Something a Little Less Serious: A Tribute to 'It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World'

Dir: Ronnie Johnson

1991

****

Ronnie Johnson's hour long documentary made in 1991 is obviously a must-see for the hard-core fans of Stanley Kramer's 1963 comedy epic It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World and in many respects, it has now become something special in-itself, something worth repeat viewing when perhaps you need a quick 'Mad' fix but don't have 160+ minutes to spare. Made almost thirty years after Mad World, many of the much loved actors had passed and now all these years later many of the interviewees have now joined them under the big W in the sky, so there is a sadness watching it, but also a huge amount of happiness too. The documentary starts off with some original film footage with Chuck Riley's smooth narration explaining how successful the film was and basically telling the audience everything they already know. The interviews then begin with many of the actors saying how wonderful everything was, how much fun they had, how popular it was, how Kramer approached them etc and everything is very 'made for TV'. The format of the documentary explores each actor and suddenly the interviewees slowly come to life. Milton Berle says how muti-talented Mickey Rooney is, how great he is at remembering his lines, stay on-script, he can sing, dance, tell jokes, do physical comedy......."and he's also very good at marrying beautiful women". And so it begins. Legendary stuntman Carey Loftin has no problem with wading in and telling the audience of all the shenanigans that went on off camera, mainly because it was he that was responsible for them. In Bounder!: The Biography of Terry-Thomas, Graham McCann writes about how T-T, like most of the cast of the film, was in awe of the great Spencer Tracy but got tired of the rest of the cast who would compete to entertain and impress him. One incident in particular that he found ghastly, was watching Mickey Rooney and Buddy Hackett wearing food on their faces, which in turn lead to a food fight with the rest of the cast and crew. He said how he and Spencer quietly bonded while raising eyebrows at one another. The foot fight is mentioned by Loftin but the fun he had with T-T is also spoken of and behind the scenes photos are shown to prove it. Secrets behind some of the film's best loved scenes are revealed, Milton Berle, Sid Ceaser and Buddy Hackett play up to the camera, Jerry Lewis dissects the comedy and everyone tells just how funny, dangerous and wonderful it was to work on the film. Highlights of the short film are Buddy Hackett's story/impersonation of Peter Falk and Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson, Jerry Lewis losing his fee within hours to Phil Silvers who turned the back stage of the film into a mini casino and Sid Ceaser, Edie Adams and Stanley Kramer explaining Milton Berle's legendary camera hogging and how he always manages to be the last person on screen. There is a lot of schmaltz and Mickey Rooney's input is next to pointless and nothing is revealed and everyone is praised but there are many gems within and some I wasn't aware of, and I consider myself an obsessive.