HOLLYWOOD GOES "MAD"
By Raymond Benson
It’s a Mad, Mad,
Mad, Mad World,
the 1963 classic epic comedy directed by Stanley Kramer, is one of those
Hollywood train wrecks that you can’t help but like. It’s a one-of-a-kind all-star extravaganza
featuring some of the biggest names of mostly 1950s and early 1960s comedy (and
a good number of them were known primarily as television actor/comics rather
than big screen performers). The United Artists release was one of a current
trend of movie star ensemble film in which the producers attempt to throw in as
many big names as possible (e.g. Exodus,
Judgment at Nuremberg, The Longest Day). As Kramer himself states in a reunion extra that
appears on Criterion’s new Blu-ray/DVD combo set, “It would be impossible to
make today,†due to the salaries stars demand now.
Nowhere
can you find such a collection of brilliant actor/comics in one motion
picture—Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Jonathan Winters, Buddy Hackett, Mickey
Rooney, Ethel Merman, Terry-Thomas, Phil Silvers, Dick Shawn, Edie Adams,
Dorothy Provine, Eddie “Rochester†Anderson, Jim Backus, William Demarest, Carl
Reiner... to name a few of the more prominent folks in the sprawling story. Spencer Tracy is top-billed and serves as the
anchor, more or less, to the truly insane shenanigans going on. Then there are a bunch of cameos by the likes
of Jack Benny, Jerry Lewis, Don Knotts, and ZaSu Pitts, some of which are
delightful and serve as a “spot the player†game for the audience. Unfortunately, a handful of these cameos are
wasted, having no “punch line†for their appearance. For example, why bring in the Three Stooges
if they’re only going to stand still and stare straight ahead for a few seconds? The Three Stooges were not particularly known
for portraying silent statues on screen. Another disappointment is the use of Buster Keaton. We barely know it’s him (in the general theatrical
release), due to the lack of close-ups or identifiable visual Keatonesque
traits.
All
that sounds terrific, doesn’t it? In
truth, the picture comes off as some kind of bizarre stunt. The plot is paper thin. A bag with $350,000 has been buried beneath a
“big W†in Santa Rosita Park in the California town of the same name. A bunch of nincompoops go their separate ways
and then proceed to go nuts trying to get to the treasure first. In the general theatrical release, Kramer
takes 163 minutes to tell this tale with a series of slapstick set pieces,
mostly shot on location, and generally consisting of crash-bang, destructive,
pratfall humor. A little bit of that
noisy kind of comedy goes a long way. Two
hours and forty-three minutes of it is exhausting. Criterion has also attempted to piece together
something resembling the original road show edition of the film by utilizing
visual and/or audio elements that are, unfortunately, not in the kind of
sparkling condition as the 4K digital film transfer of the general
release. This extended edition clocks in
at 193 minutes. Both versions are too
long, as many of the critics of the time complained. While It’s
a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World has its legions of admirers and fans, I tend to
agree with those contemporary reviews. As with other “big†comedies (1941,
The Blues Brothers), the size of the
stunts and destruction overpowers the humor. Comedy simply works better on a more intimate, personal level.
In
this case, the performances are larger than life. The superstar comics more or less spend the
entire film in a hysterical state, frantically yelling their lines. They
start at a fever pitch and then have nowhere to go from there. Rooney and Hackett are particular guilty of
this. A handful of the principles are also
supposed to be funny, but they end up being annoying. Ethel Merman, in particular, was written and
directed to play the mother-in-law from hell, and she does such a fabulous job
that I want to strangle her in the first five minutes of screen time—but alas,
we have to put up with her for the next excruciating two and a half hours. When it’s all over you feel shell
shocked. But I guess that’s the point.
That’s
not to say there are no laughs in Mad
World. There are. Jimmy Durante “kicking the bucket†is one such
highlight; unfortunately that occurs in the first ten minutes. I particularly like the sequence in which
Caesar and Adams are stuck in a hardware store basement and try all the wrong
things to escape. I’d forgotten what a
babe Edie Adams was in those days.
Technically,
the picture is superb. The
cinematography, particular, is fabulous—imagery of 1963 southern California
almost transforms the picture into a western in which factions of outlaws are
vying for hidden gold.
The
Criterion Collection does an appropriately epic job in bringing Mad World to Blu-ray, and it’s a lavish,
five-disc set—two Blu-rays and three DVDs. The general release version looks absolutely gorgeous (it was the first
picture to be shot for Cinerama without using the Cinerama three-camera
process). The audio commentary (on the
extended version) by Mark Evanier, Michael Schlesinger, and Paul Scrabo, is
very entertaining and enlightening. I
recommend watching the general release edition first, then watching the extended
version with the commentary. Also
included are several fun extras, including vintage and recent television
interviews and spots, an excerpt about the film from the 2000 AFI program 100 Years...100 Laughs, a new
documentary with behind-the-scenes footage detailing the picture’s visual and
sound effects, a selection of humorist and voice-over artist Stan Freberg’s
original TV and radio ads for the film, and more. You even get a map of the locations.
No
matter if you’re a huge fan, or, if you’re like me, a respectful viewer that
appreciates the picture for its earnest in-your-face effort, Criterion’s new
release is an educational journey into mad, mad, mad, mad Hollywood.
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