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

Sylvester Marcus: [into a phone] Mama, who's with you? Where are you talking to me... Where are you?
Mrs. Marcus: [into the phone] I'm with this truck driver at Peterson's garage in a place called Plaster City. And will you just shut up a minute so I can tell you what happened!
Sylvester Marcus: Now listen, Mommy, you listen to me close. You stay right there, because I'm coming, Mom. I'm coming to get you right now.
Mrs. Marcus: Will you SHUT UP AND LISTEN?
Sylvester Marcus: Mama, it's all right. Everything's gonna be all right. Your baby's coming to get ya. You just sit there. Sit there, relax, take it easy. I'm coming to get you, Mama! Everything is gonna be all right!
[Hangs up]
Lennie Pike: Well?
Mrs. Marcus: So he's coming here. And I'm not to worry about a thing, because "everything is going to be all right!"
Mrs. Marcus: [to Emmeline] Exactly like your father: a big, stupid, muscle-headed moron!


Lennie Pike: All right lady, are you gonna get out or am I gonna have to throw you out?
Emmeline Finch: Oh please Mr. Pike, don't get upset.
Mrs. Marcus: He's not gonna do anything! Drive on, ya big stupid idiot!


J. Russell Finch: Here,
[pulls a blue bicycle from the mess of furniture that fell out of Pike's van]
J. Russell Finch: take this and go hire us the best car you can find.
Lennie Pike: But... this is a little girl's bike. This is for a little girl. Oh listen, I got to get this stuff back in so I can lock up the van.
J. Russell Finch: We'll put everything away. Will you get going please, will you hurry?
Lennie Pike: Oh okay... I gotta admit. I feel kinda silly. You know what I mean?
[Pedals away on the bicycle]


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Facts about

In the scene where Jonathan Winters backed the truck into the water tower, it actually fell too soon, before the truck actually hit it. To compensate, special effects split the screen and slowed down the side with the water tower so that the fall would coincide with the hit.
Peter Falk improvised much of his dialog in the cab scene.
Cara Williams was originally named as one of the female leads, most likely the Edie Adams role.
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