SYNOPSIS

When an elderly thief dies following a car accident, the other motorists involved hear his dying words about burying the money from his last heist under "a big W" in a Los Angeles location and take off on a madcap chase to beat each other to the loot. Hot on their tail is C.G. Culpepper, a police captain who wants to crack the case before he retires. Greed and desperation throw the group into a series of misadventures that culminate in a disastrous free-for-all with police, firemen and rescue squads standing by.

Producer-Director: Stanley Kramer
Screenplay: William Rose, Tania Rose
Cinematography: Ernest Laszlo
Editing: Frederic Knudtson, Robert C. Jones, Gene Fowler, Jr.
Art Direction: Rudolph Sternad
Music: Ernest Gold
Cast: Spencer Tracy (Capt. C.G. Culpepper), Milton Berle (J. Russell Finch), Sid Caesar (Melville Crump), Buddy Hackett (Benjy Benjamin), Ethel Merman (Mrs. Marcus), Mickey Rooney (Ding Bell), Dick Shawn (Sylvester Marcus), Phil Silvers (Otto Meyer), Terry-Thomas (J. Algernon Hawthorne), Jonathan Winters (Lennie Pike), Edie Adams (Monica Crump), Dorothy Provine (Emmeline Finch), Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Peter Falk, Leo Gorcey (Cab Drivers), Jim Backus (Tyler Fitzgerald), Ben Blue (Airplane Pilot), Barrie Chase (Mrs. Halliburton), William Demarest (Chief of Police), Paul Ford (Col. Wilberforce), Edward Everett Horton (Dinckler), Buster Keaton (Jimmy the Crook), Don Knotts (Nervous Man), Carl Reiner (Tower Control), The Three Stooges (Firemen), Joe E. Brown (Union Official), Andy Devine (Sheriff Mason), Sterling Holloway (Fire Chief), Marvin Kaplan, Arnold Stang (Gas Station Attendants), Charles Lane (Airport Manager), Howard da Silva (Airport Officer), Charles McGraw (Lieutenant), ZaSu Pitts (Switchboard Operator), Madlyn Rhue (Police Secretary), Jesse White (Radio Tower Operator), Lloyd Corrigan (Mayor), Stan Freberg (Deputy Sheriff), Mike Mazurki (Miner), Norman Fell (Detective), Jimmy Durante (Smiler Grogan), Allen Jenkins (Police Officer), Doodles Weaver (Salesman), Jack Benny (Man on Road), Jerry Lewis (Mad Driver), Selma Diamond (Voice of Culpepper's Wife), Chick Chandler, Barbara Pepper, Cliff Norton, Roy Roberts (Bits)
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Why IT'S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD is Essential

With its star-studded cast of past and current comedy greats, It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World is a three hour homage to American comedy, featuring some of the most time-honored gags in the comic tradition, from the slapstick chase and car crash that opens the film to the banana-peel pratfall at the end.

The film was one of the first fiction films made in Cinerama and the only comedy ever to use that wide-screen technique. It was also the first Cinerama film to be shot with only one camera. All earlier such films had been shot with three cameras simultaneously.

The cast of It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World featured one of the most impressive arrays of comic talents in lead and cameo roles ever assembled for one film. They included veterans from the worlds of vaudeville (Phil Silvers), burlesque (Buddy Hackett), silent comedy (Buster Keaton), radio (Jack Benny), Golden Age of Hollywood (Zasu Pitts), television (Sid Caesar), advertising (Stan Freberg) and stand-up (Jonathan Winters).

Despite mixed reactions from the critics, the film enjoys a cult following today and it's not hard to find someone who has a favorite memory of the film, whether it's the scene where Jonathan Winters single-handedly wrecks a gas station with his bare hands or the one where Sid Caesar and Edie Adams try to fly a dilapidated airplane.

by Frank Miller