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It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is a 1963 American comedy film directed by Stanley Kramer about the madcap pursuit of $350,000 of stolen cash by a diverse and colorful group of strangers. The ensemble comedy premiered on November 7, 1963.

Mad World Movie Poster

Although well known for serious films such as Inherit the Wind and Judgment at Nuremberg (both starring Spencer Tracy), Kramer set out to make the ultimate comedy film with It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. At more than three hours in its original roadshow version, including overture, intermission and exit music, the result is certainly one of the longest.

Filmed in Ultra Panavision 70 and presented in Cinerama (becoming one of the first Cinerama films originated with one camera), it also had an all-star cast, with dozens of major comedy stars from all eras of cinema making appearances in the film.

The film followed a Hollywood trend in the 1960s of producing "epic" films as a way of wooing audiences away from television and back to movie theaters. Television had sapped the regular movie going audience and box-office revenues were dropping, so the major studios experimented with a number of gimmicks to attract audiences, including widescreen films.

The title was taken from Thomas Middleton's 1605 comedy A Mad World, My Masters. Kramer considered adding a fifth "mad" to the title before deciding that it would be redundant, but noted in interviews that he later regretted it.

The film's theme music was written by Ernest Gold with lyrics by Mack David.

In the 1970s, ABC broadcast the film on New Year's Eve. The last reported showing of the film on major network television was on May 16, 1978.

Cast

 Main characters

* Edie Adams as Monica Crump, wife of Melville Crump
* Milton Berle as edible seaweed company owner J. Russell Finch
* Sid Caesar as dentist Melville Crump (a role originally meant for Ernie Kovacs before his death in a car accident)
* Buddy Hackett as comedy writer Benjy Benjamin
* Ethel Merman as Mrs. Marcus, mother-in-law of J. Russell Finch and a very cranky woman
* Dorothy Provine as Emeline Marcus-Finch, wife of J. Russell Finch
* Mickey Rooney as comedy writer Dingy 'Ding' Bell
* Dick Shawn as Sylvester Marcus, Mrs. Marcus' son and Emeline's brother
* Phil Silvers as the out-of-work piano player Otto Meyer
* Terry-Thomas as Lt. Col. J. Algernon Hawthorne
* Spencer Tracy as Captain C. G. Culpeper
* Jonathan Winters as truck driver Lennie Pike

 Secondary characters

* Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson as a cab driver
* William Demarest as Santa Rosita's chief of police (Aloysius)
* Jimmy Durante as Smiler Grogan
* Peter Falk as a cab driver
* Paul Ford as Col. Wilberforce

Cameo appearances

* Jim Backus as boozy airplane owner Tyler Fitzgerald
* Jack Benny as a man who drives by in a Maxwell, offering to help
* Paul Birch as a policeman
* Ben Blue as the biplane pilot
* Joe E. Brown as the union official
* Alan Carney as a police sergeant
* Chick Chandler as detective outside of Chinese laundry
* Barrie Chase as Sylvester's love interest
* John Clarke as helicopter pilot
* Stanley Clements as squad room detective
* Lloyd Corrigan as the mayor of Santa Rosita
* Howard Da Silva as airport official
* Andy Devine as the sheriff
* Selma Diamond (voice only) as Ginger Culpepper
* Minta Durfee as a crowd extra
* Roy Engel as patrolman
* Norman Fell as a detective
* James Flavin as patrolman
* Stan Freberg as a deputy sheriff
* Nicholas Georgiade as detective
* Louise Glenn (voice only) as Billie Sue Culpepper
* Leo Gorcey as a cab driver
* Don C. Harvey as policeman
* Sterling Holloway as the fire chief
* Edward Everett Horton as Mr. Dinckler, owner of the hardware store
* Allen Jenkins as police officer
* Marvin Kaplan as garage man Irwin
* Robert Karnes as Officer Simmy
* Buster Keaton as Jimmy the Crook (boatman)
* Tom Kennedy as the traffic cop
* Don Knotts as the nervous motorist
* Charles Lane as the airport manager
* Harry Lauter as police dispatcher
* Ben Lessy as George the steward
* Bobo Lewis as pilot's wife
* Jerry Lewis as the man who runs over Culpepper's hat
* Bob Mazurki miner's son
* Mike Mazurki as the miner bringing medicine to his wife
* Charles McGraw as Lt. Matthews
* Cliff Norton as a reporter
* Barbara Pepper as a crowd extra
* ZaSu Pitts as Gertie the switchboard operator
* Carl Reiner as the tower controller
* Madlyn Rhue as Secretary Schwartz
* Roy Roberts as a policeman
* Eddie Ryder as air traffic control tower staffer
* Arnold Stang as garage man Ray
* Nick Stewart as migrant truck driver
* The Three Stooges (Moe, Larry, and Curly Joe) as airport firemen
* Sammee Tong as a laundryman
* Doodles Weaver as a hardware store employee
* Jesse White as an air traffic controller

Judy Garland, Groucho Marx, Stan Laurel, George Burns, Bob Hope, Jackie Mason, Don Rickles, Judy Holliday, and Red Skelton were among the many celebrities offered or considered for roles in the film.

Taglines

* It's the biggest entertainment ever to hit the Cinerama screen! (70mm Cinerama version)
* The biggest entertainment ever to rock the screen with laughter! (35mm general release version)
* Everybody who's ever been funny is in it!
* If ever this mad, mad, mad, mad world needed It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World it's now! (1970 re-release)