It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Originally posted a long time ago on Paul’s Reviews Page
I’ll be rating movies on a three zone, 5-star scale. Each movie will be rated
on “Visual Appeal”, “Audio Appeal” and “Story Appeal”. Each of these three
zones can be rated up to 5 stars (or asterisks…. they load faster than
.GIFs)
It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
V: ****
A: ***
S: *****
Synopsis: An unlikely group of motorists learn of a huge fortune burried in a park and race to get to it first.
Thoughts: It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is one of those movies you either love or don’t get. The all-star cast is enormous and the list of cameos stretches for miles. The wide shots (in “Ultra-Panavision”) are spectacular.
The stunts are great and the driving is fantastic. Terry-Thomas, Milton Berle and Ethel Merman make an exquisite trinity of discontent. Mickey Rooney and Buddy Hackett make an oddly fitting Abbott and Costello sort of pair, and when mixed with Jim Backus’ drunken aristocrat and dropped in the cockpit of a
private plane things get downright frightening. Sid Caesar is remarkable. The chemistry between Jonathan Winters and Phil Silver is priceless. While some of the jokes are a bit predicable (now… let’s not forget that this movie was made in the mid-sixties!) and the movie is a bit long, it is well worth setting aside two and a half hours and shutting off the ringer on the phone.