It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

Synopsis of Movie
It was a big, big, big, big comedy that United Artists and producer/director Stanley Kramer were after, and they certainly got their wish. It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World was not only one of the longest comedies on film (at nearly 3 hours in its original version), it also boasted one of the most impressive casts of comic actors ever assembled: Sid Caesar, Milton Berle, Ethel Merman, Mickey Rooney, Phil Silvers, Buddy Hackett, Dick Shawn, Terry-Thomas, Jonathan Winters and far too many others to mention. Leading man Spencer Tracy held the monstrous cast together, playing the lone straight man in a lineup of jokers.
The screwball antics are touched off by a freak death on a California mountain pass. Recently freed bank robber ‘Smiler’ Grogan (Jimmy Durante, in one of the film’s countless celebrity cameos) careens off a cliff, crashing onto the desert floor below. Before he kicks the bucket (literally), Grogan tells a secret to the motorists who have stopped to help: $350,000 in stolen loot is buried beneath “the big W” at a not-too-distant park. The motorists—henpecked hubby J. Russell Finch (Berle), his wife (Dorothy Provine) and mother-in-law (Merman), dentist Melville Crump (Caesar) and his wife (Edie Adams), comedy writers Benjy Benjamin (Hackett) and Ding Bell (Rooney), dim-witted moving man Lennie Pike (Winters) and two enterprising cabbies (Peter Falk and Eddie ‘Rochester’ Anderson)—all try to decide on a fair way of splitting the cash, but negotiations crumble once greed sets in.
The “every man for himself” race for the big W attracts the attention of the police, and unfailingly honest Captain T.G. Culpepper is soon on the treasure hunters’ trail. By the time the money madness hits its peak, the hunt has been joined by con man Otto Meyer, drunken millionaire Tyler Fitzgerald and others, as one slapstick sequence follows another until the madcap finale.
Shot in the widescreen Cinerama format, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World still barely had room to fit its enormous cast of characters. In addition to the major roles, the movie had surprising cameos at every turn: Jerry Lewis, Don Knotts, Carl Reiner, ZaSu Pitts, Doodles Weaver, the Three Stooges, and once more, too many others to mention. An army of stuntmen was called into service as well, as the film tried to match the size of its cast with the size of its slapstick stunts.
It was the Around the World in 80 Days of comedy, and like that film, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World toured the nation as a roadshow before opening in general release. The movie’s length was cut to just over 2½ hours for the wide release and for subsequent showings on television and on video, but its full 3-hour glory was eventually restored, allowing audiences to recapture the madness as it was meant to be seen.
Movie Release History
1963 - It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad WorldMovie Sub Categories
live-actioncomedy
Movie Studio
United ArtistsCast
Captain T.G. Culpepper Spencer TracyMelville Crump Sid Caesar
J. Russell Finch Milton Berle
Mrs. Marcus Ethel Merman
Ding Bell Mickey Rooney
Otto Meyer Phil Silvers
Benjy Benjamin Buddy Hackett
Sylvester Marcus Dick Shawn
J. Algernon Hawthorne Terry-Thomas
Lennie Pike Jonathan Winters
Monica Crump Edie Adams
Emmeline Finch Dorothy Provine
Second Cab Driver Peter Falk
First Cab Driver Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson
Sheriff Mason Andy Devine
Airplane Pilot Ben Blue
Union Official Joe E. Brown
Tyler Fitzgerald Jim Backus
Police Sergeant Alan Carney
Detective Norman Fell
Jimmy the Crook Buster Keaton
Smiler Grogan Jimmy Durante
Sylvester's Girlfriend Barrie Chase
Mayor Lloyd Corrigan
Chief Aloysius William Demarest
Ginger Culpepper (voice) Selma Diamond
Colonel Wilberforce Paul Ford
Deputy Sheriff Stan Freberg
Billie Sue (voice) Louise Glenn
Third Cab Driver Leo Gorcey
Fire Chief Sterling Holloway
Irwin Marvin Kaplan
Dinckler Edward Everett Horton
Nervous Man Don Knotts
Airport Manager Charles Lane
Miner Mike Mazurki
Lieutenant Matthews Charles McGraw
Switchboard Operator Gertie ZaSu Pitts
Tower Control Rancho Conejo Carl Reiner
Schwartz Madlyn Rhue
Ray Arnold Stang
Truck Driver Nick Stewart
Chinese Laundryman Sammee Tong
Radio Tower Operator Rancho Conejo Jesse White
Fireman Moe Howard
Fireman Larry Fine
Fireman Joe DeRita
Man in Car Jack Benny
Policeman Paul Birch
Detective in Squad Room Stanley Clements
Patrolman Roy Engel
Detective Nicholas Georgiade
Policeman in Helicopter Don C. Harvey
Traffic Cop Tom Kennedy
Police Dispatcher Harry Lauter
George the Steward Ben Lessey
Pilot's Wife Bobo Lewis
Man Who Runs Over Hat Jerry Lewis
Miner's Son Bob Mazurki
Man Outside Store Doodles Weaver
Unknown Chick Chandler
Unknown Minta Durfee
Unknown Cliff Norton
Unknown Roy Roberts
Unknown Eddie Ryder