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

Third Cab Driver: Can't you see I'm talking on the phone? Huh? Give me two minutes! Now listen to me, Sir, I...
[Looks back at Melville]
Melville Crump: Will you take us to Santa Rosita state park?
Third Cab Driver: What's the matter, what happened to you? What was ya, in some kind of initiation?
Melville Crump: We had an accident. We fell into yellow, alright? Hurry up!


Col. Wilberforce: [completely tangled up in the radio's microphone cord] What the HELL is with this wire?


[Pike and Sylvester are digging into a hole that suddenly becomes too close]
Sylvester Marcus: Wait a minute, wait a minute. There's not enough room, Man, you're bugging me. You're bugging me.
Lennie Pike: What are you talking about 'bugging'?
Sylvester Marcus: Cut out, cut out.
Lennie Pike: What's this 'cut out' talk?
Sylvester Marcus: Out, baby. Out, baby. Out!
Lennie Pike: Don't call me a baby!
All: Would you just get out? Get on with it!


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Facts about

The actors were given two huge scripts, one with all the dialogue, the other with the action.
The scene where Melville accidentally knocks the blowtorch into the stairs with the sledge hammer took 86 takes to get it just right.
Jack Benny's cameo at the wheel of a Maxwell was considered inaccurate by his fans because it was missing one thing: Mel Blanc. Blanc supplied the sound of Benny's antique car on radio.
read more facts about It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World...
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