It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World

Original title: It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

1963
Approved
3h 30m

IMDb RATING

7.5/10

47K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

Play trailer3:27

Caper Globetrotting Adventure Road Trip Screwball Comedy Slapstick Action Adventure Comedy Crime

A group of motorists witnesses a car crash in the California desert, and after the driver's dying words indicate the location of a hidden stash of loot, they turn against each other in a rac... Read allA group of motorists witnesses a car crash in the California desert, and after the driver's dying words indicate the location of a hidden stash of loot, they turn against each other in a race across the state to get to it.A group of motorists witnesses a car crash in the California desert, and after the driver's dying words indicate the location of a hidden stash of loot, they turn against each other in a race across the state to get to it.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.5/10

47K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

4,033

1,041

See production info at IMDbPro

Won 1 Oscar
- 3 wins & 10 nominations total

Trivia
Jack Benny's cameo role was originally offered to Stan Laurel, but Laurel turned it down. When his best friend and partner Oliver Hardy died in 1957, he pledged never to perform again. He kept that promise for the rest of his life. By the time this happened, a long shot of the character had already been filmed with a stand-in wearing Laurel's trademark bowler hat. This is why Benny is seen wearing a bowler hat despite never having worn one as part of his regular work.

Goofs
When Pike destroys the restrooms to get at Ray and Irwin, it's clear neither restroom has a toilet stall or a sink.

Quotes
J. Algernon Hawthorne: I must say, if I had the grievous misfortune to be a citizen of this benighted country, I should be the most hesitant at offering any criticism whatever of any other.
J. Russell Finch: Wait a minute, are you knocking this country? Are you saying something against America?
J. Algernon Hawthorne: Against it? I should be positively astounded to hear of anything that could be said FOR it. Why, the whole bloody place is the most unspeakable matriarchy in the whole history of civilization! Look at yourself, and the way your wife and her strumpet of a mother push you through the hoop! As far as I can see, American men have been totally emasculated. They're like slaves! They die like flies from coronary thrombosis, while their women sit under hairdryers, eating chocolates and arranging for every second Tuesday to be some sort of Mother's Day! And this positively infantile preoccupation with bosoms. In all my time in this wretched, godforsaken country, the one thing that has appalled me most of all is this preposterous preoccupation with bosoms. Don't you realize they have become the dominant theme in American culture: in literature, advertising and all fields of entertainment and everything. I'll wager you anything you like: if American women stopped wearing brassieres, your whole national economy would collapse overnight.

Crazy credits
When the globe explodes and credits fall everywhere, the credits of the animators who worked on the title sequence can be seen.

Alternate versions
Buster Keaton had a longer, earlier scene (cut after premiere). In it, Culpepper telephone's Jimmy at his dockside warehouse and discusses his plans to use Jimmy's boat to escape to Mexico with the stolen money.

Connections
Edited into Bass on Titles (1982)

Soundtracks
It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World
(uncredited)
Music by Ernest Gold
Lyrics by Mack David
[Sung by an offscreen chorus during the Overture, with instrumental variations in the score throughout the film]

User reviews461

Review

Featured review

8/10

A Comedy Classic that Still Holds Up...

A couple of years ago, I finally managed to get IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD on video. I saw it as a kid and remember enjoying it but watching it again for 40 years later, I still found myself LMAO. This is still the granddaddy of all comedy/adventures directed by Stanley Kramer, who up to this point had only directed serious dramas like THE DEFIANT ONES and JUDGMENT AT NUREMBURG. A dying man (Jimmy Durante) who was thrown from a car that careened over a cliff, tells a group of witnesses to the accident (Sid Ceasar, Mickey Rooney, Buddy Hackett, Milton Berle, Jonathan Winters) that there is $350,000.00 hidden under a big "W" in a nearby town, which sets off one of the wildest, craziest chase comedies made in the history of cinema. A rather tired and haggard looking Spencer Tracy heads the cast as the cop on the trail of these greedy money-mongers and just about every comedian or comic actor alive in 1963 appears in this film, either in a starring role or cameo and despite this impressive gathering of the best comedic talent in the business, towering over all of them in one of her few film performances, is Broadway legend Ethel Merman, who gives the performance of a lifetime as Berle's shrew of a mother-in-law. Her performance alone makes IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD worth seeing. Check out this classic if you've never seen it.