{"id":35351,"date":"2015-10-08T14:00:41","date_gmt":"2015-10-08T21:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/?p=35351"},"modified":"2020-10-08T15:21:28","modified_gmt":"2020-10-08T22:21:28","slug":"letterboxd-season-challenge-its-a-mad-mad-mad-mad-world-1963","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2015\/10\/letterboxd-season-challenge-its-a-mad-mad-mad-mad-world-1963\/","title":{"rendered":"Letterboxd Season Challenge: It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Film 4 for the Letterboxd Season Challenge<\/a>. The other films I plan to watch for the challenge are here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Week 4, Sep 27-Oct 3:<\/b> 60’s Blockbuster Week
\nChallenge:<\/b> Watch an unseen film from among the Top 50 Highest Grossing Movies of the 1960s.
\nMy Choice:<\/b> It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World<\/em> by Stanley Kubrick<\/p>\n

\"tf-It's-a-Mad-Mad-Mad-Mad-World\"<\/p>\n

This was another week where I had seen many of the big hitters – The Sound of Music<\/em>, My Fair Lady<\/em>, Doctor Zhivago<\/em>, etc. I wasn’t too enthused about any of the remaining options (geez, audiences in the ’60s liked long movies), but I figured at least It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World<\/em> would have a ton of crazy cameos to keep me distracted, plus Criterion just added it to their collection, so it’s got to have SOMETHING.<\/p>\n

Turns out it was quite a bit more fun than I expected. A speeding motorists drives off a cliff, and five people go down to see if he’s okay. SPOILER: He’s not. But he manages to tell them about a large sum of money he’s hidden. They all predictably start going after it, and this race\/chase to the money takes up the bulk of the 160 minute running time.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"tf-mad-mad-1\"<\/p>\n

The main characters are mostly played by people who would’ve been major stars at the time, especially on television (Milton Berle, Sid Caesar), but who aren’t that well-remembered now – exceptions made for Mickey Rooney and Spencer Tracy, who plays the police chief trying to keep tabs on all these folks so he can recover the money.<\/p>\n

The plot is a MacGuffin, though, to pur funny people in funny scenarios over and over again, and while some sections are funnier than others, there’s a great momentum to the film that I didn’t expect. You can tell as it approaches the intermission (yes, there’s an intermission), because the intercutting between everything going to hell for everyone gets faster and faster, building tension and laughs as planes are about to crash, fireworks are going off in a locked hardware store, cars drown in rivers, etc. It’s utter mayhem, and while I’m sure it wouldn’t work for a lot of my peers, it worked for me.<\/p>\n

\"tf-mad-mad-6\"<\/p>\n

I did start to fade toward the end of the film (it took me forever to figure out exactly what Spencer Tracy was playing at), but aside from a few shrill\/overlong moments, I had a really good time with this.<\/p>\n

After watching a film, I always rank it on Flickchart<\/a>, a movie website that pits movies against each other until you form your ranked list of favorite movies. Here’s how It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World<\/em> entered my chart:<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World > Billy Elliot
\nIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World > Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
\nIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World < Hans Christian Andersen
\nIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World < Juno
\nIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World < Aladdin
\nIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World < Red River
\nIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World < Mystery Men
\nIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World < Premium Rush
\nIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World < Brief Encounter
\nIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World < Frankenweenie
\nIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World > Love\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Labour\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Lost
\nIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World < Jeopardy<\/p>\n

Final ranking #883 out of 3541<\/p>\n

\"tf-mad-mad-4\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Film 4 for the Letterboxd Season Challenge. The other films I plan to watch for the challenge are here. Week 4, Sep 27-Oct 3: 60’s Blockbuster Week Challenge: Watch an unseen film from among the Top 50 Highest Grossing Movies of the 1960s. My Choice: It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World by Stanley Kubrick […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35357,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[3021,3022],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/tf-mad-mad-2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":34898,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/01\/2015-the-year-in-movies\/","url_meta":{"origin":35351,"position":0},"title":"2015: The Year in Movies","author":"Jandy","date":"January 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The end of the year really snuck up on me this year! I've actually had end of the year posts started since January that I meant to just add to throughout the year and then have an easy time of it in December. I, uh, did not do that. So\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/tf-feat-Star-Wars.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":35345,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2015\/10\/letterboxd-season-challenge-high-and-low-1963\/","url_meta":{"origin":35351,"position":1},"title":"Letterboxd Season Challenge: High and Low (1963)","author":"Jandy","date":"October 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Film 3 for the Letterboxd Season Challenge. The other films I plan to watch for the challenge are here. Week 3, Sept 20-26: Master of the East Challenge: Watch an unseen film directed by Akira Kurosawa Film I Chose: High and Low (1963) I've been keeping up watching the films\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/tf-feat-HighandLow5.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":35358,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2015\/10\/letterboxd-season-challenge-the-big-parade-1925\/","url_meta":{"origin":35351,"position":2},"title":"Letterboxd Season Challenge: The Big Parade (1925)","author":"Jandy","date":"October 9, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Film 5 for the Letterboxd Season Challenge. The other films I plan to watch for the challenge are here. Week 5: PUNQ Week Challenge: Watch an unseen feature that ranked in the top ten on any of PUNQ\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pre-1940 lists. Film I Chose: The Big Parade PUNQ is a Letterboxd\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/tf-feat-big-parade-3.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1983,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/66th-annual-golden-globes-thoughts\/","url_meta":{"origin":35351,"position":3},"title":"66th Annual Golden Globes – Thoughts","author":"Jandy","date":"January 12, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"And spoilers, so if for whatever reason you haven't watched it yet and don't want to know winners - you're probably screwed, since it'll likely pop up in your feedreader, on your TV, in your newspaper, etc. But at least I warned you, so there. Golden Globe spoilers after the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36658,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/12\/challenge-week-50-footloose\/","url_meta":{"origin":35351,"position":4},"title":"Challenge Week 50: Footloose","author":"Jandy","date":"December 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I love musicals and movies about dance, but I have to admit I put off watching this one for a couple of reasons: first, I dislike '80's movies in general, and second, the story as I understood it was about a town that has outlawed dancing and the city kid\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2016 Movie Challenge"","block_context":{"text":"2016 Movie Challenge","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/2016-movie-challenge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/tf-feat-fooloose.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":928,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2008\/01\/the-fake-golden-globes\/","url_meta":{"origin":35351,"position":5},"title":"The Fake Golden Globes","author":"Jandy","date":"January 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Okay, I guess the awards themselves aren't fake, but announced with staccato quickness, reaaaaaally short or nonexistent clips, and no fanfare by Access Hollywood-type hosts, they sure felt fake. In fact, I think I'm going to just pretend that No Country for Old Men and Juno won everything. Except Best\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35351"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}