It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World Overview:

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) was a Action - Adventure Film directed by Stanley Kramer and produced by Stanley Kramer.

SYNOPSIS

They emptied the comedy hall of fame to make this frantic epic. It's like a wide-screen, big-budget disaster movie - only played for laughs - in which half the fun is pointing to famous faces. Tracy is the relatively calm center of a whirlwind as a detective keeping an eye on a herd of citizens out to uncover a stash of stolen bank loot. He has his hands full following Berle, Caesar, Rooney, Winters, Durante, Adams, et al. and on and on. After a long prison sentence Smiler Grogan is heading at high speed to a California park where he hid $350,000 from a job 15 years previously. He accidentally careens over a cliff in view of four cars whose occupants go down to help. The dying Grogan gives details of where the money is buried and when the witnesses fail to agree on sharing the cash, a crazy chase develops across the state. (imdb)

(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).

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Academy Awards 1963 --- Ceremony Number 36 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best CinematographyErnest LaszloNominated
Best Film EditingFrederic Knudtson, Robert C. Jones, Gene Fowler, Jr.Nominated
Best Music - ScoringErnest GoldNominated
Best Music - SongMusic by Ernest Gold; Lyrics by Mack DavidNominated
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BlogHub Articles:

IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD From Criterion

By Dan Day Jr. on Feb 11, 2014 From The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog

Criterion has just come out with one of their most impressive home video releases ever. Stanley Kramer's IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD gets a 3-DVD, 2-Blu-ray set featuring two different versions of the movie and tons and tons of extras. The 1963 super-epic all-star comedy was the brainchild of s... Read full article


CMBA Film Passion Blogathon: IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD

By Irish Jayhawk on Dec 4, 2013 From Outspoken and Freckled

Growing up as a kid, classic comedies were a shaping influence in my life. My earliest memories of classic film derives from the comedies I watched with my family. I recall my grandmother and my uncle Patrick introducing me to comedy classics like Marx Brothers films, the Pink Panther films, Blake E... Read full article


TCM Classic Film Festival - It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)

By Raquel Stecher on May 19, 2013 From Out of the Past - A Classic Film Blog

Cinerama Dome's Honeycomb Ceiling On Sunday April 28th, 2013, I attended a special screening of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) at the Cinerama Dome in Los Angeles. Even though this film is played regularly on TCM and I have had many chances to see it, this was my first time I had watched t... Read full article


How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World"

By David on May 30, 2012 From The Man on the Flying Trapeze

My name is David, and I am a recovering baby boomer. I mention this to help explain the affection I have for movies made when I was a kid, especially from about 1957-65. You can tell me they're cheesy and cliched, and tell me that they reinforce negative stereotypes. I know, and the "intellectual" w... Read full article


See all It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World articles

Quotes from

Melville Crump: Filibuster. Filibuster. Ha. Now you can stick around and watch us take off.
Ding Bell: Listen, Dentist: I *hate* dentists! And I hate *you* so much, that I'm not able to *tell* you how much I hate you, in front of your wife-!
Benjy Benjamin: And visa versa.
Melville Crump: [enraged] Why you... Come on over here!
[Ding and Benji run]
Melville Crump: COME ON over *here*!


Ding Bell: Ah, this is hopeless. We're gonna get noplace if we're gonna continue listening to this old bag.
Benjy Benjamin: What are you trying to do, lady? You trying to split us up so it becomes every man for himself?
Ding Bell: ...And every woman for HIMself?
Mrs. Marcus: One more funny remark from you, buster...


Ding Bell: Hey. It's that hokey dentist.
Benjy Benjamin: Yeah.
Ding Bell: Pass that cab.
Second cab driver: What's the rush?
Ding Bell: What do you mean rush?
Benjy Benjamin: We ain't in any rush, we just wanna get there in a hurry.


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Facts about

Jerry Lewis:  the car driver who deliberately drives over Culpepper's hat.
The cameo by Leo Gorcey marked his first appearance on film since he left the Bowery Boys series in 1956.
Many of the locations for "Santa Rosita" were filmed in Long Beach, CA. The "Santa Rosita" Police Department was in real life the main branch of the YMCA at 6th and Long Beach Blvd. The hardware store the Crumps were locked in was at 5th and Locust.
read more facts about It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World...
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