It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963)

The dying words of a thief spark a madcap cross-country rush to find some treasure.

Director:

Stanley Kramer

Writers:

William Rose (story), Tania Rose (story)

Stars:

Spencer Tracy, Milton Berle, Ethel Merman

Won 1 Oscar. Another 2 wins & 9 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Spencer Tracy	...	Capt. T. 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	...	Emeline Marcus-Finch
Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson	...	Second Cab Driver
Jim Backus	...	Tyler Fitzgerald
Ben Blue	...	Biplane Pilot

Storyline

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.

---

Plot Keywords:

race | desert | money | mother in law | blockbuster | 

---

Taglines:

If ever this mad, mad, mad, mad world needed "It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world" it's now! (1970 re-release)

---

Genres:

Action | Adventure | Comedy | Crime

---

Certificate:

G

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

2 December 1963 (UK)

Also Known As:

It's a Mad World

Filming Locations:

Santa Monica, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$9,400,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$46,300,000 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Casey Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

192 min 154 min (edited) 174 min (restored video) 182 min (extended re-edit) (Laserdisc) 192 min (original)

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (Westrex Recording System) (35mm prints) 70 mm 6-Track (Westrex Recording System) (70 mm prints)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.76 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the scene where Pike is attacking Meyer at Irwin and Ray's Garage, Jonathan Winters actually injured Phil Silvers at least twice, visibly seen due to Phil Silver's reactions to getting hit. Once when Pike rams the back of Meyer's head into a gas pump a little too hard, and again at least once during when he is hitting Meyer with a pair of spare tires.

---

Goofs

Until the ladder truck shows up for the rescue from the fire escape, the crowd is trying to grab the money that was scattering through the air and onto the ground. In all of the subsequent scenes the money is absent and the crowd reacts as if the rain of cash had never happened.

---

Quotes

Lennie Pike: Weath... Witch... Work. That's it, work. I gotta work on where it is.

---

Crazy Credits

After Spencer Tracy's credit has been shown, the words "and in alphabetical order" appear, and the next group of credits is assembled below them by animated hands: Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett, Ethel Merman, Mickey Rooney, Dick Shawn, Phil Silvers, Terry-Thomas, and Jonathan Winters. But after a moment, the hands reappear to pull out Silvers' credit and move it to the top, then Winters', then Caesar's, and so on until everyone has had had a turn at top billing in the group. The hands then quickly shuffle the credits several more times for good measure, all the time with the "and in alphabetical order" label still in place. The final order is Silvers, Rooney, Berle, Winters, Merman, Hackett, Terry-Thomas, Caesar, Shawn.

---

Connections

Referenced in Tiny Toon Adventures: No Toon Is an Island (1991)

---

Soundtracks

"Thirty-one Flavors"
(1963) (uncredited)
Music by Ernest Gold
Lyrics by Mack David
Played by The Four Mads
Sung by The Shirelles

User Reviews

Personifies everything I hate in movies yet oh how I laughed.

Well-so far I haven't read one good review of this movie on here. I don't have a lot to add except growing up, this was one of my favorite comedies. This is totally slapstick, lots of chases and things breaking-silly and almost plot less-but oh how I laughed. I'm not quite sure WHY I did but I have never been able to view this movie without breaking out into Gales of laughter. Since I'm writing a review, I'd like to try to give a specific reason Why this off the wall, completely silly movie appealed to me so much but I can't because there is no reason. This movie is ridiculous in it's way, but it knows it, and doesn't Take itself at all seriously. It's like Seinfeld-a movie about nothing.(Except Chases, things falling, breaking etc). That's it. But It's funny. It's mindless and it's entertaining and I loved it! Since, I haven't seen it in quite awhile, maybe I wouldn't love it now and I can see how it wouldn't be for everybody but all I know is this is one of the few comedies that rendered me absolutely hysterical through most of it and I'm not the only person who had that reaction. This is coming from someone who isn't particularly fond of slapstick. There's not much else to say about it-it's certainly a mad, mad movie and one that gave me numerous laughs many a time.