It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (PG)
1963 ‧ Comedy/Adventure ‧ 3h 22m
It’s a wonderfully crazy and colorful collection of “chase” comedy, so crowded with plot and people that it almost splits the seams of its huge Cinerama packing and its 3-hour-and-12-minute length. It’s mad, as it says, with its profusion of so many stars, so many “names,” playing leading to 5-second bit roles, that it seems to be a celebrities’ parade. And it is also, for all its crackpot clowning and its racing and colliding of automobiles, a pretty severe satirizing of the money madness and motorized momentum of our age.When its producer-director, Stanley Kramer, started to do this film, which had its official public opening (as distinct from its Sunday benefit showing) last night at the Warner Theater, he said he wanted to make it “a comedy to end all comedies.” I’m glad to say he hasn’t quite succeeded, but he has certainly made it one to reckon with. Bosley Crowther – New York Times • November 19, 1963
