD player. I want my special features!
Come on, MGM, the least you could do is put the friggin special features in the package... I loathe double sided DVDs, so preferably slap them on the same side of the disc as the movie, or include them on a separate disc. Now if I could take it back... or if this was a widespread problem and there was a recall... that would rock.
Rating:
Summary: A COMEDIC MASTERPIECE!!!
Review: here is a movie that could never...ever be made today. An over-sized, perhaps over-long blockbuster of a three hour movie featuriing nearly every great comic of the 1950's and 60's: Milton Berle Sid Caeser, Buddy Hackett, Jimmy Durante, Phil Silvers, Mickey Rooney, Jonathan Winters, Dick Shawn, Terry Thomas, and featuring cameos by Jerry Lewis, Leo Gorcey, Jack Benny, Joe E. Brown, Don Knotts, Buster Keaton and the 3 Stooges.
The Story opens on a California mountain road as a car speeds dangerously out of control and off a cliff. The passengers of other cars go down to help the victim (Durante) and as he lays dying, he tells them of $350,000 that is hidden in a state park. The group agrees to drive to Santa Rosita state park and dig up the money, but when they cannot decide on how to split the loot, it becoms every man (including the "old bag" Ethel Merman) for himself.
Thereby launches a reckless race to see who can get there in time through stolen cars and trucks, WWI vintage airplanes, drunk pilots and everything in between. Meanwhile a police Lieutenant Culpepper (Spencer Tracy) has been on the trail of the missing money for 15 years and is following the progress of the people as they lead him to the stolen money.
It is pure slapstick at its finest. Silvers nearly steals the show as the devious Mr. Meyer who ditches Mr. Pike (winters) after learning about the money. Later Winters catches up with him at a service station and destroys the station by hand, much to the horror of the owners played by Marvin kaplan and Arnold Stang.
Perhaps overlong at the three hours, but the movies never dulls and its ride barely lets you up for air. The DVD features an hour of outtakes and a wonderful documetary done a few years ago with the surviving cast members that is a real joy to view.
A legendary film!
Rating:
Summary: Funny is funny
Review: This nearly-3-hour romp through California is one of the all-time classics of slapstick comedy. This review is for those who haven't seen it. While there are two versions of the DVD listed on Amazon, only one is available as I type this, unfortunately, and it doesn't appear to have any features. That doesn't mean it isn't worth the price of purchase unless you're a real aficianado of the format rather than of the film.
This madcap classic literally races at breakneck speed from beginning to end. We open with Jimmy Durante's car soaring off a mountainside road, then several witnesses stop and run down to where the old fella is lying on some rocks breathing his last. These witnesses include some other veterans of 1950s-era film and TV comedy: Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett, Mickey Rooney, and Jonathan Winters.
These six (including Durante) are just the tip of the iceberg in one of the most star-studded casts ever seen. Through the course of this insane story you'll see Jerry Lewis, Ethel Merman, the Three Stooges, Jack Benny and Rochester, Phil Silvers, Jim Backus, Carl Reiner, Peter Falk, Terry Thomas, Andy Devine, Selma Diamond, Don Knotts, Buster Keaton, Zasu Pitts, Dick Shawn, Norman Fell, Edward Everett Horton, Stan Freberg, William Demerest, Leo Gorcey, Jesse White, and Doodles Weaver. Some of these stars have funny bits, and some make us laugh just by showing up.
As Durante dies, he tells the five good Samaritans that he just got out of prison and was on his way to unearth a fortune he had buried before he got caught. Nobody else knows where it is, and he's giving it to them. Then he kicks the bucket. Literally. And the race for easy money is on.
This wonderfully silly film was the forerunner of such later chase comedies as "Gumball Rally," "Cannonball Run," and "Rat Race," and nobody's ever done it better. It's reminiscent of the best of silent film slapstick as well, and in spite of its length the kids can watch the whole thing and will enjoy it too. My 7-year-old even cracked up at Bigmouth Joe E. Brown's famous "HeeeeyyyyyyyyYYYYYYYY!" near the film's end.
Those who haven't seen this classic are in for a real treat. And if you're like my stepfather who can't get enough of the film, there's no good reason not to purchase this inexpensive DVD in spite of its lack of extras, although I certainly agree that a better job could be done in that regard.
Rating:
Summary: Some Misconceptions
Review: This is one of my favorite comedies of all time. When this movie opened the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood, I saw it the first week it was released. I enjoyed it so much, that I took everyone I knew to see it. I ended up seeing it there 9 times!
It should come as no surprise that I know most of the dialog by heart, and that's where the general misconceptions come in. MGM released a version they called the "original roadshow" release which included many "so called" lost scenes, that I can assure you were never in the original roadshow version. These are the scenes that are in the special section of the DVD. They were generally extensions of existing scenes that were cut because they are anticlimactic. They do not belong in the original print of the film, and as far as I'm concerned are in the special section where they belong, and can be examined as a curio. Also, one reviewer says that his father took him to where the Big W was filmed in Santa Monica. Unfortunately, this is wishful thinking. In the film, the cars race up the California Incline in Santa Monica, and pull into a park that was specially built on the Palos Verdes Peninsula fifteen miles to the South! That park set, including the Big W, was dismantled after filming.
As a film buff, and admirer of this film, I just wanted to set the record straight.
Rating:
Summary: Who's Who of Comedy
Review: This film is a golden moment in time. It combines every top comedic actor in Hollywood at that time in one film. It has the obvious one of Sid Caesar, Milton Berle, Buddy Hackett, Terry Thomas. But it is also buttressed by quick cameos of our favorites. I love Don Knotts's small appearance in the movie.
I just wish Buster Keaton's cameo was longer. I will have to watch his episode of "The Twilight Zone."
The plot is mindless, but the execution is classic. There are so many sub-plots you need these scenes in the police station to keep everything together. Since the film is nearly three hours long, each person gets their spotlight in the move.
You just have to watch it and enjoy. Good family fun, except for Milton Burle's and Terry Thomas's discussion about bosoms, Jim Backus drinking, and seeing Ethyl Mermen's underwear three times in the movie. All violence is slapstick comedy.
Favorite scene: Jonathan Winters destroying the gas station.
PS: "W"
|
