Film Snail

7.0

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

G·1963·197m

Action

Adventure

Comedy

Crime

Action

Adventure

Comedy

Crime

Summary

A group of strangers come across a man dying after a car crash who proceeds to tell them about the $350,000 he buried in California. What follows is the madcap adventures of those strangers as each attempts to claim the prize for himself.

Cast

Spencer Tracy

C. G. Culpepper

Milton Berle

J. Russell Finch

Sid Caesar

Melville Crump

Buddy Hackett

Benjy Benjamin

Ethel Merman

Mrs. Marcus

Mickey Rooney

Ding 'Dingy' Bell

Dick Shawn

Sylvester Marcus

Phil Silvers

Otto Meyer

Terry-Thomas

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

Selma Diamond

Ginger Culpepper (voice)

Andy Devine

Sheriff of Crockett County

Norman Fell

Detective at Grogan's Crash Site

Paul Ford

Col. Wilberforce

Stan Freberg

Deputy Sheriff

Louise Glenn

Billie Sue Culpepper (voice)

Leo Gorcey

First Cab Driver

Sterling Holloway

Fire Chief

Marvin Kaplan

Irwin

Edward Everett Horton

Mr. Dinckler

Buster Keaton

Jimmy the Crook

Charles Lane

Airport Manager

Don Knotts

Nervous Motorist

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

Driver run off highway

Moe Howard

Airport Firemen #1

Larry Fine

Airport Firemen #2

Joe DeRita

Airport Firemen #3

Sammee Tong

Laundryman

Jimmy Durante

Smiler Grogan

Jack Benny

Man in Car in Desert (uncredited)

Jerry Lewis

Driver Who Runs Over Hat (uncredited)

Doodles Weaver

Hardware Store Clerk (uncredited)

Jesse White

Air Traffic Controller

Al Bain

Spectator (uncredited)

Stanley Clements

Reporter (uncredited)

Max Wagner

Spectator (uncredited)

Morey Amsterdam

Uncle Mike (voice) (uncredited)

Lovyss Bradley

Matron (uncredited)

Dick Cherney

Detective (uncredited)

John Clarke

Helicoper Pilot (uncredited)

Roy Engel

Patrolman / Police Radio Voice Unit F-14 (uncredited)

Nicholas Georgiade

Detective at Grogan's Crash Site (uncredited)

Stacy Harris

Police Radio Unit F-7 (voice) (uncredited)

Don C. Harvey

Policeman in Helicopter (uncredited)

John Indrisano

Hard Hat in Crowd (uncredited)

Allen Jenkins

Cop (uncredited)

Tom Kennedy

Traffic Cop (uncredited)

Charles Sherlock

Crowd Member (uncredited)

Paul Sorensen

Hardhat in Crowd Next to Joe E Brown. (uncredited)

Lennie Weinrib

F-14 / Ladder Fireman (voice) (uncredited)

Rudy Germane

Police Officer (uncredited)

Peter Falk

Third Cab Driver

Crew

Director

Stanley Kramer

Screenplay, Story

William Rose

Screenplay, Story

Tania Rose

Reviews

John Chard

August 6, 2019

It's every man (and old bag) for himself.

It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World is one of those films that as a child I went to the cinema to watch and then proceeded to talk about it enthusiastically in the playground for weeks afterwards. So I find myself here in my middle age with mixed feelings after just revisiting this extravaganza for the first time in many a year.

It's very much a film of three parts to me, and each part impacts differently on the entertainment scale. The first part of this multi cast piece is as madcap and as mirthful as you could honestly wish to see, but this sadly ill prepares you for a middle part that outstays its welcome to the point that you can't believe they stretched it to an original cut of 3 hours! The final third of the film saves it from smug overkill because by now you have invested so much time into the film, you thank the gods for any sort of frivolity - and thankfully the film does lift you back up to the happy place that you had visited an hour previously.

The cast are fine, where some brilliant shows are mixed in with the merely acceptable ones, and I wouldn't want to be so churlish as to dissect each actors respective show. However, as a Phil Silvers fan I'm rewarded plenty enough and as a Spencer Tracy acolyte I'm burning candles again in his honour. Yet it's Ethel Merman as Mrs. Marcus that lives long and glorious in the memory here, and honestly I feel the film is worth a watch purely just for her. The set pieces are fine and the stunts are truly a feast for the eyes, but ultimately one comes away thinking this film should have been a masterpiece instead of the overkilled and overlong experience that it is. 6.5/10