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It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
Under discussion:
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
(1963)
Name the actors
Released:
November 7, 1963
Director:
Stanley Kramer
*****
There is one-and only one-strike against this madcap version of a road race: it's runs an ungodly 195 minutes (if you find the Roadshow version). I guess that's expected with a cast as large as the one director Kramer assembles here. Among the performers: Spencer Tracy, Milton Berle, Sid Ceasar, Buddy Hackett, Ethel Merman, Mickey Rooney, Jonathan Winters, Peter Falk, Norman Fell...and a whole host more.
What starts out as a race between four cars (the second honeymoon couple, a movie van driver, two buddies and a husband, wife and her mother) for a supposed treasure buried by a man who has run himself off the road turns ultimately into a fifteen participant slapstick journey to recover the loot in the town of Santa Rosita.
This movie, perhaps more than any other, is immune from real criticism. Why? These people are having fun in their roles, with enough cameos to fill ten films in 2007. Especially when the driver literally kicks the bucket in the beginning of the film. Don't believe me? It's one of the best gags in the entire production. The five men watching him die watch the bucket barrel down the mountainside with sheer disbelief. Not a single one of them is going to say what is on their minds because this isn't that kind of movie. We're not going to be hand held and spoon fed through the action; the audience has to do some of the work.
Let's talk about that runtime a minute, shall we? There is a reason why comedies usually run 90-120 minutes: the script and performers are unable to carry that level of slapstick through a longer film while keeping their dignity. No matter how any comic performers you put in a picture, there comes a time when the audience just stops laughing, not because the content isn't funny, but because they're tired of it. Such is the case here, though it takes a good long while for the phenomenon to kick in. For me, it came when the male characters are holding a fire ladder for dear life. We see the ladder sway wildly from side to side, threatening to crash into buildings, into a park and onto power lines. At this point, very close to the end of the picture, enough is enough. That's a perfect time to be ready to wrap up the story, don't you think?
(spout.com)
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TheMovieRambler’s blog
posted on Monday, May 28, 2007 11:05 AM by
JJ79
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