Mad Mad World -1963- !link! | It 39-s A Mad Mad

The film begins with a literal bang (and a literal "kick the bucket" moment). On a winding California highway, an ex-convict named "Smiler" Grogan (Jimmy Durante) flies off a cliff. Before he expires, he tells a group of disparate motorists about $350,000 buried in Santa Rosita State Park under a "Big W."

The motorists—each a walking stereotype of early-60s anxiety—suddenly forget their altruism. They include the bickering Russell (Milton Berle) and his wife's overbearing mother; the cynical J. Russell Finch (Dick Shawn); the hapless sailor Lennie Pike (Jonathan Winters); the anxious Ding Bell and Benjy Benjamin (Mickey Rooney and Buddy Hackett); and the grumpy couple, the Grogan's actual relatives. They scatter, each determined to be the first to the "big W." it 39-s a mad mad mad mad world -1963-

. This was his first foray into comedy, and he approached it with an obsessive "serious business" mindset to maximize every gag. Technical Ambition : To lure audiences away from television, Kramer filmed in Ultra Panavision 70 for projection on massive Cinerama screens. The "Big W" The film begins with a literal bang (and

The movie was shot in , a format usually reserved for sweeping epics like Ben-Hur . By applying this "widescreen" grandeur to a comedy, Kramer created a sense of "epic absurdity." The audience isn't just watching a joke; they are immersed in a panoramic landscape of chaos where cars fly, buildings crumble, and gasoline stations are systematically dismantled by Jonathan Winters in a fit of rage. Why It Still Matters Today They include the bickering Russell (Milton Berle) and

: Stanley Kramer was primarily known for "heavy dramas" dealing with social issues like Judgment at Nuremberg