WHAT: It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963, 162 min. w/intermission)
WHEN: June 17, 2026 1 PM & 7 PM
WHERE: Pickwick Theatre, Park Ridge, IL
WHAT ELSE: Pre-show organ music by Jake McDonagh at 6:30 PM; prize giveaway
HOW MUCH: $12/$10 advance or $10 for the 1 PM matinee
Advance Tickets: Click Here and select date and time (7 PM).
“Comedy is a grim business… because until you have seen comedians perspire and sweat and suffer to achieve a piece of timing, to hit something right on the button, you really have never understood what real suffering can be.” ~Stanley Kramer, 1974
It was called the “comedy to end all comedies,” and on June 17, 2026– after years of being requested by our patrons– the Pickwick Theatre Classic Film Series will finally light the fuse on It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963). Director Stanley Kramer’s all-star comedy, a tribute to the slapstick tradition, is a wonderful time capsule that shows off the talents of many of the great comedians of that era– both from film and television. It’s a movie that has a loyal fan base, but it would be wrong to assume it’s made up only of baby boomers who fondly remember TV shows like “Your Show of Shows” or “The Phil Silvers Show.” People in their 20s have discovered the magic of Mad World. With all this in mind, we thought it would be a fun way to end our twelfth season of classic movies. And it truly is a movie that requires a theatrical audience for it to work. Scenes that might play quietly in the comfort of one’s own home come to life in a theatre and elicit laughs that otherwise might have been muted. A big audience laughs longer. Part of the enjoyment of this screening will be seeing where the film gets its biggest laughs.
Outside of Mad World, Stanley Kramer was known for the controversial “message films” he made at United Artists. These were the types of movies that got audiences talking: The Defiant Ones (1958) and Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner (1967)– the latter dealing with an inter-racial relationship. Prior to Mad World, Kramer had made Inherit the Wind (1960), which dealt with the issue of creationism vs. evolution. More recently, Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) examined the fascism of World War II. These were what he called “heavy dramas.” Aside from a film he produced in the 1940s called So This is New York (1948), Kramer was not associated with the comedy genre. Critics noted his “lack of lightness” in his films, and he took that as a personal challenge. Whether inspired by a dare or not, Kramer was determined to answer the critics with what would be Hollywood’s first epic comedy– certainly the first in widescreen!
The genesis for Mad World came from the writing team of William and Tania Rose. The Missouri-born William Rose had worked in Britain as a screenwriter, most notably on the production of The Ladykillers (1955) for Ealing Studios. He would write screenplays in America, including Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. While in England, he wrote a story originally called So Many Thieves— and then later retitled Something a Little Less Serious. It was set in Scotland, but the location was later changed to California. The outline was sent to Stanley Kramer and would eventually become the screenplay for It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Kramer would produce and direct what was essentially “Greed on wheels.”. The end result evolved into two scripts: one for the action and one for the dialogue.
After a gangster’s (Jimmy Durante) car goes sailing into a desert ravine, a group of motorists are witnesses to the dying man’s revelation: he had buried $350,000 under the “giant W” in Santa Rosita State Park. Those present at the scene include J. Russell Finch (Milton Berle), his wife Emmeline (Dorothy Provine) and his mother-in-law (Ethel Merman); Melville Crump (Sid Caesar) and his wife Monica (Edie Adams); “Benjy” Benjamin (Buddy Hackett) and Ding Bell (Mickey Rooney); and Lenny Pike (Jonathan Winters). After a disagreement about the proper shares for each person once the money is found, the respective parties split up. It’s every man (and woman) for themselves as they race to Santa Rosita. Along the way, the Finches get a lift from an Englishman, J. Algernon Hawthorne (Terry Thomas), and Pike crosses paths with the opportunist Otto Meyer (Phil Silvers), who makes his own mad dash for the money. Overlooking this situation from a distance are the police, headed by Captain T. G. Culpeper (Spencer Tracy).
The film’s grandiose cast was inspired by the success of Around the World in Eighty Days (1956). Movies like these, which featured ensemble extravaganzas, were trying to lure audiences away from television and back to movie theatres. Though the earlier film had its own robust lineup of cameos– and 68,000 extras, according to publicity– the number of featured players did not measure up to the scale of Mad World. At the top of the cast list was Spencer Tracy, an A-list actor who had worked with Stanley Kramer before in Inherit the Wind. Though he was only in his early sixties at this time, Tracy was in poor health during the making of what would prove to be his penultimate film. He would pass away shortly after the completion of Kramer’s Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. Tracy, whose scenes were shot in nine days, would be heavily doubled in the film’s final chase sequence– by a stuntman in a rubber mask.
Throughout the film, Tracy serves as the eye of the hurricane. His scenes are the calm amidst the comedic chaos that Kramer builds around him. One of Tracy’s best moments is low-key and sublime. It comes during the scene in which he watches the people digging for the buried money in Santa Rosita Park. Buddy Hackett finally notices the older man standing beside him. Tracy casually looks up in that trademark manner of his, and the smiles they exchange is the real treasure of the movie. Tracy is the headliner, but most of the other stars who appear had made their names in television: Milton Berle (playing against type as a rather meek character), Sid Caesar (who sets the plot in motion), Phil Silvers (the film’s primary antagonist), et al. The only other real movie star of the main players is Mickey Rooney who, a generation before, was the biggest star in the world and had co-starred with Spencer Tracy in Boys Town (1938). At the time of Mad World, his career was in a downswing.
Jonathan Winters and Buster Keaton
The film is loaded with cameos and familiar character actors. Many of whom we’ll leave to the audience to discover. Although most of them have little (Jack Benny) or nothing (The Three Stooges) to do, Kramer’s intent was to basically show the entire breath of American comedy going back to the silent era. Other stars were asked to appear but either declined or had other commitments. Some of the biggest names on the list of “what could’ve been” included Groucho Marx, Stan Laurel (who would have played the Jack Benny part), Bob Hope, Harold Lloyd, Jackie Gleason, Red Skelton, Lucille Ball and Ernie Kovacs, who had passed away in 1962. His widow, Edie Adams, is in the movie as Monica Crump. Peter Sellers wanted too much money, and so Terry Thomas was cast in his place. One of those stars with little to do is Buster Keaton, who has a brief role near the end as he helps Spencer Tracy escape. There were additional scenes of Keaton– dialogue scenes on the phone– that appeared in the longer roadshow version of the film, but even then, it was not much for The Great Stone Face. (Coca-Cola advertising gets more screen time than Buster.)
One commentator has suggested, based on William Rose’s outline, that Keaton was intended for the role of Jimmy Durante’s “Smiler” Grogan, who kicks the chase off. This makes almost too much sense that it should be Keaton, but because Durante was the bigger international star, perhaps this was why roles may have been swapped. The Keaton-Durante connection is one example of actors who had previously worked together but share no scenes together. Another case is Jack Benny and Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, who appears later as a cab driver (but with very little dialogue).
Kramer had a broad understanding of comedy construction (Keystone Cops-type chases, etc.), but he knew how to stage it. To some viewers, the comedy might come off as heavy-handed as his message films, but his style plays better in a theatre. Buster Keaton, on the other hand, understood gag construction and physical comedy, and that slapstick was more than just a slip on a banana peel. Keaton was the genius director on that movie set even though he hadn’t made a feature in over thirty years.
With a budget of $9.4 million, filming began on April 26, 1962. Production would last until early December of that year. The film was shot in Ultra Panavision 70. This process, which mimicked Cinerama, featured a large frame image that was three times as wide as it was high. But unlike true Cinerama, the film was shot with one camera instead of three. The movie needed an ultra-wide format to capture the desert vistas and the great many stars who appear in the frame. It’s also the first big epic to put its focus on faces– the mugging by Sid Caesar or Buddy Hackett and the reaction shots of Jonathan Winters. Ernest Laszlo photographed the film. An eight-time Oscar nominated cinematographer, he was a frequent collaborator for both Stanley Kramer and Robert Aldrich. Laszlo won his only Academy Award for Kramer’s smaller scale Ship of Fools (1965).
Mad World was shot in Southern California. One of the most famous locations for the film is Highway 74 in Palm Springs. Other settings included Long Beach and Santa Monica. The airplane sequences were filmed at the former Rancho Conejo Airport in Newbury Park, California. Some of the other flying sequences made use of locations near Santa Rosa as well as in Palm Springs, Thousand Oaks and Camarillo.
Milton Berle and Terry Thomas
Some of the best chemistry in the ensemble is between Milton Berle and the English comic actor Terry Thomas (in a role written for Peter Sellers). They play off each other quite well. Throughout the film, stars work as a team but have their individual moments to shine without always trying to upstage the others. A case in point is Jonathan Winters, a stand-up comic who was making his feature film debut. His big scene, in which he single-handedly destroys a gas station tended by Arnold Stang and Marvin Kaplan, is one of the legitimate comedy gems in the film.
So much of the success of Mad World can be credited to the stuntmen. Reportedly, 80% of the active movie stuntmen in the U.S. worked on this picture. When it wasn’t the stars in front of rear-screen projection, it was the stunt drivers like Carey Loftin, who supervised all the driving stunts. Loftin’s career in stunts went back to the days when he was performing in the Republic movie serials. In later years, he would be the driver in such chase classics as Bullitt (1968) and The French Connection (1971). Mad World also features some stunning aerial work from two legendary stunt flyers: Frank Tallman and Paul Mantz. Tallman is the pilot who flew the twin-engine Beech C-18 through a Coca Cola billboard. He later said it was the closest he ever came to being killed. Besides the fact that there was little clearance between the plane’s wings and the sign, the billboard face was built with the wrong material. Due to a communications mix-up, linen graphic sheets were used instead of paper, making it a harder surface to fly through. Tragedy was averted, but the wings of the plane were severely damaged upon impact.
Filming the climactic chase along the Pacific Coast Highway.
Some of the most talented craftsmen in Hollywood worked on Mad World, including a few King Kong alumni. Legendary stop-motion animator Willis O’Brien was involved in the pre-production on the film. He worked on the visual effects and miniatures up until the time of his death in 1962. O’Brien’s protege, Jim Danforth, did the actual animation of the miniatures. These can be seen in the later sequences involving the out-of-control fire truck ladder. Marcel Delgado had actually built the King Kong model, and on this picture he worked on the miniatures seen in the collapsing fire escape sequence. Linwood Dunn, who had invented the optical printer used for Kong‘s revolutionary composite work, made significant contributions throughout Mad World‘s filming. His best work is seen during the climax. The optical effects seamlessly blended matte paintings with live action.
The four-minute opening title sequence was created by Saul Bass, who had designed the credits for such classic films as Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest (1959) and Psycho (1960). Bass worked with many legendary directors and ended his career with Martin Scorsese, designing the titles for Casino (1995). The opening to Mad World is the first time an animated sequence was used in a 70mm film. Adding to the visuals of the credits is the Oscar-nominated title song composed by Ernest Gold with lyrics by Mack David.
The publicity for the film was enhanced by the artwork of caricaturist Jack Davis. He designed the original theatrical poster. If his style seems familiar, it is because he did the artwork for, fittingly, Mad Magazine. He later parodied his Mad World artwork for the cover of the paperback It’s a World, World, World, World MAD.
Jonathan Winters and Spencer Tracy between scenes.
Mad World premiered at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood on November 7, 1963. It became a major hit, grossing $43.6 million dollars. At the time of its release, there was a 202-minute roadshow version that played in select cities. This longer cut was eventually edited down with some of the more redundant footage eliminated. Sections of it have been restored and released on blu-ray. The film’s tremendous popularity with audiences would inspire other chase comedies– everything from The Great Race (1965) to Cannonball Run (1981) to Rat Race (2001). Unfortunately, many people have never seen Mad World properly. Those who had watched it via pan/scan on VHS tapes in the 1980s, for instance, only saw half the frame. The film’s impact is further lessened by people today who only watch movies on their computer or electronic device.
Mad World succeeds because of its total lack of restraint. Additionally, with no topical references to date it, the film remains timeless. Is it the greatest epic of all time? No. Is it the greatest comedy of all time? Not by any stretch. But it is the greatest comedy epic and a film that truly deserves to be seen on a big screen. The environments add so much to the film’s dimension. Think of the epic landscape that seemingly dwarfs Jonathan Winters as he makes his feeble attempt to catch up to Phil Silvers on the girls’ bicycle. A passionate fan base has made the film an evergreen classic. Over the course of the past twelve seasons, it’s been probably the most requested film with more votes than Gone with the Wind! We are finally able to present it– for the first time on the Mega-Screen!
NOTE: The first 52 patrons through the door at 6 PM will have a chance to win an advance copy of author James Curtis’ newest book, Comedy is a Grim Business: The Making of It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. The book will be released on June 30. We are grateful to Mr. Curtis for contributing these signed copies. The winners will be drawn at 7 PM.
~MCH
A horizontal Cinerama poster. Artwork by Jack Davis.
A Japanese poster.