Review of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) by Uditha D — 09 Dec 2011
One thing this grand comedy lacks is restraint. From beginning to end, like the repetitious excess of "mad" in its title, it brims up to the core with comedy, chaos, and mismatched mad-caps. That is what I firmly believe to be the determining part of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World's charm (and charm it has in abundance too).
Spencer Tracy was just about unpredictable as Culpepper in it, and the other performances - most notably (I think) Sid Caesar and Phil Silvers - were wonderfully laughable. In the end, I think that, as its title aptly suggests, the multiplicity of nearly every element in it - the actors, the chaos, the comedy, and of course, the chases - is the the fundamental reason why It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World has delighted and entranced nearly everyone who has seen it.
It's a prettily done work of art, but of course, its lack of restraint and its vast excesses can, in another way, be viewed as a sort of defect or even weakness. In spite of that, I still think it deserves at least a 4 out of 5 stars.
This review of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) was written by Uditha D on 09 Dec 2011.
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World has generally received positive reviews.
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