They Were Wrong

I love movies. I'm a movie freak. The only kind of movie I go into thinking I might not like it is a comedy. Comedies...to me...go off better on a stage and not film. However, there are a few exceptions, in my humble opinion. Hangover was funny because it was a unique concept. You were kept glued to the screen to see what it was they had done next and where the groom was. There have been very few western comedies as funny as Blazing Saddles and Dirty Dingus Magee(?). Texas Across the River was another, starring Dean Martin and Joey Bishop.

But, I have to vote for the film I think was the grandaddy of 'em all. Some of the greatest comedic talent of the day was in this movie, and even though I have seen it a hundred times, I still crack up at certain scenes.  The movie is "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World". Look at the line-up....

Principal cast

Spencer Tracy as Captain T. G. Culpeper Jonathan Winters as Lennie Pike Buddy Hackett as "Benjy" Benjamin Mickey Rooney as "Dingy" Bell Edie Adams as Monica Crump Sid Caesar as Melville Crump

Milton Berle as J. Russell Finch Ethel Merman as Mrs. Marcus Dorothy Provine as Emmeline Marcus-Finch Phil Silvers as Otto Meyer Dick Shawn as Sylvester Marcus Terry-Thomas as Lt. Col. J. Algernon Hawthorne

Supporting cast

Jim Backus as airplane owner Tyler Fitzgerald William Demarest as Aloysius, Chief of the Santa Rosita Police Department Jimmy Durante as "Smiler" Grogan Peter Falk as a cab driver

Eddie "Rochester" Anderson as a cab driver Paul Ford as Col. Wilberforce Barrie Chase as Sylvester Marcus' girlfriend

Cameo appearances

Jack Benny  Andy Devine as the Sheriff of Crockett County, California Norman Fell as primary detective at the "Smiler" Grogan accident site

Buster Keaton as Jimmy the Crook, Culpeper's boatman crony Don Knotts as the nervous motorist Jerry Lewis as the motorist who runs over Culpeper's hat Carl Reiner as the Rancho Conejo airport tower controller The Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Curly Joe DeRita) as Rancho Conejo Airport firemen

The scene I love the most is where Jonathan Winters gets into the fight with the two service station attendants and by the time they're through the entire place has been demolished. Hysterical. That was back in 1963, when there wasn't as many people on the planet, things were basically peaceful, and there weren't as many nuts in the world as there are today. Oh, things were bad in many places and there were wars being fought but, all in all, it was a simpler time. Maybe to the adults back then it was a mad mad mad mad world.

But, after looking at the headlines of today's world for the last twenty-five years, I have come to the conclusion they were wrong. It's a sick sick sick sick world. I'm telling you.