It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World was released on November 7, 1963, just two weeks before the assassination of John F. Kennedy. It’s an adventure comedy film directed by Stanley Kramer about a diverse and colorful group of strangers who fall into a madcap pursuit of $350,000 of stolen cash across southern California, and its large ensemble cast features a veritable who’s who of comedians and actors, with dozens of major comedy stars from all eras of cinema appearing in major and minor roles, including many brief cameos. Filmed in Ultra Panavision 70 and presented in Cinerama, the film followed the 1960s “epic” trend which attempted to lure audiences away from television and back to the movies.

Background

Although well known for serious films such as Inherit the Wind and Judgment at Nuremberg (both starring Spencer Tracy), Kramer set out to make the ultimate comedy film with It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. At more than three hours in its original roadshow version, including overture, intermission and exit music, the result is certainly one of the longest.

Filmed in Ultra Panavision 70 and presented in Cinerama (becoming one of the first Cinerama films originated with one camera), it also had an all-star cast, with dozens of major comedy stars from all eras of cinema making appearances in the film.

It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World followed a Hollywood trend in the 1960s of producing “epic” films as a way of wooing audiences away from television and back to movie theaters. Television had sapped the regular moviegoing audience and box-office revenues were dropping, so the major studios experimented with a number of gimmicks to attract audiences, including widescreen films.

The title was taken from Thomas Middleton’s 1605 comedy A Mad World, My Masters. Kramer considered adding a fifth “mad” to the title before deciding that it would be redundant, but noted in interviews that he later regretted it. The recently announced sequel may add the fifth “mad” back in.

The film’s theme music was written by Ernest Gold with lyrics by Mack David.

In the 1970s, American and Canadian television networks broadcast the film on New Year’s Eve. The last reported showing of the film on major American network television was on May 16, 1978, although Turner Classic Movies has shown the movie regularly since.

Production Trivia

The early scenes in which “Smiler” Grogan goes off the road and the four vehicles briefly speed before slowing down to stop and talk were filmed on the ‘Seven Steps’ section of the Palms-to-Pines Highway (State Highway 74), a generally east-west route mostly south of, and west of, Palm Desert, California. Culpepper forecasts the vehicles — going east — will turn south (a right turn), but the movie shows them turn left. The corner where Durante’s car sails off, known by “Mad World” fans as “Smiler’s Point”, can easily be spotted today on Highway 74, minus the man-made ramp that was removed after the stunt was performed.

Many of the actors performed some of their own stunts, including some spectacular falls by Caesar, physical antics including the famous garage scene by Jonathan Winters, and Phil Silvers’ drive into a flowing river where he almost drowned. Caesar severely injured his back while filming the hardware store scene and was unable to return to the film for some time. Silvers injured himself shortly before the shooting of the scene (near the end of the movie) where the male characters chase Culpepper up several flights of stairs and onto fire-escape ladders. As shot, the scene features Silvers’ stunt double.

The gas station scene with Jonathan Winters, Marvin Kaplan and Arnold Stang was filmed at a specially constructed set built on composer Jimmy Van Heusen’s property near Palm Springs, California. Van Heusen first saw the completed gas station on his Friday drive from Los Angeles out to his weekend retreat. He reportedly did not realize that the gas station was a movie set, thinking instead that his business manager had leased a portion of his property for an actual service station. The destruction scene with Winters, Kaplan and Stang was filmed that weekend, with the site cleanup scheduled for the next week. On Monday morning’s return trip to Los Angeles, Van Heusen saw the destroyed gas station lying in a pile and thought something terrible had happened. As the property owner, he believed he might be sued by injured parties.

During shooting of the gas station’s destruction, the water tower began to collapse too soon because of a special-effects miscue. A combination of a split-screen effect and use of the optical printer repaired the scene.

Much of the scenes that take place on what look like lonely stretches of road were filmed in areas of Southern California that have become heavily urbanized in the decades following the movie’s production; in the scene where Jack Benny encounters Milton Berle’s character and his group, the entire area, which was practically open desert in the movie, is now a modern suburban neighborhood in Yucca Valley, with a Walgreens store, a Wal-Mart, and other major retailers all around.

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The airport terminal scenes were filmed at the now-defunct Rancho Conejo Airport in Newbury Park, California, though the control tower shown was constructed only for filming. Other plane sequences were filmed at the Sonoma County Airport north of Santa Rosa, California.

In one scene, a Beech model C-18S flies through a billboard. The plane was flown by stuntman Frank Tallman, but a communications mix up resulted in the use of linen graphic sheets on the sign rather than paper, as planned. Linen is much tougher than paper, and the plane was nearly destroyed on impact. Tallman managed to fly it back to the airstrip, discovering that the leading edges of the wings had been smashed all the way back to the wing spars. Tallman considered it the closest he ever got to dying on film.

The parking lot sequences near the Big W were shot at Peck Park in San Pedro (Western & Summerland, at the end of the driveway). The actual park site of “Santa Rosita State Park” was the grounds of a private residence at Portuguese Point in Rancho Palos Verdes, just south of Abalone Cove Shoreline Park, where only one of the four palm trees remains. There is speculation that the missing trees may be replanted sometime in the future in commemoration of the film.

The final chase scene was filmed in Santa Monica, most notably at the California Incline, and downtown Long Beach. The cars can be seen passing the Pike amusement park with its wooden roller coaster and traveling around Rainbow Pier. The Arcade under Ocean Boulevard near Pine Avenue also is part of the scene.

Compulsive gambler Phil Silvers had a running craps game going during the production. Jerry Lewis reportedly stopped by the set and left $500 poorer according to Something a Little Less Serious: A Tribute to ‘It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World’, a 1991 documentary found on the 2001 DVD version (Lewis has a cameo appearance in the original film). Veteran stuntman Carey Loftin was also featured in the documentary, explaining some of the complexity as well as simplicity of stunts, such as the day he “kicked the bucket” as a stand-in for Durante.