It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World

So I've been looking forward to this post for a while. "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" is a 1963 comedy directed by Stanely Kramer. The following year, "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" was nominated in six Oscar categories and awarded the Oscar for best effects and sound effects in 1964. It features a long list of famous comedians: Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett, Ethel Merman, Dick Shawn, Phil Silvers (one of my favorites), Terry Thomas, Jimmy Durante and Jonathan Winters. More comedians make short cameo appearances including: Tyler Fitzgerald, Jerry Lewis, Jack Benny, Don Knotts, and even The Three Stooges. There are so many other top names. The last one I'll mention is Spencer Tracy, who plays Captain Culpepper of the Santa Rosita Police Department.

The film opens with a car zooming along a winding road in the mountains. The man driving loses control of his car and goes "sailing right out there" off a cliff. Four cars that were on the road stop and a few of the drivers/riders go down to see what happened and to see if the man driving the car is ok. Obviously he isn't ok after being thrown out of his car which was going probably 100+mph. Before he kicks the bucket (both figuratively and literally, making for a quite comic scene), the man tells of $350,000 that he hid 15 years ago in Santa Rosita State Park under a big "doubleya" (W). Following the man's death, everyone returns to their vehicles and basically that's when the race to find the money begins. Now, I know what your thinking "$350,000? That's all?" Well, according to eHow money (not sure how credible it is, but I trust it) $1 in 1963 would be around $6 in 2009 (not sure I'm guessing it would be something more than $6 for 2011). So keeping that in mind, $350,000 is really like $2,100,000 in today's money. Now wouldn't that entice you to put all your plans on hold to race down to some park miles away to look for a big W and the millions underneath it? Haha. If so, you've got to see the end of this epic movie.

Now, who gets how much of the money?

Getting back to the plot, everyone's in their cars racing down to Santa Rosita, but little do they know that the man that told them about the money was a thief. Not only that, but Captain Culpepper of the Santa Rosita Police Department has been watching this thief Smiler Grogan for years. After the police find out Smiler died, and that the people at the scene of his death all seem to be speeding somewhere, it isn't hard for them to put two and two together. Captain Culpepper orders that they start their surveillance of the group right away, but it takes a long, long, long, long while before anyone in the race catches on. And surveillance of this group isn't easy mind you. The people in each car splinter off, each eager to reach the money before the others. Some ride faulty planes, one gets stuck on a tricycle for a while, and many end up on the maddest road trip of their lives. Again I'll say it: This movie is laughs all the way through! The characters are AMAZING, as are all the twists and turns. You've got to go see it NOW!

Here is a video of a few of the old promotional commercials for the film featuring a few of the many great comedians from the film:

And some quick trivia:
* Santa Rosita State Park is not a real location. The scene was shot in Rancho Palos Verdes in California at a place called Portuguese Bend.
* Some other locations filmed in this movie include Long Beach, California and Highway 74 and other areas near Palm Desert, California.

Ok, so I promise this is related. I've noticed that all the In-And-Out Burgers I've been to always have a pair of palm trees crossed in an X formation. For the longest time I thought it was because it was for "X marks the spot". But...it actually turns out that the founder of In-And-Out Burger, Harry Snyder, was a fan of "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World." And...wait for it...wait for it...the "big X" formation is meant as a tribute to the "big W." I know, I thought it was pretty cool too! Take a look: