Blu-ray Review It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

[TonyD]

pretty sure this can still be had at walmart.com for $10 free ship to store.

 

[Sky Captain]

Lets hope this blu-ray sells like MAD, it might help open MGM's eyes.

The only way this would sell like hotcakes is if MGM put as much work into pushing this as they've done with the James Bond series on Blu-Ray and the Blu-Ray of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, but it seems that unless it's like the James Bond movies (which have a new installment and are celebrating the 50th anniversery of the franchise) or if there was a remake of It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World to be made by MGM (which would most likely justify a remastered version like the James Bond movies.) That seems to be about it, plus the fact that the movie also seems not to be as remembered by younger generations enough to be released on Blu-Ray in a remastered edition. (sales and all that.)
What we need in schools is a film history class, or for teachers to show old films the way that they read books to kids in class.

 

[Alan Tully]

Yep, to most of the disc buying public, this is an old movie full of people they don't know.

 

[Robert Harris]

Originally Posted by Billy Batson /t/313048/its-a-mad-mad-mad-mad-world-blu-ray-review#post_3969825
Yep, to most of the disc buying public, this is an old movie full of people they don't know.

There were many faces in the film that people in 1963 no longer knew.

RAH

 

[Charles Smith]

And didn't yet know. My 14-year-old self certainly didn't know the "old" ones then (I remember someone explaining that Buster Keaton had been in silent movies), but there was much more of the cast that I took for granted as simply being great character/comedic actors, whose names wouldn't mean anything to me for another decade -- such as Peter Falk. And did I really know Spencer Tracy? Only that he was a familiar "old" face. But the miracle for that 14-year-old is that they all fit. You didn't have to recognize every last person. Everything worked. Every moment was rich, hilarious, and being burned into brain cells as quickly as the images hit the screen.

 

[Sumnernor]

I also have this and it plays on a German player. Therefore the region code is at least AB - probably ABC even though the box states "A".

 

[John Morgan]

There were many faces in the film that people in 1963 no longer knew. RAH

I certainly knew most of them. I was born in 1946, so Sid Caesar, Milton Berle, Phil Silvers were on series television. Being a young film buff, I knew Ethel Merman, Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney and a lot of the guest stars, if not by name, then by face. I don't remember being familar with Jonathan Winters or Terry-Thomas, however. I think what made everything work for me was the characters were written to their comedic strengths. Phil Silvers was close to Bilko, and Berle and Caesar were close to their variety show characters.

 

[Cineman]

I certainly knew most of them. I was born in 1946, so Sid Caesar, Milton Berle, Phil Silvers were on series television. Being a young film buff, I knew Ethel Merman, Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney and a lot of the guest stars, if not by name, then by face. I don't remember being familar with Jonathan Winters or Terry-Thomas, however. I think what made everything work for me was the characters were written to their comedic strengths. Phil Silvers was close to Bilko, and Berle and Caesar were close to their variety show characters.

A few months ago I watched the It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World Blu-ray with some friends from Thailand who were mostly in their 30s and 40s. Although they were conversational in English there was no way they would have been familiar with most of the main stars of the movie much less those brief cameo appearances. I'd say every one of the actors got laughs exactly where they should with this audience. I was most impressed by their reaction to Jack Benny's ultra brief appearance. I doubt most native Americans in their 30s and early 40s could pick out Jack Benny in a photo line up today but these folks got a huge laugh out of his snippet in Mad World without a clue for who he was or what his mere appearance might have meant to 1963 American audiences. Even in the briefest cameos by Jerry Lewis or Don Knotts, it seems the performers still delivered what made them famous and successful in the first place even for audiences not "in the know".

 

[Sumnernor]

Originally Posted by John Morgan
I certainly knew most of them. I was born in 1946, so Sid Caesar, Milton Berle, Phil Silvers were on series television. Being a young film buff, I knew Ethel Merman, Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney and a lot of the guest stars, if not by name, then by face. I don't remember being familar with Jonathan Winters or Terry-Thomas, however. I think what made everything work for me was the characters were written to their comedic strengths. Phil Silvers was close to Bilko, and Berle and Caesar were close to their variety show characters.

I was born in 1035 and lived in the US until the late 60's but I certainly know Jonathan Winters and Terry Thomas ( who was in many english comodies) Thomas was much better in English comodies than when he was in Hollywood. The only reason that Sid Ceasar was in the movie because the husband of Eddie Adams, Ernie Kovacks had just died. - I am sure that many people in the movie I did not recognize but if I don't know them, I will not recognize them.
I am sure Robert Harris statement in post 24 is correct.
Was the negro man forced off the road - was he step-and-fetchit (sp?)ß

 

[ahollis]

I showed it to my 16 year old nephew and he loved it. He did not know one actor or actress in the film but got right into the movie and laugh through out it. This film is great due to the story, directing, and acting. So unlike PEPE which is nothing but a historical reference due to the star cameos. I would surmise my nephew would be on his iPad playing games if I showed that.

 

[Steve Armbrust]

I was born in 1035 and lived in the US until the late 60's

Man, you are old!

 

[Richard V]

Man, you are old!

LOL

 

[Cineman]

Was the negro man forced off the road - was he step-and-fetchit (sp?)ß

No, that was Nick Stewart, who, outside of his dozens of other film appearances, might be remembered best as the janitor/handyman character of "Lightnin'" in the 1950s television version of Amos n' Andy. In a show full of some of the best television sitcom comic performances ever recorded, Stewart (who went by the name Nick O'Demus for that show) was special in that his character was perhaps the most underwritten recurring character on that or any sitcom. He was there purely as a plot device, to add a new complication or misunderstanding to the proceedings and was almost never given a specific joke or punchline. Yet he still managed to deliver prolonged laughs with his every appearance. In Mad World, the look on his face as he struggles to maintain control of his truck is priceless and always gets a big laugh only to be topped by an even bigger laugh with his non sequitur tag line, "I said it before and I'll say it again, I didn't want to move to California".

 

[John Stockton]

Finally got around to watching this. The BD picture is fabulous and I am so glad that it was scanned from 65 MM, and it shows. I wish Universal had done the same with "Airport".

My only gripe is that I noticed the picture was somewhat dark and I had to bring up the brightness a few notches for the Dark areas in the picture to look normal.


Did anyone else have this issue??

 

[Keith Cobby]

No, it doesn't need any tweaking on my plasma. What a great blu-ray of a great film, my favourite comedy of the 1960's together with The Wheeler Dealers, wish Warners would release that on blu-ray.

 

[Charles Smith]

Looks fabulous on my plasma. Aside from a couple of annoying human-error screw-ups in the pacing/transitions of the overture and the intermission, it's a gem of a disc.

 

[CraigF]

Yes, it looked fabulous on the Kuro. It is the first time I wished I still had a projector + very large screen in several years. It should look fabulous large, nothing lightweight about this transfer (unlike many current movies on BD).

Edit: oh yeah, meant to ask: so...why wasn't Don Rickles in it? Such a glaring omisssion, and some interaction between him and Ethel Merman's character would have been appreciated by me...

 

[Vic Pardo]

I saw the film when I was 11 (in early 1965, when it finally came to the Bronx). I knew who quite a few of them were, including, of course, Jim Backus, William Demarest, Arnold Stang, Eddie Anderson, and Leo Gorcey, but also Buster Keaton and Edward Everett Horton, and I'd heard of a lot of the actors before but just hadn't yet seen them in anything, e.g. Peter Falk, Joe E. Brown, Zasu Pitts, Paul Ford (well, I must have seen Sgt. Bilko), Dick Shawn, Jonathan Winters, Edie Adams, etc. Others were new to me, like Ben Blue, who I would see the following year in THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING, while others I would be able to identify after seeing a few more movies and then coming back to IT'S A MAD (4) WORLD, e.g. Alan Carney, Stanley Clements, Lloyd Corrigan, Mike Mazurki, Carl Reiner, Charles Lane, Norman Fell, Doodles Weaver, etc. Eventually, at some point, I'd seen pretty much everyone in the movie in something else and was able to i.d. them. The one that took the longest was Eddie Ryder, who plays one of the crew in the control tower and who I was finally able to i.d. when I saw him in a DVD of "The Dennis O'Keefe Show" a couple of years ago.

 

[Radioman970]

Picked this up Monday from Walmart for $5. Very happy.

 

[Charles Smith]

And finally, the New Year.

Three weeks, ladies.

Why, one can almost feel the presence of a Big W just around the next bend.....