It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World [DVD]

Highly amusing comedy. Spot on entertainment for the whole family. A great story about a madcap group of individuals in search of loot buried under a big W. The film is a virtual whose who of comedy talent from the period. The standouts for me were Winters, Shawn, Silvers and Thomas but all the cast are fine. Some of the stunts are terrific and this has many classic sequences like Pikes destruction of the garage and the discussion about splitting up the money. Its very long but you have to give director Stanley Kramer credit for the dreaming big. Loved this movie as a youngster and I still find it hugely enjoyable in my late fifties. A comedy classic.

To have fun.

A fatally wounded car crash victim, (Jimmy Durante) knowing he's about to literally kick the bucket, informs a skeptical bunch of onlookers that there is an enormous stash of cash buried some two hundred miles away in a famous park “under a big W, a big W I tell ya”. As the onlookers continue their journeys they all decide to go take a look. And so starts a truly madcap race to be first to dig it up.Stanley Kramer's tremendously entertaining and lavish comedy of errors has just about every great name in comedy from the 50's and 60's chasing that cash. Essentially a race/road film from the off, we follow Sid Caesar, Milton Berle, Micky Rooney, Jonathan Winters, Terry Thomas, and a host of other big name stars on the maddest race ever put to film to find that buried loot. Along the way there are so many laughs the 159 or 197 minute version just flies by.Any film made in the sixties inevitably looks a bit dated today, the fashions, the cars, the language, the sexual and race politics, the jokes, however great visual comedy never seems to age, a prat-fall today is no different to one over 50 years ago and it's just as funny or unfunny as is the case. Lots of physical film funny business is wonderfully choreographed into all that motorized mayhem and compliments the pitch perfect performances from all concerned. For me however Jonathan Winters slightly unhinged truck driver and Phil Silvers sleazy conman stole the show even with all that talent competing for screen-time. If you can accept it for what it is, a product of it's time, and not impose more recent enlightened ideas about gender, race, age etc you will find so much to enjoy.You may not recognise all the actors on show but you will recognise many of their voices, Mr Magoo, Top Cat and many other voice over actors made small appearances, as Does Jerry Lewis and The Three Stooges, but blink and you will miss them.A massive hit worldwide, it took over 6 times it's budget and proved that big budget comedies can work. There was talk of a remake a few years ago with Robert DeNero and Ben Stiller but it seems to have stalled or been shelved. If they make one I will be first in line, although I doubt that the original magic could be replicated.My US import Blu Ray has a very nice 60 minute documentary about the film that although not exactly earth shattering has many of the cast and crew talking about their experiences.Great entertainment all round.

Yes, this is more expensive than your average blu-ray. But if you're a fan of classic comedy it's well worth the outlay. Because you're very unlikely to find this at your local charity shop. And although this film still gets the occasional airing on the schedules and streaming services in the UK it's always in its shortened format. Here the restored original is presented. It's the ultimate rainy Sunday afternoon film.There are some genuine laugh out loud moments: especially Jonathan Winter's scenes and the aerial sequences. The slapstick is well done and, unlike some US comedy films, not overdone. Mind you the cast is as close to perfect as you could get at the time. It has dated, but that adds to its charm - just leave your woke/PC head off when you watch it! Plus anything with Terry Thomas in it is normally worth a watch - he's on good form here along with the rest of the cast.There are some great bonuses too.

Great edition with an awesome picture/sound quality (only on the original version) and good extras too. And besides that you have an art book with some cool drawings and some explanations about the history/production of the movie, wich is great for collectors like me... Altough in my opinion it was a bit expensive, it costed me 26€. I rather prefered only the normal version for half the price. And on the director's cut version some of the deleted scenes are photos taken during the production... In my opinion there is no logic adding photos as deleted scenes in a movie... And on the normal deleted scenes also included on the director's cut version the image is really bad, and honestly those deleted scenes didn't add nothing interesting to the movie... For a criterion version expensive as this one they should have treated the deleted scenes way better, so that they could fit perfectly in the movie, but unfortunately they didn't... And besides that there are no subtitles of any kind in the director's cut version... But this was the only available version so i bought it anyway. In general i'm happy with this purchase, and this blu ray version was saved by the awesome work done on the original version (4K image resolution and great sound). This is one of my favourite classics of all time and now i finally have it on my collection. But like i said half the price for only the cd of the original version would be a way better purchase in my opinion... Altough i recommend this to all collectors that love good old comedies like me. This is one of the best, If not the best comedy off all time, it's a must have in my opinion. I only rated it 3* because of the price and the poor work done on the director's cut version. So dont think twice and get this while you can, it's worth it because of the great job done on the original version... It's a jewel in the movies history. :)