I've devoted many posts to this movie, mainly because I feel so sentimental about it. My parents took my siblings and me all the way in to Cleveland to see it on a big screen when it was first released, and it left a lasting impression on me. Those were the days of the roadshows, when a really big movie was a special event, with an intermission and even souvenir programs. We had the one from It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World in our basement for years.
For a couple of years in the mid-1970s, CBS broadcast it on New Year's Eve, and it was still a big event. The great music composed by Ernest Gold for the movie was released as a record and it was one of the first that I ever bought. I later purchased all the other formats of it, including cassette and various CD versions. It's a great soundtrack to listen to when you happen to be driving on a mountain road and want to add a little drama to your trip. (I listed to it while going through the Great Smoky Mountains.)
Anyway, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World was probably the last of the really great all-star movie comedies, since its stars spanned the gamut from silent movies to vaudeville to movies to television. Today it would be hard to assemble a comparable cast of not only comedians, but also actors who could do comedy (like Peter Falk).
Nevertheless, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World remains one of the great movies, a time-capsule of comedy and the early 1960s. I watch it every couple of years, and the memories of seeing it as a five-year old come flooding back.
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| A posed shot found in the souvenir book |
