It's every man (and old bag) for himself. It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World is one of those films that as a child I went to the cinema to watch and then proceeded to talk about it enthusiastically in the playground for weeks afterwards. So I find myself here in my middle age with mixed feelings after just revisiting this extravaganza for the first time in many a year. It's very much a film of three parts to me, and each part impacts differently on the entertainment scale. The first part of this multi cast piece is as madcap and as mirthful as you could honestly wish to see, but this sadly ill prepares you for a middle part that outstays its welcome to the point that you can't believe they stretched it to an original cut of 3 hours! The final third of the film saves it from smug overkill because by now you have invested so much time into the film, you thank the gods for any sort of frivolity - and thankfully the film does lift you back up to the happy place that you had visited an hour previously. The cast are fine, where some brilliant shows are mixed in with the merely acceptable ones, and I wouldn't want to be so churlish as to dissect each actors respective show. However, as a Phil Silvers fan I'm rewarded plenty enough and as a Spencer Tracy acolyte I'm burning candles again in his honour. Yet it's Ethel Merman as Mrs. Marcus that lives long and glorious in the memory here, a…

_**Epic screwball comedy-adventure with an all-star cast is overlong**_ Released in 1963, “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” is grand comedy-adventure about several motorists in the remote desert of Southern Cal learning of a buried cache of moolah in Santa Rosita State Park along the coast 200 miles south. A mad scramble to get to the money ensues. The cast is superlative with too many old-time greats to cite. The opening is compelling, the first act culminating with an amusing sequence where Jonathan Winters’ character levels a gas station in the desert. The wild close with the fire truck ladder and corresponding hospital gag is also superb entertainment. The middle of the film, while fun, can get tedious because emptyheaded shenanigans can only hold your interest for so long. In other words, the movie’s just too long for such madcap misadventures. Nevertheless, it’s a fun, energetic flick with top-rate locations and this is the only way to see so many classic celebrities on screen together. The theatrical cut runs 2 hours, 41 minutes whereas the longest cut runs 3 hours, 30 minutes. There are several other cuts. It was shot entirely in various areas of Southern Cal. GRADE: B-

Maybe not since Michael Anderson managed to put together a stellar cast for his "Around the World in Eighty Days" (1956) have we seen quite such an ensemble group of famous faces peppering a light-comedy. This time, it all starts with Jimmy Durante being thrown from his crashing car and surviving just long enough to tell the gathered crowd of a $350,000 fortune buried under the "Big W". Initially the gang decide to work together to find and share the loot, but they can't agree on a formula to distribute it and so quickly it's every man (or dame) for themselves. How to get there? Well there are cars, trains and even an aeroplane put to good use as their "Wacky Races" style antics see friends and families fall out, fall in, row, squabble and use quit a bit of ingenuity to get to the Santa Rosita State Park first!. Meantime, disillusioned cop "Culpeper" (Spencer Tracy) is fed up with his measly pension provision, and it's likely to be his final act to try and locate some stolen cash. Yep. The self same $350,000! He's no fool and as he learns of this group of treasure hunters, he decides to let them do the all of the heavy lifting then just pop up and wave his badge. Can it be that simple? Well, first of all these disparate folks have to find it - and as their journey gradually fills with acrimony and mistrust, you wouldn't want to bet on it. The star here for me is Terry-Thomas,…

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