Review of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) by Edith N — 01 Nov 2009

Should've Been About an Hour Shorter.

There is a certain amusement in the star-studded. Hollywood seems to know this well. Half the comedians in Hollywood were in this one, and it wasn't the only movie like that out at the time. Spencer Tracy's previous film had been [i]How the West Was Won[/i], which was actually even more crammed with stars than this. Arguably better ones, too, at least a lot of 'em. (Phil Silvers was many things, but he's no Gregory Peck.) [i]Around the World in 80 Days[/i] had come out about seven years earlier, with cameos all the time. This film is clearly trying to do the same thing, and since I haven't seen [i]Around the World in 80 Days[/i], I can't say if it does it better than this one. All I can say is that certain of the celebrity cameos were the best part of this, but I don't think that's saying very much.

Smiler Grogan (Jimmy Durante) drives off the side of the road. Five men from four different cars go down to where he's landed to see if they can help. Only it turns out that he was on his way to try to get $350,000 which has been buried "under the giant 'W'" at Santa Rosita State Beach. And he dies. The whole group of them, including the passengers who didn't come down with them, decide that they're going to get the money. Since they cannot decide on an equitable way to divide it, it turns into a giant race to see who can get there first. Cars break down and get run into, planes are hired, Jonathan Winters ends up on a bicycle--it's the famous part of the movie, the running around in search of the ill-gotten gains of a tuna factory robbery from twenty years earlier. And Police Captain C. G. Culpepper (Tracy) is finally going to solve the case of a lifetime and get what he feels is coming to him. And brother, are these people getting what's coming to them.

I've been given to understand for years that I should see this film and that it's utterly hilarious. The people who told me this were lying. For one thing, there are more than a few places that I feel could have been much, much shorter, which would have made them funnier. Did everyone who was involved with this forget that brevity was the soul of wit? At that, there was no saving some of this. There are too many characters. Of course, the reason you can't form emotional attachments to most of them has nothing to do with how many of them there are--it has to do with the fact that almost all of them are incredibly unpleasant people. Emeline Marcus-Finch (Dorothy Provine) becomes sympathetic because she turns out not to want any part in the whole thing, and we can all feel sympathy with that. Also with the fact that she's the only one in her whole family worth bothering with.

Oh, to be fair, Ethel Merman was great as Emeline's mother, because she just took that powerful voice and turned up the shrill. Only the shrill got a little unbelievable. Or at least beyond what I was willing to put up with. And the bizarre devotion of her son, Sylvester (Dick Shawn of [i]The Producers[/i]) was as obnoxious as his strawman hippydom. I find myself unable to remember essentially any character's name and find myself consulting IMDB every time. It's the hazard of this sort of cast, of course, but it's made so much the worse by how unpleasant everyone is. Why should I bother remembering Mickey Rooney's character's name (Ding "Dingy" Bell) when I didn't remember anything about the character except that he was a cheap Rat Pack parody played by Mickey Rooney?

I have run out of things to say about this movie. Absolutely and totally. I mean, I could take up an entire paragraph talking about all the people who are in the movie, a lengthy list, but I don't care all that much. Actually, the part I found most interesting is that Stan Laurel declined a part in the movie because he refused to be in anything after Oliver Hardy died. I mean, that's pretty cool. There's not much to be said about it, though. After all, it's talking about someone who didn't appear in the film. Which I guess tells you all you need to know about the people who did--I care more about Stan Laurel and his respect for his partner. Also, I wish I'd gone over to Heather's and played with kittens instead. Because kittens!