IT'S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD (1963) ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Stanley Kramer
Spencer Tracy, Phil Silvers, Jonathan Winters,
Sid Caesar, Mickey Rooney, Buddy Hackett,
Milton Berle, Ethel Merman, Edie Adams,
Dorothy Provine, Dick Shawn, Terry-Thomas,
William Demarest, Peter Falk, Zasu Pitts,
Buster Keaton, Barrie Chase, Arnold Stang,
Edward Everett Horton, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson,
Joe E. Brown, Leo Gorcey, Andy Devine, etc.
A thief played by Jimmy Durante kicks the bucket (literally), leaving a bunch of greed-crazed motorists with some cryptic instructions to a buried fortune in stolen money. A big, loud, frantic, marathon comedy with a virtual who's who of early '60s comedy stars, most of them acting hysterical, but not hysterically funny. Jonathan Winters has the best scenes, destroying a gas station and wobbling down an empty highway on a little girl's bicycle. Jack Benny, Jerry Lewis and the Three Stooges, appearing uncredited, get enough screen time to be recognized, and that's all.
Dorothy Provine
(1935-2010)
