A Few Words About A few words about...™ It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[widescreenforever]

I had an OMG IAMMMMW moment when watching the Sony Open golf tournament the last couple of days. It's played at Waialea Golf Club in Honolulu, and one of the course's signature features is the W created by four palm trees. Not being an expert on the movie's locations, I had to run to the internet to check to make sure it wasn't the same place. It really sent a pleasant shock through me, because the palms on Waialea looked so much like the ones from IAMMMMW. Then a bit sad, of course, to learn that the trees in the movie have not survived the years.

this may help you ... http://cinemassacre.com/2011/05/12/its-a-mad-mad-mad-mad-world-location-hunt/

 

[Dee Zee]

There is another discussion somewhere about TCM HD and that TCM HD is not really HD yet but it upconverts titles to screen. Some movies are very soft but some, like the Elvis movies they show, seem very sharp on my HD set. Probably all depends on the master they have. The 1991 long Mad World would be a letterbox SD master so it would naturally be soft blown up on a HD TV. Personally, I love the blu-ray version that did come out.

 

[Douglas R]

There is another discussion somewhere about TCM HD and that TCM HD is not really HD yet but it upconverts titles to screen.

Surprised to hear that. TCM HD (via satellite) is true HD in Europe.

 

[Reed Grele]

So the 180 min. version of IAMMMMW that TCM shows is identical to my "restored" laserdisc box set? Just wondering if I should dvr it next time so I can compare. I too now prefer to watch the beautiful blu ray transfer, but still have a soft spot for the old ld box set, even though most of the 'restored" material sticks out like a sore thumb, and doesn't really add that much to the proceedings.

 

[Robbie^Blackmon]

So the 180 min. version of IAMMMMW that TCM shows is identical to my "restored" laserdisc box set? Just wondering if I should dvr it next time so I can compare.

The extended scenes from the laserdisc were not in the version broadcast last week. Seems like the Ben Mankiewicz intro was created with the longer version in mind, but what was shown looked like the general release with intermission lead-in.

 

[BrianSiano2]

There is another discussion somewhere about TCM HD and that TCM HD is not really HD yet but it upconverts titles to screen. Some movies are very soft but some, like the Elvis movies they show, seem very sharp on my HD set. Probably all depends on the master they have. The 1991 long Mad World would be a letterbox SD master so it would naturally be soft blown up on a HD TV.

I remember their broadcast of _Lawrence of Arabia_ looking like an un-upconverted DVD.

 

[Sumnernor]

I have the Blu-Ray of Mad ... World- The box states "A" but it is at least "AB". It runs on a normal German Blue Ray player. Likewise with the Taking of the Pelham 1 2 3

 

[Ray Faiola]

At some point in the late 1970s, Tom Snyder's _Tomorrow_ show did a segment on special effects. His guests included Douglas Trumbull and John Dykstra (who'd just done _Star Wars), possibly Albert Whitlock (they showed the dust storm sequence from _Bound for Glory_) and Linwood Dunn... who shows the matte paintings used in the finale of IAMMMMW.

The late Elwe Yost of Canada also interviewed Dunn, standing in front of his miniature for the IAMMMMW finale's apartment building. The segment was part of a PBS compilation series entitled THE MOVIEMAKERS. Atlantis/Alliance now owns all the Elwe Yost interview footage (a phenomenal library).

 

[Sam Posten]

For those that missed it on TCM it will play again on March 3rd at 12:15pm (ET)

Will program that in. Is it the same cut as the one on Walmart Bluray?

 

[Richard V]

Will program that in. Is it the same cut as the one on Walmart Bluray?

According to Amazon Specs, the Bluray is listed at 160 min. The version shown on TMC was 180 min (intro, intermission, and closing music included)

 

[darkrock17]

Is there going to be a 50th Anniversary re-release sometime this year, maybe around November? Why didn't they release the 180-182min. cut on Blu-ray in the first place?

 

[Ethan Riley]

Because it's a hodge podge cut edited from many sources that would look craptacular on blu ray.

 

[darkrock17]

Because it's a hodge podge cut edited from many sources that would look craptacular on blu ray.

I'd still watch it on Blu-ray

 

[widescreenforever]

I saved the web site but unfortunately Seattle times has taken it down. .so using cut and paste will paste this for you to read this 2004 article: Thursday, March 4, 2004 Cult classic 'Mad World' back in near-original form at Cinerama By WILLIAM ARNOLD SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER MOVIE CRITIC The first time Stanley Kramer's epic comedy, "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World," had a gala premiere at Seattle's Cinerama was April 22, 1964, with a benefit showing for Children's Orthopedic Hospital that launched one of the longest movie runs in the city's history: 11 months. The second time will be at 7 Thursday night, when a new print of the film officially kicks off Paul Allen's Second Annual "Reel" Cinerama Film Festival, a one-week program of ultra-widescreen 70 mm epics from the movie past, presented in the theater's luxurious confines. In the nearly 40 years between these screenings, the film has become both an anomaly -- the longest, most ambitious comedy Hollywood ever attempted -- and a cult legend: the all-time favorite film of an exclusive fraternity of fans that includes Billy Crystal and Sen. John Kerry. And if the film's glory lives mostly in the memories of those who experienced it in its first run -- and its name is not exactly household today -- it may be because succeeding generations have not been able to see it in anything close to its original state. According to Karen Kramer, the director's widow who will be at the Cinerama tonight to introduce the 40th anniversary print, "If you haven't seen it on the big (Cinerama) screen at somewhere near its original length, you just haven't seen it." To step back a moment, "Mad World" was a product of that wonderful lost era of the movies when Hollywood was desperately trying to regain its dwindling theatrical movie audience with a show of "bigness" that people just couldn't find on their TV screens. Kramer says the movie began as a bet between her husband, who was known for his ultra-serious "message" movies ("Judgment at Nuremberg," "On the Beach") and his friend, New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther, who wagered Kramer he didn't have a comedy in him. In his autobiography, Kramer said he was seized by the idea of not just making a comedy but "the comedy to end all comedies ... to gather the most impressive group of comedians ever assembled ... and produce and direct the funniest comedy anyone had ever seen." Kramer credits screenwriter William Rose for the story line that developed and the title, which started out with a single "Mad." Kramer bid Rose two "Mads," and Rose doubled him. "At one point someone suggested a fifth 'Mad' but this was voted down as redundant." The movie was essentially a "greed comedy" that followed four large sets of characters on a wild scramble across the Southwest for a stash of loot -- and it was designed to be epic not only in scope but in length: 210 minutes (3 1/2 hours, plus intermission). Kramer cast his pal Spencer Tracy as the straight man -- a police chief -- and surrounded him with practically every name comedian of the era: Jonathan Winters, Phil Silvers, Buster Keaton, Sid Caesar, Terry-Thomas, Milton Berle, Buddy Hackett and many, many more. After years of planning, he had to shoot fast and under grueling conditions in the California desert through the blistering summer of 1963 -- the only time of the year when he could free up so many star comics from their other commitments. Stanley Kramer He was also under pressure because the film had to be finished in time to be the first attraction of Hollywood's Cinerama Dome, which was opening for the Christmas season. He made the date, and "Mad World" debuted on Nov. 7, 1963 -- 15 days before the assassination of President Kennedy. It was a major box-office hit, and, though critics complained about its length, they mostly liked it. Typical was the P-I review of the time, calling it "absolutely engrossing" with "the wildest chases and the funniest cliff-hanging sequences you have ever seen." It also played well after its long Cinerama run was finished and it was cut down in time and scale for regular theatrical runs. But its shots were composed for the big, big screen and its continuity was designed for an epic length, so it lost a great deal in the reduction. Fifteen years later, Kramer moved to the Seattle area and became a fixture of the artistic community, teaching, writing a newspaper column for The Seattle Times and directing his last film, "The Runner Stumbles," here in 1979. (He returned to Los Angeles in 1987 and died in 2001.) In his Northwest years, Kramer spoke often about "Mad World." He used the title for both his newspaper column and his 1997 autobiography, and he said in a 1979 interview that "it's my favorite film, and it really bothers me that people can only see it in a butchered version." But its legend has consistently grown and so have the testimonials to its greatness. Billy Crystal, for instance, claims to have seen it 18 times in its original run and is quoted as saying, "It's the movie that got me through my father's death." Through its many surgeries over the years, some 13 minutes of its original footage has been lost, but famed film restorer Robert Harris -- another self-professed " 'Mad World' fanatic" -- is now trying to find that footage and restore the film to its original state. In the meantime, as the film's 40th anniversary neared, Karen Kramer went to MGM and coaxed the studio into striking a new print, which debuted in a sold-out birthday gala at the Hollywood Cinerama Dome last fall with many of the surviving stars in attendance. The response was so enthusiastic that she's since shown the print in Austin and Washington, D.C., and she says "I'm amazed at how well it plays to young people -- kids between the ages of 10 and 20 -- who have no idea who these great comedians are." She feels the film is a "masterpiece" and that this special anniversary print -- which runs 197 minutes, 13 minutes shy of the original -- is "close enough" to her original husband's vision. "This print on the (Cinerama) screen IS the movie." She also feels the film's deluxe return to Seattle would be particularly meaningful to her husband. "You see, I talked Stanley into leaving. He didn't want to go back to L.A. at all, and his heart never really left the Northwest. So this homecoming ... it's very special." "Mad World" was shot in Ultra Panavision 70, and its release in 1963 was ballyhooed as "a technical improvement" over the previous Cinerama product because "it only requires one projector, rather than three" and had no intrusive "seam lines" between the three panels of the screen. But the truth was that Ultra Panavision 70 had been around since 1957. And true Cinerama buffs consider it a step backward from the old three-camera Cinerama process, which actually gives a more precise image, greater depth of field and impressive effect of scale. For comparison, this year's "Reel" Cinerama Film Festival will also showcase two three-strip Cinerama films, 1952's "This Is Cinerama" and 1962's "How the West Was Won" -- both of which showed last year, but will be back this time in fully restored prints. The festival will also feature two non-Cinerama epic films that were shot in 70 mm, "Oklahoma!" and "Lawrence of Arabia," as well as four more recent films that were shot in 35 mm but blown up to 70 mm for exhibition: "Ghostbusters," "Krull," "Silverado" and "Total Recall."

 

[widescreenforever]

and I'm sure many of you have seen this web site but will repost it again ..... http://events.hometheaterforum.com/madworld/Mad_World_Page_1.html

 

[Stefan Andersson]

For an illustrated comparison between the regular cut of IAMMMMW (the one released on Blu and DVD) and the longer, incorrectly edited early Nineties cut (released on laserdisc, sometimes broadcast) go here: http://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=361326 The English text is most probably translated from German (the site is German in origin) but is easy enough to follow. It seems to address all or most of the information about the longer edit here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057193/alternateversions On this page the longer edit is called the "TCM print".

 

[usrunnr]

TCM allotted 180 minutes for IAMMMMW, but that included Mankiewicz' introduction, various logos, advertisements and (at the end) promotions for upcoming TCM events. I am not sure of the actual time of the film.

 

[darkrock17]

TCM allotted 180 minutes for IAMMMMW, but that included Mankiewicz' introduction, various logos, advertisements and (at the end) promotions for upcoming TCM events. I am not sure of the actual time of the film.

With all extra stuff like Mankiwicz, logos, and filler it says 192 mins.

 

[Richard V]

For an illustrated comparison between the regular cut of IAMMMMW (the one released on Blu and DVD) and the longer, incorrectly edited early Nineties cut (released on laserdisc, sometimes broadcast) go here: http://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=361326 quote] The cut TCM showed the other day, was the longer comparison version.

 

[Garysb]

The version on TCM being shown on March 3 apparently will be the short version as it is listed as 159 minutes and is being shown in a 2 hour 45 minute time slot . Subject to change as schedule is still 2 months away.