Itās A Mad Mad Mad Mad World
Film Comedy has had quite a history when it comes to the epic, all-star ensemble projects in which a large cast of characters who (more often than not) engage in some sort of competition in order to achieve a desired goal, ranging in everything from The Cannonball Run to Scavenger Hunt to Rat Race. However, itās never been done better (or funnier) than with the movie that started it all, this 1963 Classic For The Ages by director Stanley Kramer (usually known for his dramas) that featured a lead roster of 12 big name (mostly comedy) Legends, plus a slew of cameos featuring even more Legends, and amazingly, not ONE of these stars literally phone it in with their performances, playing their roles completely to the comedic hilt with this story about a wanted criminal (Jimmy Durante) who has his car fly off a highway during a police chase, only to confide in the handful of people who come to check on him while he lays there dying about a sizable stash of stolen cash in the amount of $350,000 (a fortune by 1963 standards) and where it can be found and recovered, and afterwards, when these total strangers try to debate civilly amongst themselves about how to divvy up the dough, the notion of greed wins out and they decide that itās now every man for himself, with these once decent people now going all out and breaking every law imaginable in order to get to the finish line and recover the loot, truly setting a parable for showing how gaining financial wealth can make people sell their souls and surrender every bit of decorum they have to obtain a fortune, and in so doing being very funny every step of the way. The madness starts off with this initial group consisting of Sid Caesar as a dentist who tries to be reasonable but then decides to show the others how cutthroat he truly can be, along with Edie Adams as his very hot wife; Milton Berle as a hen-pecked husband on the most stressful vacation imaginable, along with Dorothy Provine as his even hotter wife (the only one disgusted by the whole affair) and his monstrous mother in law played by Ethel Merman; Mickey Rooney and Buddy Hackett as a couple of swingers originally on their way to a good time in Vegas but deciding that this is a better idea; and Jonathan Winters as a good hearted but dim witted truck driver whom everybody seems to underestimate but whose steely will (and greed) is as strong as anybodys; and along the way a few other characters get involved, including Terry-Thomas as a pompous cactus-collecting Englishman; Phil Silvers as a slimy con artist who early on incurs the wrath of Winters; Dick Shawn as Berleās lunatic beatnik brother in law; and finally Peter Falk and Eddie āRochesterā Anderson as a couple of cab drivers who get in on the action late in the story, all of which is observed by Spencer Tracy as the police captain who continuously gets updates on their progress throughout the film as they lay waste to Southern California on their mad trek, and amazingly despite being an honest cop his whole life decides that he too wants to become one of the greedy lunatics. The pacing for this near 3 hour film is absolutely phenomenal, never getting dragged down for too long with one set of characters and keeping the story and the laughs rolling, with highlights including but not limited to an enraged Winters singlehandedly destroying a gas station run by Arnold Stang and Marvin Kaplan; a wild fistfight between Berle and Thomas when each man winds up taking a cheap shot at the otherās country; a sexy dance sequence by Shawnās girlfriend played by Barrie Chase; Rooney and Hackettās unfortunate experience riding in a airplane with a rich drunken pilot played by Jim Backus; the circumstances by which Caesar and Adams find themselves locked in the basement of a hardware store owned by Edward Everett Horton, and their insane attempts at trying to get out; and of course the climax, the exact nature of which I cannot reveal but can best be described as a comedy legend tossing contest. All this along with more cameos by the likes of Joe E. Brown, William āUncle Charlieā Demerest, Andy Devine, Norman Fell, Leo Gorcey, the legendary Buster Keaton, Don Knotts, Mike Mazurski, Zasu Pitts, Carl Reiner, and even The Three Stooges! Thereās also a couple of little āsurprisesā here and there that are best left to be discovered. While it certainly will never be argued that this isnāt the best comedy cast ever, itās also important to note that amongst the big budget trappings like the stuntwork, car chases (one of the first movies to use them for comedic effect) and impressive length, the humor and hilarity are still fully intact, because this movie captures a different time and era perfectly, a time when female comedians were actually attractive, when comedy stars had tried and true schtick that they worked to perfection and never failed to make people laugh, when dialogue was actually funny instead of falling on its face being witty or ironic, and most importantly, when the best comedy minds out there knew what true comedy was about, the art of anarchy, using mass destruction and general mayhem with heavy doses of slapstick (instead of using hate and divisiveness to be āfunnyā) to bring a comic concept to a head, and this film pulls it off perfectly, and so even if a younger generation fears the chains of boredom watching a bunch of actors they ānever heard ofā, this is REQUIRED viewing for all those who must know what great comedy is about, a snapshot of a generation of funnymen (and women) who will be eternally remembered for their participation in this, very possibly the greatest comedy ever madeā¦
10/10