The Criterion Collection to many seems to be the place to find what many consider to be “serious cinema.” But that’s not Criterion solely wants to focus on. In fact, they have done a great job of preserving and spotlighting some of the greatest comedies found in world cinema. Of course they have put out solid releases of most of Charlie Chaplin’s movies, from the one of his earliest classics The Kid (1921, Spine #799) to one of his later masterpieces, Limelight (1952, #756). Some of the great Hollywood screwball comedies like Bringing Up Baby (1938, #1085) and His Girl Friday (1940, #849) also are a part of the Collection, as well as many of the movies of Billy Wilder like his comedic masterpiece, Some like It Hot (1959, #950). But Criterion doesn’t just limit it to Hollywood comedies, as they have also spotlighted the works of other international comedic geniuses, like Jacques Tati. More recent films from filmmakers working in the realm of comedy have also gotten the Criterion treatment, including John Waters, Wes Anderson, and Albert Brooks. Shockingly enough, even Kevin Smith has made it into the Criterion Collection with his third feature, Chasing Amy (1997, #75), so yes there is a movie in the Criterion vaults with Jay and Silent Bob on the cover. But, there’s one comedy that’s made it into the Criterion Collection that represents the intersection of comedy and big Hollywood entertainment, creating what many to believe is the grandest comedic film ever made. Maybe not the funniest, but certainly the grandest; a big screen, star-studded extravaganza that dwarfed all other comedies in it’s time, and perhaps of all time. It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963, #692) was the comedy of all comedies, and a movie that certainly gets the prime Criterion Collection treatment, and offers up a fascinating look at how Hollywood spectacles have held up over the years.
What is interesting about It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is that it did not come together from the mind of an established comedic genius. No, instead it came from one of Hollywood’s most serious filmmakers, Stanley Kramer. Kramer was seen in Hollywood as a “message film” director. A life long ardent liberal, Kramer devoted his talents as a filmmaker towards making socially conscious movies, tackling issues as varied as racism, censorship, and the dangers of authoritarianism. He spent many of his post-war years producing movies at Columbia Pictures, including the Oscar-winning High Noon (1952), before leaving Columbia to step behind the camera as a director. He directed two well received films called Not as a Stranger (1955) and The Pride and the Passion (1957) before he got his big breakout hit, The Defiant Ones (1958), starring Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis. From that, Kramer was seen as a prestige film director, and was granted the opportunity to make bigger social issue movies with grander scope and bigger casts. Kramer’s most ambitious film to date came in 1961, we he made the film Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), a dramatic recreation of the trials of the Nazi high command that were conducted after the end of World War II. Nuremberg was a critical and financial success, winning multiple awards, including a Best Actor Oscar win for German actor Maximillian Schell. But, Judgment at Nuremberg also demonstrated how well Stanley Kramer could direct a film with an all-star cast. In addition to Schell, the film had many high profile Hollywood actors in the cast, including Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Marlene Dietrich, Montgomery Clift, and even Judy Garland in a rare dramatic role. After the success of Nuremberg, you would think that Kramer would seek out another serious film to make, but that was not the case. Instead, he wanted to do the exact opposite, and make a comedy. But, this wouldn’t be any ordinary comedy. It would be an “epic comedy.” Just like Nuremberg, it was going to be an all-star extravaganza, featuring many of the most well-known comedians at the time, and throwing them into a screwball scenario that would run a lengthy three hour runtime; with intermission of course. But the question remained during it’s making; could it work?
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World starts off with a literal crash. A criminal on the run named Smiler Grogan (Jimmy Durante) runs his car off the road and is critically injured. A few passers-by who witnessed the crash try to help Smiler, but it’s too late. With his dying words, he tells them that he buried all the money he stole under a big “W” in the coastal town of Santa Rosita. Suddenly realizing that they have been pointed to the location of a potential gold mine, the group quickly rushes back to their cars and speed away in a race to find Smiler’s hidden fortune. Among them is Melville Crump (Sid Caesar) and his new wife Monica (Edie Adams); Ding Bell (Mickey Rooney) and “Benjy” Benjamin (Buddy Hackett), two friends taking a vacation together; businessman J. Russell Finch (Milton Berle), his wife Emmeline (Dorothy Provine) and her mother Mrs. Marcus (Ethel Merman) and truck driver Lennie Pike (Jonathan Winters). As they scramble down the road, more greedy interlopers get involved including motorist Otto Meyer (Phil Silvers) and vacationing British Lt. Col. J. Algeron Hawthorne (Terry-Thomas). After getting into several mishaps, Mrs. Marcus resorts to calling her son, the free-spirited Sylvester (Dick Shawn) to come to her rescue. Several mishaps occur, like a destroyed gas station and a flooded car swept into a river. All the while, the Santa Rosita Police Department that was looking for Smiler takes an observational approach to the mayhem, hoping these foolish treasure seekers will stumble upon the hidden money themselves, thereby saving them the trouble of looking for it. The operation is overseen by the Police Chief T. G. Culpeper (Spencer Tracy), who may have his own designs on capturing the treasure for himself. All of this leads to a series of increasing screwball situations as the different factions of greedy treasure hunters look high and low for that mysterious “W” that marks the spot of the treasure.
When Stanley Kramer promised to make the biggest comedy ever, he meant it. Not only is the main cast in the film impressively stacked, but there are numerous cameos throughout the film from many other comedy icons. There are the briefest of glimpses of Jerry Lewis, Jack Benny, Peter Falk, Don Knotts, Buster Keaton, and many more that show up throughout the movie. But it’s not just the cast that makes this an epic comedy. Kramer treated this like he would with any other epic of the era; creating as Roadshow style presentation that included an overture and intermission. But, the intermission itself would be unique for it’s time period, as speakers throughout the theater and even in the lobby would still play pre-recorded police com-chats giving updates on the characters all while the screen itself was dark. Kramer also had the film shot on the extremely wide Ultra Panavision 70 format. This is the same format with the extreme 2.76:1 aspect ratio that was used on epics like Ben-Hur (1959) and The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), as well as getting a revival many years later for Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight (2015). It was an interesting experiment seeing the tools used for making historical and biblical epics being used for a what is basically a screwball comedy. But it does work in helping to make It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World feel grandiose. Some moments like a scene involving a plane flying way too close to a watch tower really benefit from the big screen presentation. It’s interesting to note that the movie we know as It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is not even the full version that Stanley Kramer envisioned. The movie was the opening day attraction for the brand new Cinerama Dome in Hollywood, a state of the art facility specifically built for presenting Cinerama films. Though World was not made in Cinerama, it’s extremely wide format still fit the dimensions of the Dome’s massive screen. At it’s premiere, the full runtime of the movie was 192 minutes, with overture and intermission. This itself was parred down from a director’s cut of 202 minutes. Unfortunately that cut of the movie remained unavailable for many years, and was mostly lost, with only the full soundtrack of the longer cut surviving. The general release that most people over the years were familiar with was a truncated 162 minute version, and it wasn’t until a careful reconstruction many years later that we finally got the full version back, kind of.
Thankfully, Criterion has included this longer version as part of their release. When I say that it is “kind of” the fuller version, that’s because a lot of the missing footage was never found. Only the audio survives from these lost scenes. So, as part of the reconstruction of the movie, led by famed film archivist and restorer Robert A. Harris, the audio from the missing scenes are placed in their rightful spot within the movie, accompanied with set photos of the same scene to give us a visual representation of what the scene was supposed to look like. It’s not ideal, but it at least helps to give us a better sense of what the original film would’ve been. It’s very similar to the reconstruction of the cut for George Cukor’s A Star is Born (1954), with Judy Garland. If there miraculously happens to be a more complete print of the Roadshow version of the movie that played at the Dome back in 1963 that turns up, then hopefully we’ll get to see the movie that Kramer intended, but for now this restored version with the patchwork fixes is the best we have. As a cinematic exercise, there’s no denying that It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is an impressive achievement. Kramer did a fantastic job making this a spectacle, with some moments that still look impressive to this day (that aforementioned plane scene). But it works much better as a spectacle than a comedy. Not that it isn’t funny in most parts. It’s just that no one would ever declare this movie as the funniest they had ever seen. In many ways, I feel like the epic length is a detriment to the comedy. You look at the movies of Mel Brooks for example, and how they pack so many jokes into such a short amount of time. That rapid fire delivery is what is essential for most comedies, and that’s why so many great comedies know not to overstay their welcome, clocking in on average around 90-100 minutes. There’s very funny moments in Mad World, but they are spread out over a bloated three hours and change. After a while, the comedy becomes tiresome, because it doesn’t have that rapid fire pace that it needs. So, while the movie does succeed in being a fun romp, it comes across as a bit lacking in truly iconic laughs.
For this Criterion release, a full 4K digital transfer was conducted of both the the theatrical (162 minute) and Roadshow (198 minute) versions of the film. The Roadshow cut includes many of those “reconstructed” scenes I talked about as well as some additional edits to get the movie as close to Stanley Kramer’s original version. In both cases the movie looks amazing. The 4K scan of the surviving elements looks immaculate. The film is very bright and colorful, benefitting from all those sun-soaked California locations. The restoration makes good use of the large format film stock elements, and we get a movie presentation that feels as close to how the original film must have looked back when it first premiered. As a resident of Los Angeles as I’m writing this, I have had the great fortune of visiting the Cinerama Dome in the past, and I was privileged to have seen It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World screened on that same screen it premiered on over 60 years ago. So, I have a pretty good reference for how the film was meant to look on the big screen. I can definitely say that Criterion has done the film justice. Even the reconstructed scenes with their inferior elements still work as part of the whole package. Unfortunately, a 4K disc release hasn’t been made for the film yet, so we just have the Blu-ray edition for now. Hopefully this one gets a 4K re-issue in the future. It’s also a good thing that they restored both the longer and shorter versions, so that fans of the film can choose their preferred cut. Personally, I feel that the restored cut is the better version, mainly because it gives more context to the story itself. Criterion has also done a great job with their audio mix for this film. Like most large format movies of the era, Mad World already had a 6 track source, which Criterion was able to restore into an impressive new 5.1 master audio. It’s not as dynamic as movies of this era, but it still does a good job of preserving the theatrical experience. The Ernest Gold score benefits the most from the audio restoration, and there are some pretty great surround sound effects, like with the runaway plane and the film’s finale in the rundown skyscraper. Both visually and audibly this is another solid effort from Criterion in preserving the thematic feel of this classic film.
Like with most other studio made films that have made it into the Criterion Collection, Mad World has a wealth of behind the scenes material to help fill out the bonus features found on this set. On the first disc with the restored cut, we get a re-issue of the audio commentary from 2013, made by aficionados of the film Mark Evanier, Michael Schlesinger, and Paul Scrabo from the movie’s original Blu-ray release from MGM. Also re-issued from that disc is a documentary about the film’s sound and visual effects, including many behind the scenes footage taken from the film’s shooting. There’s also a fascinating short documentary about the film’s restoration. An excerpt from AFI’s 100 Years…100 Laughs special discussing the film is included, with many high profile fans talking about how much they loved the movie, as well as people who were in the film like Milton Berle and Carl Reiner. A recording of the Q and A panel from the screening of the movie at the Last 70mm Film Festival in 2012 at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater is also included. Hosted by Billy Crystal, it included interviews with many cast and crew from the movie who were still alive at the time, including Jonathan Winters, Mickey Rooney, and Sid Cesar. On the second disc with the theatrical cut, there are many legacy materials of the film from when it was first released. We get a two part episode of the Canadian series Telescope, which covers both the making of the movie as well as it’s premiere at the Cinerama Dome. There are also press interviews with Stanley Kramer and many of the films stars that have been assembled, many of them discussing what it was like working on the film and with all these other stars assembled together. A 10 year reunion special hosted by Kramer is also included, with the director reuniting in 1974 with to people like Buddy Hackett, Sid Cesar and Jonathan Winters and talking about their experiences working on the movie. Finally, there radio promos and trailers from both the original release as well as the 1970 reissue included on this set as well. All in all, there is a lot to pour through in this set, and it gives us a fairly substantial look at how the movie was made and what it’s legacy has been.
Over 60 years later, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World still has left a mark on both cinema and comedy in general. There were many other all star extravaganzas made around that time period; some with similarly absurd lengthy titles. There was the Oscar-winning Around the World in 80 Days (1956), as well as Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours and 11 Minutes (1965); which also coincidently starred Terry-Thomas. But, few of these movies have had the same kind of staying power as Mad World. It’s perhaps the assemblage of talent that people find impressive in this movie. Every funny person from that era makes an appearance in the movie. Even the Three Stooges show up for a brief cameo. And while not all of them are at their funniest, it’s still quite an achievement for Stanley Kramer to have found enough room for them all. Of the cast, the ones who shine the most are Jonathan Winters, whose destruction of the gas station is an inspired moment of physical comedy, and Dick Shawn’s truly manic performance as Sylvester. What really helps to make this movie stand out the most though is it’s spectacle. This stands right up there will all the other big screen extravaganzas of the time period. And with Criterion’s excellent restoration work, we get a beautiful recreation of the movie it’s very wide screen glory. While the movie is something that Stanley Kramer could be proud of as a filmmaker, it’s also not that surprising that he left comedy behind thereafter, instead choosing to go back to his comfort zone of “message films” which included the classic Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? (1967). Still, the movie stuck with him, and he appreciated more and more in his retirement years. In 1997, he published his memoir, which he affectionately titled A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World: A Life in Hollywood. For those who are experiencing the film for the first time, this Criterion Collection edition gives you a faithful re-creation of the film both in it’s original cut as well as the one that most people had been familiar with over the years. Hopefully Criterion will revisit this with a 4K re-issue, and hopefully before then a more in-tact cut of the movie may resurface. Until then, this will be the best presentation we can hope for. It may not have the biggest laughs, but the laughs have never come in a bigger package than this one.
