It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

 

Another random movie trailer to round off the week.  For some reason I've found myself thinking about It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World lately.  I'm not sure why - perhaps it is the weather.  I always associate this lengthy would be comedy with Summer holidays, when TV companies would use it to fill up entire an afternoon.  Moreover, I actually saw it at the cinema one Summer's day during the late 1970s.  It wasn't on rerelease, or anything, it had already shown on TV a few times by then.  It was a school outing.  Every Summer, toward the end of the school year, when the term was running down, exams done and normal lessons suspended, my school used to organise a trip to the local Odeon to fill up a morning.  The film shown couldn't be more than an 'A' certificate, it had to be long and had to be old enough that it was no longer on general release and was therefore cheap to rent.  I recall in other years I saw The Alamo and Young Winston on the big screen on these outings.

Of course, the version we saw wasn't the 'complete' version originally released - nobody has seen that since the sixties, I believe.  It was shot on 70mm format and went out on a limited 'roadshow' release..  Running 192 minutes (the preview version ran 210 minutes), the distributors quickly cut it to 161 minutes, (to allow an extra screening a day at most venues).   For its general release, a 35mm print cut to 154 minutes was used.  This is the version which usually shows on TV and I'm sure is the version I saw that day.   In any version, its a loud and raucous picture.  Whether it is actually funny, I'm not so sure.  I've always had mixed feelings about it: I admire its sheer scale and superb photography, its amazingly well co-ordinated stunts and special effects, (Willis O'Brien of King Kong fame worked on them, in his last job).  I also have a soft spot for any film with Spencer Tracy. Oh, and it has a great animated title sequence designed by Saul Bass.  But I can't help but feel that most of the funny gets lost in the frenetic action.  Sure, parts of it make me smile, but I always feel it should be funnier  than it actually is.  It somehow feels less than the sum of its parts.  But what do I know?  As this trailer makes clear, back in 1963 it was clearly seen as a massive event.  And, to be fair, it still is that and, yes, next time it is on TV, I'll probably end up watching it again.