It's A Big W!!! A Big W, I Tell Ya!!!

[Hardrock69]

Anybody ever seen the fantastic film "It's a MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD, WORLD"??

If you have not, you MUST see it!

One of the greatest comedy/treasure hunt films of all time!!!

Fairly lengthy at 2 1/2 hours plus, it has the following cast of all-time great comedy stars:

Spencer Tracy, Sid Caesar, Milton Berle, Terry-Thomas, Phil Silvers, Ethel Merman, Edie Adams, Dorothy Provine, Dick Shawn, Jonathan Winters, Mickey Rooney, Buddy Hackett, Jimmy Durante, Peter Falk, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Buster Keaton, Edward Everett Horton, Jesse White, Paul Ford, Carl Reiner, Norman Fell, Don Knotts, Sterling Holloway, Barrie Chase, Andy Devine, Stan Freberg, Marvin Kaplan, Arnold Stang, Doodles Weaver, Ben Blue, Jim Backus, Ben Lessy, Selma Diamond, Jerry Lewis, Jack Benny, Mike Mazurki, Madlyn Rhue, Zasu Pitts, William Demarest, Joe E. Brown, Sammee Tong, Charles Lane and the Three Stooges.


Here are some great webpages put together by a guy who has found out quite a bit about the film:

Here is a page about the Big W, and it's current state of being:

http://povonline.com/BigW.htm

And here is the main page, with links to other pages at the bottom.

http://povonline.com/MadWorld.htm

I had no idea there were 5 different versions of this film. I have a DVD I bought last year, and now I am going to have to go home tonight and watch it.

In the meantime, I have emailed MGM studios to ask if there will ever be a definitive version of this film released, as the DVD is 161 minutes long, but the original theatrical release was 191 minutes long.

Here is some trivia at the imdb website:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057193/trivia

And some more facts:

http://www.movietome.com/movietome/servlet/MoviePage2/movieid-11614/Its_a_Mad_Mad_Mad_Mad_World/

Here is a page with screen caps of all the locations in the film:

http://members.cox.net/mkpl4/mmmmw/thumb.htm

And here is a page with most of the locations as they look today:

http://members.cox.net/mkpl4/mmmmw/mwtoday.html

And lastly, here is a satellite pic of the actual location of the Big W. I circled where the sole remaining palm tree is in red. And below that I will post a map image. It is sorta in the western part of Long Beach, CA:

[Hardrock69]

And here is the location of the Big W. Look for the big Red Star in the lower-left part of the map.

The address is 5970 Palos Verdes Dr. S, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA:

[EbDawson]

You must be a fanatical fan! Yeah, that is a hilarious movie, a real classic. So that park is in Long Beach? Neat.

Also what's the scoop with the 5 versions? Just different lengths?

[Matt White]

Classic Movie.

[Hardrock69]

Yeah. One of thos links I posted has a complete description of why there are 5 versions.

Version 1 was the original release at the Futuramadome in Hollywood.

Version 2 was a cut down verison released nationally.

Version 3 was a different version shown on TV I think,

Version 4 was the laserdisc version from the early 90s.

Version 5 was DVD.

I watched some of it last night. Supposedly there was a DVD version released in 2003 that had a one-hour documentary about the making of, as well as a bunch of the deleted scenes.

My fucking DVD says in the menu "To access special features, turn this DVD over".

Only problem is that it is a single sided DVD with a label on the top side. So you turn it over, and the laser cannot read through the label, and the DVD Player gives an error message saying "No Disc Inserted".

FUCKING BASTARDS!!!!

I had forgotten about that...I bought this DVD late last fall.

So I sent MGM consumer help department an email accusing them of ripping me off and demanding they send me a fucking replacement!

The goddam movie studios are out to fuck the consumers in the ass just as the Major Record Labels are out to fuck the consumers AND their fucking artists in the ass with a 20 inch spiked strap-on!!!



That said, I am going to watch the rest of it tonight.

I am not a MAJOR fanatic about this film, I just like it, and realize it is one of the great comedy classics in film.

That is why I kinda went overboard posting all the info above haha......if any of you reading this thread have not seen it, it is worth seeing once.

Some people find it too long. Hell the DVD I have is 2 hours, 41 minutes, so unless you are a movie or comedy fanatic, yes it may drag a bit.

But with all the insanity in the film, I never got bored. I mean look at the cast! You are talking the greatest comedic actors of the entire history of film!!!

[EbDawson]

Thanks for the info man. It's been running on AMC lately. I'm gonna have to look around for a DVD of it myself.

[EbDawson]

You hear that Jeff Beck song he did a couple of years back, "What mama said." It's got the loop of Sylvester speaking that line, 'Did ya'll hear what mama said?"

[Hardrock69]

Hell yeah!!!

And so when I watch the movie, I WAIT for the moment when Sylvester says that!
:D