Commentaires des utilisateurs

A couple of years ago, I finally managed to get IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD on video. I saw it as a kid and remember enjoying it but watching it again for 40 years later, I still found myself LMAO. This is still the granddaddy of all comedy/adventures directed by Stanley Kramer, who up to this point had only directed serious dramas like THE DEFIANT ONES and JUDGMENT AT NUREMBURG. A dying man (Jimmy Durante) who was thrown from a car that careened over a cliff, tells a group of witnesses to the accident (Sid Ceasar, Mickey Rooney, Buddy Hackett, Milton Berle, Jonathan Winters) that there is $350,000.00 hidden under a big "W" in a nearby town, which sets off one of the wildest, craziest chase comedies made in the history of cinema. A rather tired and haggard looking Spencer Tracy heads the cast as the cop on the trail of these greedy money-mongers and just about every comedian or comic actor alive in 1963 appears in this film, either in a starring role or cameo and despite this impressive gathering of the best comedic talent in the business, towering over all of them in one of her few film performances, is Broadway legend Ethel Merman, who gives the performance of a lifetime as Berle's shrew of a mother-in-law. Her performance alone makes IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD worth seeing. Check out this classic if you've never seen it.

...since I first saw this movie in 1963 when it opened in my hometown of Salt Lake City, UT. I was 14 years old and went with a church group. The theater where it played did fund raisers for local churches and I remember my mom giving me money to go, which seems like about $1.00. The theater had a big curved; I think was called Cinerama but not sure now.

Anyway, I was so taken with IAMMMMW and it had been playing a while and I saw that it was playing at a different theater; smaller and farther away but it didn't matter. I saw it there at least twice.

I think the next time I saw it was after I was married in 1973 and VHS tapes hit the market. I had a copy of it on VHS and then moved on to DVD when that came about.

I know that in a box someone in my garage, I have about 40 DVD's of movie I love. Whether I'll dig out IAMMMMW since it's available online in several places.

Anyway, I've read about it and talked to others about it and it just dawned on me that for a long time Carl Reiner was the last living cast member. And now, as of 6/29/2020 there are none of the major stars around.

I love IAMMMMW. I know there's some slow parts and things that don't make sense. Doesn't matter to me....

Well, if I named all the famous comedians who were in this film it would a long, long review. Just check the credits - it's unbelievable! Suffice to say, it was an "all-star" cast of everybody you could think of who was a big-name comedian in 1963 including some old-timers like Mickey Rooney, Milton Berle, etc. Add a famous dramatic actor, Spencer Tracy, to the mix,, too, and you have one of the most famous comedies ever put on film.

When I saw this in the theater, and even in the '80s on tape, I liked it immensely, but now it's just a bit loud and too much for me in spots. I'm either getting too old or this film is getting to look dated and corny.....probably both. However, if you want three hours of pure lunacy and escapist fare, you could do a whole lot worse.

Despite all the shouting, this film has some of the all-time most memorable comedy scenes ever put on film. Plus, unlike today's comedies, there is no profanity, no sex, no blood....just silliness and one wild scene after another, with an unbelievable slapstick ending atop a building.

For anyone who collects movies, or enjoys a good laugh, this a "must" for your collection, and I don't say that very often. However, as I get older, all that yelling and screaming has made me downgrade my rating from 10 to 9 to 8 and now 7.

What can I say? It's an epic adventure and comedy rolled into one! It's been my #1 all-time favorite film since childhood, which says a lot. I was surprised to find out how underrated it is. Critics always talk about how it stars so many famous comedians. The novelty overshadows the movie itself. Like I said, I saw this at a very young age, and didn't know who all these actors were. This is the movie that introduced me to them.

It also gets downplayed, being labeled as "slapstick." But that's cutting it short. There's a lot of subtleness in there too. The performances are outstanding. I've never seen a movie that has so many memorable characters all in one.

Each of them go on their own adventure, inter-cutting along the way, as they each have to overcome their own obstacles and meet other characters on their journey. It's like several movies all intertwined together, and most of it happens in real time. The 2 1/2 hour run time feels appropriate and passes like nothing. Every second is entertaining, which is the greatest accomplishment for a motion picture to achieve.

The film resonates with me on a deeper level. All these characters met on the side of the road. They were just ordinary hard working people who had nothing in common, except for one dream. That unreachable fantasy. They all wanted the money so bad. They weren't happy with their lives. They wanted a change, and they would do anything to beat each other. They're overcome by greed which becomes their overlying problem.

Fantastic movie! Full of hilarious moments, and a great story!

I never planned to write a review for this movie, until I took a stroll through the user comments, and was shocked at all the people who think it is.... God help us... overrated. No way. If anything, it is UNDERrated. I see people complaining about the endless shouting, the over the top slapstick, the brashness, the loudness, the length. I can only conclude that these people are a bunch of humorless dorks.

First of all, you can't just sit down to watch a three hour movie without knowing what you're in for. This is not your typical comedy--this is an EPIC comedy, the first of its kind, that inspired other such epics as "Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines" and "The Great Race" (which happens to be my favorite comedy--in fact, I'd like to say it's the better movie, but props go to this one for inventing the genre). And I can't speak for everyone else, but this movie leaves me laughing from start to finish.

Yes, it is very long, but it NEVER has a dull moment. Even if the amazing car stunts aren't particularly funny, you can't tell me they aren't wildly entertaining. I have yet to see an action movie with better car chases than these. And yes, the slapstick is ridiculously over the top, although I can't see how that's a problem (the gas station scene is one of the funniest in movie history, in my opinion). But underneath all the slapstick and shouting, holding the whole movie together, is that incredibly cynical message. It is a movie about kind, decent folks turning into law-breaking lunatics and ruining their lives for the sake of money. The subplot with Spencer Tracey realizing his entire life has been a waste, and then ruining what life he has left, is one of the most tragic story lines I have seen. But it's also pretty darn funny.

All the critics need to lighten up and see this for the absurd, delirious, hysterical farce it is.

10/10 stars.

Often accused of being less than the sum of its parts, "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World is one of the most precious gems in filmdom. True, it's far from being the funniest movie ever. Once, when Monty Python was putting a film together, they found that after fifty-odd minutes the audience stopped laughing. Thinking it was the material, they recut it so the latter material came out first. The audience still stopped laughing at fifty-odd minutes, even with what MP assumed the funnier materials backloaded. The fact is, people can only laugh so long.

Even armed with the information that an audience cannot sustain laughter for three hours, "Mad World" is not overwhelmingly funny. Though lots of dialogue is amusing and all the performances are outstanding, but the movie suffers from a common delusion of people outside comedy, as Stanley Kramer was, that the mere vision of cars crashing is somehow funny in itself. One is reminded of the spectacular sequence in "1941" when a ferris wheel breaks loose and rolls off a pier into the ocean. The sequence itself is jaw-dropping and extremely well-done, and not funny for a moment.

The value in "Mad World" is its cast. Most of the big names in comedy in the 1950s and 1960s made it into the cast (Ernie Kovaks, arguably the brightest of the lot, originally cast in the Sid Caesar role, unfortunately died not long before shooting started). The casting of name comics in tiny roles doesn't do them justice: Stan Freberg has nothing to do but watch Andy Devine talk on the telephone; Doodles Weaver is an uncredited "Man Outside Hardware Store"; the Three Stooges merely show up to be recognized; even Jack Benny, in a miniscule role funny merely because he's in it, doesn't have an impact today because too few people remember who he was. Again, some milk their small roles for what they are worth, giving the movie an undercurrent of true humor beyond the principals: Don Knotts, Carl Reiner, Jesse White, Paul Ford, Jim Backus.

"Mad World" is most valuable simply because it is a cross-section of comedy in its day. Although he was talented in many ways, anyone unfamiliar with Phil Silvers will see him in a performance that was the epitome of what he was famous for. Dick Shawn's manic wildness is captured forever in a way that is little seen in his few other films. Terry-Thomas, whose brilliance was too often relegated to obscure British films rarely seen anymore, is a joy to watch and his British tilt provides a variation from Americans who learned their craft in the Catskills and Vaudeville. Jonathan Winters, whom Robin Williams used as a prototype, was the most gifted ad-lib comic of his day and rarely showed up well when he was constrained by a script and a sustained character, but he brings off many of the best laughs in this film, and, with Arnold Stang and Marvin Kaplan the most memorable set piece in the movie. Milton Berle and Micky Rooney both bring lifetimes of stage and screen work to the project, and their input was invaluable.

All the principals (Berle, Caesar, Adams, Rooney, Hackett, Terry-Thomas, Shawn, Silvers, Winters, Anderson, Falk) are good. Even the ones who seem to have been shorted of funny lines, like Edie Adams, and Eddie Anderson, nevertheless come off well. Although they blend well together, there is a subtle fight between them for attention, to steal a scene with a facial expressions (watch Adams' face, for instance, when Caesar drags her away, in front of the "Big W", though you may have to put it on slow-motion) or a bit of business. You can see each of them thinking, at all times. Each gives an intelligent performance, having laboriously hammered out their timing and their business, and they're all thinking, with the clockwork brains the best comedians have. They may not all be funny every minute, but every moment they know what they're doing, crafting better performances than many Oscar-winning serious actors have ever turned in.

Though the movie might be too bloated for the promised three hours' hilarious ride, with too much dependence on, "Hey, there's Edward Everett Horton flicking a switch!" But anyone who loves comedy and its history needs -- deserves -- to see the best in the business of comedy in 1963 interacting with their schtick, especially if they don't mind sitting through -- occasionally mindless -- car chases and crashes.

Having been born in 1965, it's safe to say that the first time I ever saw "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" was on network television. Every other user comment already reveals enough about the movie, so I'll just stick with my own experiences regarding the film.

If you must know, yes I do believe this film is a well-deserved comedy classic, but it's also loaded with breathtaking scenery (natural and contemporary) that's often overlooked by most critics. Many a fan wants to know where that mountain road is. Since I'm also a fan of big cars of the post-WW2 era I can easily spot every one. Mickey Rooney's Volkswagen must be worth a fortune if it's still around. And I don't care if this movie is over 3 hours long. As one commenter put it it has been edited to pieces. I envy those who saw the original 1963 version of this movie, but even they didn't see everything. The versions I've seen include the original television edit, the director's cut on 2 VHS tapes which contain some "lost scenes" and people I never even knew were in the movie, the DVD, and even a version on TV where some scenes were shown out of order. The director's cut VHS tapes is the best, partially because of those scenes such as additional police observations, as well as having the sense to keep the original overture, entr'acte, and exit music title cards. Unfortunately, the DVD removes those lost scenes and mixes them with a section of other deleted scenes, like a louder version of Buddy Hackett's "17 ways of figuring it" speech, and some riskier ordeals in Santa Rosita Park.

I've come to the conclusion that there's only one solution to this problem -- unless all footage is found and re-installed into the original version, the screenplay must be released into a book and sold to the public.

It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World has to be the funniest film ever made because no one, but Stanley Kramer ever got so many funny people together in one film. With a cast headed by his favorite dramatic player to boot.

Four out of Spencer Tracy's last five films were made for Stanley Kramer. The others, Inherit the Wind, Judgment at Nuremberg, and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner dealt with weighty issues like, free speech, genocide, and interracial marriage. What It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World deals with is greed, simple normal human greed. If something looks too good to be true, chances are it is.

Jimmy Durante an old time crook crashes off a highway and down a steep cliff. He's on the way to digging up the loot from a $350,000.00 robbery from years ago. His dying words tell those people went to aid him where in Santa Rosita Park the loot is buried. Off the group of them go, every man and woman for themselves, with some alliances of family and convenience. A few more treasure seekers get picked up along the way.

That barebones plot description doesn't begin to tell you about some of the funny sequences that follow, Buddy Hackett and Mickey Rooney in a private plane with a drunken pilot Jim Backus passed out, Edie Adams and Sid Caesar trapped in a hardware store desperately trying to get out, Jonathan Winters as the lunkhead truck driver generally running amuck wherever he goes, and Milton Berle the henpecked husband of all time married to the beautiful Dorothy Provine, her braindead brother Dick Shawn and Ethel Merman the mother-in-law from hell. Berle has a package deal and when you watch the film, you'll see what I mean.

Along the way, the treasure hunters pick up Terry-Thomas, Phil Silvers, Peter Falk and Eddie Anderson. And they leave a whole lot of some of the best character actors and comedians who each in their own way contributes a certain specialty they're famous for.

There are two unbilled appearances by Jack Benny and Jerry Lewis each in situations that show off their peculiar style of comedy.

Watching it all is Spencer Tracy as the Captain of Detectives of the Santa Rosita, Police Department both before the camera and between takes. I remember seeing a quotation by Stanley Kramer that with all these comedians on the set, Tracy was like a king with a hundred jesters, each looking to amuse him. Tracy besides keeping track of this freak show has some domestic problems of his own which are told in telephone conversations with the city pension bureau, his wife, and his daughter. Tracy's expressions are priceless.

My favorite in this film has always been Ethel Merman. Mainly because I know someone back in Brooklyn named Gladys who's exactly like Ethel is here right down to the flaming red hair. I haven't lived in Brooklyn for nine years now, but reports I get say she hasn't changed. I can't watch this film and see Merman without thinking of dear Gladys and the schlump that married her.

It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World is about greed, yet greed has never been presented with such rip roaring humor as it is in this film. For those who need a good laugh and who in this world doesn't.

My parents took us when we were little kids and we saw It's a Mad Mad Mad World in 1964. I don't remember much about it because I was only 6 years old back then, but I do remember the audience in the movie theater laughing continuously.

I bought the DVD, which was remastered in DTS Surround Sound, a couple of months ago and it's definitely a good comedy classic to have. My parents came over and they watched it on my High Definition 52" DLP TV, with Surround Sound and they loved it. There's never a dull moment in it because it's good clean comedy that doesn't have to rely on vulgar language, nudity or violence to win the approval of crowds. They definitely don't make movies like that anymore, that's why I gave it a rating of 10.

Although most of the actors in it have passed on, I still love the comedy and acting styles of Milton Berle, Spencer Tracy, Ethel Merman, Buddy Hackett, Terry Thomas and others, plus there are cameo appearances in there with Jerry Lewis, Jack Benny and The Three Stooges.

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, and honestly I feel the film is worth a watch purely just for her. The set pieces are fine and the stunts are truly a feast for the eyes, but ultimately one comes away thinking this film should have been a masterpiece instead of the overkilled and overlong experience that it is. 6.5/10

Well-so far I haven't read one good review of this movie on here. I don't have a lot to add except growing up, this was one of my favorite comedies. This is totally slapstick, lots of chases and things breaking-silly and almost plot less-but oh how I laughed. I'm not quite sure WHY I did but I have never been able to view this movie without breaking out into Gales of laughter. Since I'm writing a review, I'd like to try to give a specific reason Why this off the wall, completely silly movie appealed to me so much but I can't because there is no reason. This movie is ridiculous in it's way, but it knows it, and doesn't Take itself at all seriously. It's like Seinfeld-a movie about nothing.(Except Chases, things falling, breaking etc). That's it. But It's funny. It's mindless and it's entertaining and I loved it! Since, I haven't seen it in quite awhile, maybe I wouldn't love it now and I can see how it wouldn't be for everybody but all I know is this is one of the few comedies that rendered me absolutely hysterical through most of it and I'm not the only person who had that reaction. This is coming from someone who isn't particularly fond of slapstick. There's not much else to say about it-it's certainly a mad, mad movie and one that gave me numerous laughs many a time.

It's hard to call to mind a comedy as massive in scope as "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World," because there aren't any. Even "Dr. Strangelove," where the fate of the world hangs in the balance and several plot lines unfold, seems restrained compared to this sprawling but light-hearted showbiz extravaganza.

Starring everyone, featuring everything, unfolding more or less in real time, and clocking in at an absurdly overlong 161 minutes in the restored version (still short of the incomprehensible 188-minute original cut), "IAMMMMW" is Hollywood at its most...well...Hollywood. It makes "Cannonball Run" look like "Annie Hall."

But Hollywood excess from 1963 tastes a lot sweeter and more wholesome than Hollywood excess from today, and it's hard to imagine anyone not enjoying the razor-sharp comic performances (especially from Ethel Merman), the spectacular chase/race sequences, the ditzy slapstick, and the general sense of goofiness.

It's so entertaining I'd probably vote it an 8 if it were, say, two or two-and-a-quarter hours. But the sheer length causes it to drag heavily for a while after the intermission (YES! INTERMISSION! IN A COMEDY!) before it picks up for the climax, bringing it down to a strong 7 (7.5, maybe?). Whatever you want to grade it, it's an absolute must-see.

I remembered watching this film on television as a child and I remember it being very funny to me at the time.

Today, I sat down to watch it again, nearly 40 years later, and I regret it.

It's amazing how our tastes change over the years.

With a star studded cast of well established comedians, you'd think this movie would have an easy time at being funny. Instead it struggles along *trying* to be funny instead of actually being funny.

This movie is a non stop conglomeration of bad slapstick humor, car chases, and people yelling at the top of their lungs over a paper thin plot. It's painful to watch as an adult.

If you're 8 years old, give it a try. Otherwise give this one a miss.

This was the first time a comedy got the "epic" film treatment and after getting increasingly pretentious in his previous two dramas, Stanley Kramer just went all out for simple old-fashioned fun with the largest ensemble of comic talent he could get his hands on. How big? Consider that this is a film in which both Jack Benny and Rochester appear, but not together (also true of Phil Silvers and his "Sergeant Bilko" nemesis Paul Ford). Just about every big name in TV comedy of the 50s and 60s is here and the results, while not the greatest of its kind ("The Great Race" is a funnier film in my opinion) still manages to deliver the laughs.

It's too bad the remaining ten minutes (plus the police bulletins intermission) of the road show version still is missing, because the expanded version helped me appreciate the film a lot more than I did the first time out when I saw it on TV as a faded pan and scan atrocity. This is one film that makes great use of the widescreen.

I saw this movie for the first time when I was like 11 and I remember crying with laughter. This is also one of the few movies where I remember my mum rolling about on the floor with laughter. Watching it again, as I noticed its flaws, it doesn't quite wow me as much. It is very very long, and I did feel as though the film could have been trimmed a bit as there are some scenes when little happens. The flaws aside it is still one of the funniest and most quotable comedies I have ever seen. The scenery is breathtaking, and the stunts are constantly constructed at a breakneck pace and directed with unusual care and precision. The music is good too, but I have to say the quality of the script is simply genius. There are many lines that are comedy gold and ever quotable, such as "Dingy don't let this worry you-*we're gonna get killed*!" though my favourite is "What do you mean who's flying the plane? No one's flying the plane!" There are many priceless scenes, the aeroplane flying scene especially was hilarious. The performances from the entire cast are outstanding, including Spencer Tracy in his penultimate film and while he is visibly ailing he still shows he is going strong. Ethel Merman, Mickey Rooney, Dorothy Provine and Jonathan Winters also give brilliant performances, but it is Buddy Hacket and Terry-Thomas who steal the film and with panache I must say. All in all, a long but fun and worthwhile comedy. 8/10 Bethany Cox

I can honestly say this is one of the BEST MOVIES EVER MADE! My dad turned me on to movie when I was probably 13 now 41. I still laugh till I cry at this movie!! Highly recommend!!!!

A hot morning on an isolated stretch of California desert road is interrupted by the crash of a speeding car. Five motorists stop to help (this is in 1963) and the dying driver tells them of a vast sum of riches, $350,000 (again, 1963), buried under "a big W". After he literally kicks the bucket, the motorists' budding partnership to fortune falls apart as greed and suspicion set in.

Stanley Kramer was known as a maker of serious social films about problems like racism and religious persecution. "It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World" was his foray into comedy, though one dealing with the problem of greed. Money was a problem for the film, too. Made as a "comedy spectacular" over three hours in length, "Mad4" only just earned back its high cost. Kramer later sighed the film "just had too much of everything". Ironically, it stands today as his most popularly remembered film.

I definitely see Kramer's point. "Mad4" is overloaded with everything: stars; stunts; setpieces; hairpieces; slow burns; gurns; twists and turns; one-liners; wisecracks; pratfalls, insult humor; and a walking, talking mother-in-law joke in the form of formidable Ethel Merman. There's little subtlety to the humor, and no heart. Everyone suffers miserably in pursuit of the money, deservedly or not.

Does everyone have their own favorite character, who they root for? It's J. Russell Finch (Milton Berle) for me. He's stuck with both Merman as mother-in-law and crazy Sylvester (Dick Shawn) for a brother-in-law. He does have a couple of things going for him, a jaunty captain's cap and a pleasant British traveling companion Col. Hawthorne (Terry-Thomas), though things sour between them when Hawthorne comments on the "totally emasculated" American male, of which Finch is a prime example.

"They die like flies from coronary thrombosis while their women sit under hair dryers eating chocolates and arranging for every second Tuesday to be some sort of Mother's Day," Hawthorne notes. "And this positively preposterous preoccupation with bosoms..."

The comedy is not always this sharp, however. More often, "Mad4" substitutes comedy with shots of people in crazy, dangerous situations screaming or crying, sometimes both at once. The film succeeds as much as it does from piling on talent: No sooner do the first group of comedians begin overstaying their welcome than they meet up with other, fresher characters, including Shawn, Terry-Thomas, and Phil Silvers as a delightfully snakey lowlife, one of the few characters in the story who genuinely deserves his miserable fate.

"Mad4" may celebrate film comedy, but most of its key actors earned lasting fame either on TV (Berle, Silvers, Sid Caesar) or on stage (Merman, Shawn, Jonathan Winters, Buddy Hackett). The only genuine comedy film legends here are Jerry Lewis and Buster Keaton, who have one line and 20 seconds on screen between them. But its great especially seeing Berle, Merman, Silvers, and Winters shining on screen, given the paucity of film roles in their otherwise sterling careers. Shawn is good, too, though I enjoyed his performance more when I was 15.

Maybe the film's biggest miscalculation, other than going as long as it does, is casting Spencer Tracy as Chief Culpepper, who watches the proceedings with wry, tired bemusement. He doesn't seem to be in the same film as anyone else, even when he's on the scene with the others at the end. I admit I'm not a Tracy fan, but even Katharine Hepburn couldn't have seen much to enjoy here.

Great stunts, though, and some genuine laughs make this fun to watch, even when it does drag. "Mad4" works today as both a comedy time capsule and a still-zany goofball lark for wiling away a lazy Sunday.

So I watched 1963's classic comedy "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World", directed by the late great Stanley Kramer. This is the second review I have done of a Kramer film recently the other being "Judgment at Nuremberg." So is this movie truly a classic, I say hell yes! This movie is hilarious (the exact opposite of Nuremberg). The movie starts with a dying man telling a group of perfect strangers about the location where a large stash of cash is buried and the hilarity ensues. This movie has an ensemble cast, which includes several of the best comedians of the 60's including Jonathan Winters and Phil Silvers. This movie is also full of cameo appearances including a brief shot of the three stooges. This movie is just one laugh after another. It is perfectly acted, and the story allows the characters to get into crazy disasters one after the other, without seeming contrived. A very similar movie was made a few years ago called "rat race." However, this film is far superior though I did kind of like rat race, it's funny (not good but funny). This movie is not only good it is excellent and should be liked by a broad audience including kids. I would rank it among one of the best comedic films of all time. if you like concise reviews of interesting films please read my other reviews at http://raouldukeatthemovies.blogspot.com/

A fully restored brand new 70mm print in it's original format of "Super Panavision" (the image on the 70mm frame was squeezed which resulted in a much wider picture than regular "CinemaScope/Panavision") - was recently produced, and for which to present it, theaters had to hire special lenses from Panavision - and re-configure their screens, BUT the pleasure of witnessing this comedy gem in its original theatrical format far outweighed the logistical hassles of its presentation. From the deliriously choreographed opening titles and memorable music, you knew you were in for a treat. Although some of the plot line and dialog are now dated, the performances were spot on the mark. In particular Ethel Merman's demented mother-in-law character will leave you in stitches. For those lucky enough to have seen this in a 70mm Super Panavision theatrical screening - you have witnessed a vanished part of Hollywood history.

If ever a movie (and in particular, a comedy) deserved a 10-star rating, this is it. From first to last, this movie is terrific. I have seen it so many times (and so has my family) that we have dozens of standing jokes/gags in our collective repertoire derived from it. Two things make it great: (1) the script, which is just crackling with fabulously hilarious lines for all the actors; and (2) the cast which, without doubt, is the greatest comic cast ever assembled in the history of the civilized world.

It's so hard to single out individual performances when they were all so good, but...

• Spencer Tracy: his portrayal of the henpecked, tired, ready-to-retire civil servant is phenomenally realistic.

• Ethel Merman: can you even begin to imagine someone else in that role?

• Jonathan Winters: the big sweet guy you can't help but like.

This film is the gold standard by which every comedy is judged; very few even come close, and there isn't one that has surpassed it. Nor is there likely ever to be one, given how comic creativity is generally in the skids.

The plot device and the actual quality of the script is nearly irrelevant.

It's like going to an all-star game. You don't go because it's going to be a great game. You go because you want to see all of your favorite players in one place at one time.

Or one of those rock concerts with 20 different acts playing a couple of songs each. They may have their moments but by necessity their greatness is strictly in the number of big name acts to perform.

This film is now over 40 years old. If you aren't familiar with and are not big fans of the cast of this film, you aren't going to enjoy this film very much. Probably if you are under 45 years old, you won't know many of the actors all that well, unless you've spent many years watching Nick at Nite reruns.

I saw this for the first time in a theater in 1970 and enjoyed it very much then. But some of these actors were even before my time.

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, a Brit who happens to be travelling in his car and who picks up the family from hell. They are led by fiery matriarch (Ethel Merman) and her drip of a son and pretty quickly their driver is in on their not-so-secret gig and devising some suitably mischievous plans of his own! Mickey Rooney's "Ding Bell" is also in on the chase; there's Phil Silvers rather over-acting as "Otto" and a slew of other familiar faces like Andy Devine, Zazu Pitts, Peter Falk - even Buster Keaton makes an appearance which is apt for the conclusion is straight out of one of his slapstick efforts from forty years earlier. At 3½ hours duration, it's too long. The action is fun for a while as they scramble for advantage but once we've met each of them and got to know their foibles the joke starts to wear a little bit thin and I found it really sagged, repetitively, for an hour in the middle. The occasionally pithy writing quickly gives way to a clunky screw-ball style that was as predictable as it was strained. The stereotypes of the plucky Englishman, the harridan mother-in-law, the ditzy gal - they all all work for a while but soon become a bit laboured and though it does liven up at the ending, I could probably have done with that about an hour earlier. It's fun at times, but I prefer a little more subtlety in my humour - and there's very little of that here.

Sorry, but for all those who say this is the funniest movie ever, I must strongly beg to differ.

It just doesn't hold up. It's massively in need of an edit. 192 minutes? REALLY? The misogynist jokes about Ethel Merman get very tired after a while. Yes, we know she's a loud battle-ax, can we move on please?

Basically all they do is run around like crazy people for two plus hours (we watched the 160 minute version, not the 192 minute version, both were in the Blu-Ray box) and it simply gets tiresome. None of these are actual characters, they are just outlines of characters. And from where we sit today lots of them look like really boring stereotypes as well.

I spent the last 60 minutes wondering: "when is this going to be over?"