A group of drivers witness the accidental death of crook Smiler Grogan (Jimmy Durante), who literally kicks the bucket. Before his death, he gives details about the location of $350,000 stolen years before. A wild and interminable chase to end all movie car chase scenes ensues, as the group race 200 miles to the fictional town of Santa Rosita, California. Grogan says the loot is hidden "under the big W".
This epic adventure is a who's who of American comedy. Director Stanley Kramer tried to make "the comedy that would end all comedies". It is overlong at its original 192 minute release runtime, though it was edited down to a 154 minute version and has been available in various runtimes. The official MGM general release version is 161 minutes and it zips along at a very fast pace, yet is still exhausting to watch in one viewing. It is nonetheless quite funny scene for scene. The movie is big, splashy, and frantic as the chasers inflict mayhem on each other with cars, bicycles, elevators, explosives, and other things. They constantly argue about how to split the treasure. Scrupulously honest Police Captain C. G. Culpeper (Spencer Tracy) keeps a watchful eye on the proceedings because he has been on the Smiler Grogan case for years. Tracy is essentially the straight man in this comedy.
Lennie Pike (Jonathan Winters): "Even businessmen, who rob and cheat and steal from people everyday, even they have to pay taxes...and then they decide I'm supposed to get a smaller share, like I'm someone extra special stupid. Even if it is a democracy, in a democracy it don't matter how stupid you are, you still get an equal share."
Lt. Col. J. Algernon Hawthorne (Terry-Thomas) doesn't like America and complains about, "this infantile preoccupation with bosoms. In all the time in this 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 that if American women stopped wearing brassieres, your whole national economy would collapse overnight."
Mrs. Marcus (Ethel Merman): "Now what kind of an attitude is that, these things happen? They only happen because this whole country is just full of people, who when these things happen, they just say these things happen, and that's why they happen! We gotta have control of what happens to us."
The long and complicated narrative is not worth explaining because the plot is ridiculously simple, but in the end all the men are tossed off a fire escape and go to the hospital. This film ends in the hospital where the men are in traction facing criminal proceedings. They all laugh when Mrs. Marcus slips and falls in front of them during another bitching tirade.
Culpeper: "Ginger, I want you to prepare yourself for a little shock. When I tell you what happened."
Ginger: "So, tell me, tell me. I've got this biscuit dough."
Culpeper: "The Smiler Grogan case is solved!"
Ginger: "The WHAT? Now, what the hell is the Smiler Grogan case?"
Culpeper: "The tuna factory robbery. The case I've been talking about for the last fifteen years!"
When the greedy criminals ask Captain Culpeper about their crimes, he replies, "I don't think you have to worry too much about that. My wife is divorcing me, my daughter is applying to the courts to have her name changed, my mother-in-law is suing me for damages, my pension has been revoked. And the only reason you 10 idiots will very likely get off lightly, is that the judge will have me up there to throw the book at."
Basically the movie is an overlong and overblown Keystone Kops-style slapstick car chase comedy that is an indictment of greed. Most people would do anything to be rich, and greed is the driving force of the film. The main reason for the film's inordinate length is the 1960's trend in Hollywood to produce "epics" to entice viewers away from TV and back to the movie theatres. There is no moderation in this bloated movie and some of the scenes are unnecessarily overdone and become tedious and repetitious. Actually, everything is overdone and indulgent: the cast, acting, stunts, jokes, gratuitous violence, and cinematography. But there are amazing driving sequences, innovative stunt work, countless locations, and all comics perform well in this long, long, long, long movie. However, bigger doesn't necessarily equal better.
The cast includes: Milton Berle (J. Russel Finch), Sid Caesar (Melville Crump), Buddy Hackett (Benjy Benjamin), Ethel Merman (Mrs. Marcus), Mickey Rooney (Dingy Bell), Dick Shawn (Sylvester Marcus), Phil Silvers (Otto Meyer), Terry-Thomas ( Lt. Col. Hawthorne), Jonathan Winters (Lennie Pike), Edie Adams (Monica Crump), Dorothy Provine (Eleine Marcus-Finch), Eddie "Rochester" Anderson (cab driver), Jim Backus (Tyler Fitzgerald), Jimmy Durante (Smiler Grogan), Spencer Tracy (Captain Culpeper), Selma Diamond (Ginger Culpeper), Ben Blue, Joe E. Brown, Alan Carney, Shick Chandler, Barrie Chase, Lloyd Corrigan, William Demarest, Andy Devine, Peter Falk, Norman Fell, Paul Ford, Stan Freberg, Loise Glenn, Leo Gorcey, Sterling Holloway, Edward Everett Horton, Mavin Kaplan, Buster Keaton, Don Knotts, Charles Lane, Mike Mazurki, Charles McGraw, Cliff Norton, Zasu Pitts, Carl Reiner, Madlyn Rhue, Roy Roberts, Arnold Stang, Nick Stewart, Joe DeRita, Larry Fine, Moe Howard, Sammee Tong, Jesse White, Jack Benny, Paul Birch, John Clarke, Stanley Clements, Howard Da Silva, Minta Durfee, Roy Engel, James Flavin, Nicholas Georgiade, Stacy Harris, Don. C. Harvey, Allen Jenkins, Robert Karnes, Tom Kennedy, Harry Lauter, Ben Lessy, Bobo Lewis, Jerry Lewis, Bob Mazurki, Barbara Pepper, Eddie Ryder, Charles Sherlock, Eddie Smith, and Doodles Weaver.
There were 52 stunt doubles who were paid a total of $252,000. Carey Loftin supervised all stunts and doubled for Terry-Thomas. However, many of the actors performed their own stunts. Sid Caesar severely injured his back while filming a hardware store scene. Phil Silvers injured himself in the face, and in later scenes his face is never shown to the camera. Silvers nearly drowned when he drives his car into a river. Milton Berle suffered a bump on his body for 6 months caused by Ethel Merman hitting him with her purse. Arnold Stang broke his arm.
Berle, Hackett, Caesar, and Rooney prove their genius in scene after scene. Ethel Merman is very overbearing and funny, never stops bitching, and steals the show. The Three Stooges get one of the picture's biggest laughs by standing motionless and silent as firemen in an airport scene for 5 seconds.
Music is by Ernest Gold, including an overture, intermission, and exit music. Lyrics are by Mack David. The screenplay is by William and Tania Rose. Stanley Kramer produced and directed. The production budget was $9,400,000 and it premiered November 7, 1963 at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood. Filmed in Ultra Panavision 70, it was originally shown in Cinerama (the first Cinerama film using anamorphic lenses). The film's title is from Thomas Middleton's 1605 comedy stage play "A Mad World, My Masters". Stanley Kramer actually regretted not adding a fifth "Mad" to the title.
There are 20 more minutes of this film that have never been released, including a Buster Keaton routine. Pop singers "The Shirelles" filmed a song and dance sequence that was never used, although their performance of the title song and "31 flavours" is part of the film. The last reported showing of this film as a TV broadcast was on May 16, 1978, so you'll have to watch it on home video.
