Criterion ready to release IT’S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD (2 Viewers)

[Bob Furmanek]

It's really interesting the different experience you get from seeing a movie on the big screen.

I had seen VIVA LAS VEGAS many times on television but when I saw a new 35mm print with a receptive audience, it was as if I had never seen it.

Applause after musical numbers is something you don't get at home!

 

[Tino]

I've had the good fortune to see this film many times on the big screen with a large and appreciate audience. It never fails to bring down the house. I used to program film at the Loew's Jersey, a huge movie palace in Jersey City. This was to be the main feature of our opening Classic Comedy weekend in 2001. It was the first time that 35mm film had been shown in the original auditorium since 1986. The Managing Director fought me every step of the way and said the film wouldn't draw. I insisted that it would and presented evidence of the crowds it continued to pull around the country at revival showings. He finally admitted that he didn't want to play it because the film was "mean-spirited and not funny." Well, one hour before showtime, the lines went all the way around the block on Journal Square and we drew over 700 people. The laughter was non-stop. Never underestimate the experience of seeing a great comedy on the big screen with a large audience. It makes all the difference in the mad, mad world.

I was there that night too Bob and it was an amazing experience. I had never seen it on the big screen and seeing it at the Loews Jersey was an awesome experience. The audience loved it. Too bad you don't program the films there anymore. Boy would I love to see this film re-released in theaters!

 

[Reed Grele]

I was there that night and it was amazing to see it with a huge crowd. I'd seen it countless times in 35mm, 16mm and video, usually with a small group (there was one memorable outdoor 35mm show where we set the screen up over a pool - had a visit from the police after neighbor complaints, one of the cops said "I love this movie...but can you turn it down a little."), but the large audience really sold it.

IAMMMMW needs to be played LOUD! It's part of the whole bombastic experience. Played at low levels just doesn't cut it for me.

Back in the '80's I was living in an apartment that had walls so thin that you could hear the neighbors bed springs squeaking at night. One night I was showing off my new sub woofer to a friend. He kept wanting to hear the (then new) THX laserdisc intro played to the max. One of my neighbors kicked the wall so hard it's a wonder his foot didn't come though! No police had to be called... We got the message.

Now I have a house with a dedicated (and somewhat soundproofed) HT system. I can blast my movies at 3a.m. if I want to with no fear of disturbing the neighbors.... Bliss at last.

 

[Neil S. Bulk]

I'm sure it's been mentioned in this thread, but the movie is playing in 70mm this weekend in Los Angeles.

http://www.americancinemathequecalendar.com/content/it%E2%80%99s-a-mad-mad-mad-mad-world-1

 

[Professor Echo]

It's really interesting the different experience you get from seeing a movie on the big screen.I had seen VIVA LAS VEGAS many times on television but when I saw a new 35mm print with a receptive audience, it was as if I had never seen it.Applause after musical numbers is something you don't get at home!

I had similar experiences with CITIZEN KANE at a Illinois college town theater, when the audience gasped at the second "declaration of principles" scene, and seeing THE BIRDS in LA with another audience that seemed to have no knowledge of what was coming. They were on the edge of their seats and the collective tension was incredible. It turned what had been a middling Hitchcock for me into a veritable classic. I know it doesn't seem plausible anymore, but sometimes you can still hit a theater at just theright moment, a vintage classic screening where few in the audience have ever seen it. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, it's truly amazing.

 

[Moe Dickstein]

We had that at the last 1776 screening at the Aero, about 3/4 of the crowd were new to the film and it played brilliantly. I remember seeing Vertigo for the first time during the Harris'Katz restoration in the mid 90s in 70mm and that was pretty incredible too. One film that I didn't like until seeing it in the theater was Kubrick's Clockwork Orange. After being banned for decades, it was allowed for release in Australia and for years would play midnight screenings every week in Sydney and I caught one of those when I lived there.

 

[David Weicker]

I remember seeing The Graduate when I was in college at the University theater.

This exchange got a huge laugh:

Mr. Braddock: Would you mind telling me then what those four years of college were for? What was the point of all that hard work?
Benjamin: You got me.
So I agree about seeing films in a theater with a crowd.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I've told this story before.

When I was at Syracuse University in the late '70s, my roommate and I went to a late night showing of the MGM musical Anchors Aweigh.

I had seen this film any number of times and knew it by heart. But I would say I was about the only one in the auditorium who knew this film so well. The crowd laughed at every joke and gave raucous, thunderous applause to every song and dance routine by Sinatra and Kelly.

It still remains one of the highlights of my collective film-going experiences. Well, that and probably seeing Eraserhead three different times on campus that same year!

 

[JohnMor]

Many year ago I attended a screening of Wait Until Dark at the LA County Museum of Art. I assumed most people would be like me, having seen the film many times. But the theater was packed, and even had some people standing in the back and the vast majority hadn't seen the movie before, murmuring and gasping slightly here and there. Well, when the climax came around and

Spoiler

Alan Arkin leapt from the bedroom,

the audience as one screamed and jumped a bit out of their seats. I have never heard a collective scream so loud. And the friend I was with was pissed that I hadn't warned her. I hadn't thought the reaction would be that big. But it was a great moment and a fun screening.

 

[Charles Smith]

Boy, talk about a choice movie to watch in the company of newbies.

And yet, Wait Until Dark is so superbly constructed that I find if I haven't seen the film in a while, it still catches me by surprise. A delicious film, and a delicious moment.

BTW, it works on stage, too. I've only seen it staged once, by a community theater, and I thought "how in the heck are they going to pull that off?" Well, they did indeed pull it off. Fire departments let theaters kill all the lights for the duration of that scene, and it's a hair-raiser. The production I saw executed that moment as simply and cleanly and as startlingly well as the film.

 

[Joe Lugoff]

It reminds me sometimes of a long Here's Lucy episode.

Now you've gone too far! It's one thing to say you don't like something I love -- but to compare it to that?!

There are more laughs in five minutes of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World than in all 144 episodes of Here's Lucy, which I always call Here's Lousy.

 

[Joe Lugoff]

This is not a film that delves into character arcs or social issues. This movie was made with but one purpose: to provide audiences with a quintessential slapstick comedy that would supersede all prior slapstick comedies.

I don't think this is 100% true. We are dealing with Stanley Kramer, after all. There are character arcs to some degree (look what happens to Culpepper in the course of three hours!), but there's certainly a social message. It's all about greed and corruption. Look how Aloysius says that he knows everyone in the local government is corrupt and he'll blow the whistle if they don't give Culpepper a raise (not knowing Culpepper has become the most corrupt of all).

All the lying and backstabbing that goes on in this movie is part of the overall message that when money is involved, people become pretty bad. The title of the movie says the world is crazy, but I think Kramer and William Rose were saying more it's a BAD world than a MAD one.

Besides complaining that the movie was too long and violent, some of the negative reviews said it presented a too cynical view of people. So there certainly was a message along with the mayhem.

 

[Joe Lugoff]

A friend of mine who didn't particularly care for the movie told me his film professor at UCLA mocked MAD WORLD, telling the students that it was so dumb it couldn't even follow all the rules of comedy, including never showing people getting hurt. I told him I was curious about all those rules and if Keaton and Chaplin ever heard of them. He never mentioned that quote again.

Film professors can be funnier than anything in MAD WORLD! I take it the prof didn't care for the Three Stooges. Who makes these "rules"? Seeing all the male stars in casts and bandages at the end was pretty funny to me. Is it supposed to be better that Wile E. Coyote gets blown up by bombs, thrown off cliffs, run over by trucks, etc., etc., etc., then shows up three seconds later without a scratch on him?

 

[Joe Lugoff]

There are good points to seeing movies with an audience, but sometimes it can be bad. As someone who unashamedly loves musicals, I more than once had the misfortune to sit near men -- always men -- who wanted to show the world they were real men and were dragged to these fruity musicals by their wives.

When I first saw FUNNY GIRL in its reserved-seat original run, with every seat in the theater taken, the two men behind me talked -- loudly -- about sports and business -- through all of the musical numbers, and nothing could get them to stop.

At GREASE, the dude next to me disgustedly repositioned himself in his seat and muttered expletives at the start of every song.

And I remember so well as a kid, seeing my beloved "monster movies," there was always at least one know-it-all kid who felt compelled to yell out "Fake!" at every specials effects scene, even if it was a Harryhausen movie.

And I once saw a popular comedy movie in revival -- can't remember which one it was now -- where the woman behind me had an overwhelming need to show off that she knew the movie well by saying all the comedy lines before the actors on screen did.

Adding in crying babies, people kicking your seat, people smoking, technical breakdowns -- my brother once saw a movie where Reels 2 and 3 were switched -- and the famous sticky floors, and I've decided that Home Video gets my vote for the superior way to see a movie.

 

[Joe Lugoff]

Boy, talk about a choice movie to watch in the company of newbies.

And yet, Wait Until Dark is so superbly constructed that I find if I haven't seen the film in a while, it still catches me by surprise. A delicious film, and a delicious moment.

BTW, it works on stage, too. I've only seen it staged once, by a community theater, and I thought "how in the heck are they going to pull that off?" Well, they did indeed pull it off. Fire departments let theaters kill all the lights for the duration of that scene, and it's a hair-raiser. The production I saw executed that moment as simply and cleanly and as startlingly well as the film.

I saw the original Broadway production of Wait Until Dark with Lee Remick, and the big shock moment worked even better. It's the only time in my life I heard an audience at a play let out such a scream.

But I never really get Wait Until Dark, as many times as I've seen it. Is it really superbly constructed? Or is that a polite way of saying it's contrived? And I'd like to ask -- why does Alan Arkin go through all the trouble of disguising himself when the woman's blind?

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

Boy, talk about a choice movie to watch in the company of newbies.

And yet, Wait Until Dark is so superbly constructed that I find if I haven't seen the film in a while, it still catches me by surprise. A delicious film, and a delicious moment.

BTW, it works on stage, too. I've only seen it staged once, by a community theater, and I thought "how in the heck are they going to pull that off?" Well, they did indeed pull it off. Fire departments let theaters kill all the lights for the duration of that scene, and it's a hair-raiser. The production I saw executed that moment as simply and cleanly and as startlingly well as the film.

When I ran this a number of years ago at the Lafayette, we recreated the first-run 'lights off' climax (breaking a few rules since I *also* turned off all the exit lights and aisle lights - that place was *dark*!). It got a fantastic reaction.

 

[Tino]

No matter how terrible audiences behave in theaters nowadays, nothing compares to seeing a great film on the big screen. I will always tolerate unruly audiences for that privilege. And for the record, I usually catch early Sunday matinees to reduce the chance of unpleasant attendees.....who are probably still hungover from the night before.

 

[Matt Hough]

I saw the original Broadway production of Wait Until Dark with Lee Remick, and the big shock moment worked even better. It's the only time in my life I heard an audience at a play let out such a scream.

But I never really get Wait Until Dark, as many times as I've seen it. Is it really superbly constructed? Or is that a polite way of saying it's contrived? And I'd like to ask -- why does Alan Arkin go through all the trouble of disguising himself when the woman's blind?

Because if Suzy had bumped into him accidentally, she might have noted a mustache or the fabric of his clothes, etc. And there was always a possibility that he might be seen by that little girl who was hanging around the apartment house and might have burst in on them.

 

[Steve Tannehill]

One of the best versions of Wait Until Dark I've seen was the version with Stacy Keach on HBO. Early 80's.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled IAMMMMW postings.

 

[BendurTailpipe]

Day one for me, too.

Me too. And a blu-ray player.

Do these players come with extra needles? I'll probably wear a couple out watching this record.