qmuddy2 Posted March 24, 2022 Share Posted March 24, 2022 most stars in one movie ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slaytonf Posted March 24, 2022 Share Posted March 24, 2022 If that's the standard of greatness, then I guess, yes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qmuddy2 Posted March 24, 2022 Author Share Posted March 24, 2022 there's no disputing abut taste - roman empire proverb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Gorman Posted March 24, 2022 Share Posted March 24, 2022 It is a funny movie. I've seen it 7 or 8 times. Stanley Kramer, with all those comedians and strong personalities in one movie, was more like a ringmaster than a director! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unwatchable Posted March 24, 2022 Share Posted March 24, 2022 It's certainly an ambitious comedy, and one I have seen many times, especially when I was younger, but I wouldn't call it the greatest comedy. As the OP pointed out, such things are a matter of taste. I do recall that my father got a really big kick out of the automobiles going faster than the airplane. 😀 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricJ Posted March 24, 2022 Share Posted March 24, 2022 For reasons I do not know--AT ALL--a culturally-amnesiac Millennial generation on the YouTube Reactor-verse has latched onto IAM4W as "hilarious" because, like, things get wrecked, and stars show up. Lord help us, they also labor under the similar delusion that Tom Hanks in "The Money Pit" is funny for the exact same reason. (Or, as I like to put it, "The Money Pit is the Lockdown version of IAM4W, where Hanks has to stay home and wreck his own house." It is worth noting, however, that not all first-time viewers are immediately captivated by the charms of Sid Caesar and Ethel Merman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASH39dHFx-0 As for those who take the But, Like, Stars argument, the work continues to rehabilitate these poor cases, by trying to get them to watch Around the World in 80 Days (1956) and look for all the star cameos there. (And you have to specify the date, otherwise they go out and watch that dopey Disney version with Jackie Chan.) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unwatchable Posted March 24, 2022 Share Posted March 24, 2022 EricJ, yer killin' me, babe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aritosthenes Posted March 24, 2022 Share Posted March 24, 2022 I'm Going to take the diplomatic (and possibly illegal) route and say Yes and No. While there might be others for sure; offhand I can Only thing of Four Comedic Geniuses who were not (able to be) in this Humour Infested Film. (One of Which, Ernie Kovacs; Horrifically and Very Sadly Passed in an Auto Accident Before Filming Started.) The Others - Noticeably Sans from this Comedy Epic Are Red Skeleton, Tim Conway, Mel Brooks, Dom Deluise, and Martha Raye. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CinemaInternational Posted March 24, 2022 Share Posted March 24, 2022 No, not the greatest comedy ever made, but it does have its moments, usually moments involving Jonathan Winters, Ethel Merman, Sid Caesar, and Edie Adams. And the ending scenes are pretty amusing. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eucalyptus P. Millstone Posted March 24, 2022 Share Posted March 24, 2022 I love It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. For me, it is The Greatest Comedy, but not because of the number of stars in it. It's the humor, plain and simple -- consummately delivered by pros -- that slays me. I don't know the production history of IAMMMMW and why some popular comedians -- past and contemporary -- are not in it. To wit, where are: Lucille Ball Carol Burnett George Burns Charlie Chaplin Imogene Coca Wally Cox Jackie Gleason Bob Hope Leo Gorcey has a cameo. But where is Huntz Hall? Harold Lloyd Groucho and Harpo Marx Martha Raye Soupy Sales Red Skelton Peter Sellers Dick Van Dyke Bert Wheeler Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricJ Posted March 24, 2022 Share Posted March 24, 2022 38 minutes ago, Eucalpytus P. Millstone said: I love It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. For me, it is The Greatest Comedy, but not because of the number of stars in it. It's the humor, plain and simple -- consummately delivered by pros -- that slays me. I don't know the production history of IAMMMMW and why some popular comedians -- past and contemporary -- are not in it. To wit, where are: It's the whole arguments of "But, it's got like, driving, and chaos in it!", and "Every star who was anyone was in it!" that makes me call IAM4W "the Cannonball Run of the 60's". I challenge all comers to present a persuasive argument that it isn't. (And, to equivalently paraphrase Roger Ebert's famous comment on the Cannonball Run films: Read my lips--It is not funny when a house falls in. It is not funny when pilots have trouble with an airplane. It is not funny when cars race on a desert highway. It is not funny when people slip on something and end up in traction...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Proulx Posted March 24, 2022 Share Posted March 24, 2022 Whooo, greatest comedy EVER? That's a bold statement for any comedy. American humor has gotten significantly more sophisticated through the generations. I can be amused at some old comedies, but never do actually make me laugh. The older the comedy movie, the more "clown-like" the comedy. Clowns aren't scary, but they're not funny. There was a reason Americans laughed at France declaring Jerry Lewis a genius. He was considered quite funny in his day, but his humor is quite basic. By the time France made their declaration about him, the American audience had demanded more out their comedy. Slapstick tends to appeal to the lowest common denominator, while the high brow comedy relies almost solely on wit. We/I have moved much closer to the wit than the slapstick. The older the movie, the more exaggerated the situations, both physically & vocally, because it seems they didn't believe the audience had any patience or the intellect for subtlety. Culturally, maybe they weren't ready. I watch those shorts on do's & don't's with the "funny voiced" narrator (couldn't find his name), and I think to myself, "Is that what passed for humor back in the day?" All that said, Mad World probably doesn't break my Top 50. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LawrenceA Posted March 24, 2022 Share Posted March 24, 2022 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dargo Posted March 24, 2022 Share Posted March 24, 2022 I've always liked IAMMMMW, but have always thought it relied much too heavily on physical/slapstick comedy to get its laughs. And so to state MY opinion of the "greatest" film comedy ever here, I'll go with what the people at the AFI have stated they think has been the "greatest" comedy for at least two decades now...Some Like It Hot. (...and perhaps followed by A Night at the Opera, Dr. Strangelove and The Apartment as my own secondary picks, and although knowing the last one here is more of the "bittersweet" variety than of the pure farcical kind as are the others) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unwatchable Posted March 24, 2022 Share Posted March 24, 2022 30 minutes ago, Dargo said: A Night at the Opera The Marx Brothers. Now we're talking. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eucalyptus P. Millstone Posted March 25, 2022 Share Posted March 25, 2022 1 hour ago, David Proulx said: Whooo, greatest comedy EVER? There ain't no such animal! Comedy is strictly subjective. What's funny to you might not be funny to someone else. Thus, qmuddy2's question is pointless . . . other than to spark similarly pointless discussion and debate. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unwatchable Posted March 25, 2022 Share Posted March 25, 2022 Surely, there must be an "all Animal Crackers all the time" channel on the cable network in Heaven. 🤗 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Proulx Posted March 25, 2022 Share Posted March 25, 2022 17 minutes ago, Eucalpytus P. Millstone said: There ain't no such animal! Comedy is strictly subjective. What's funny to you might not be funny to someone else. Thus, qmuddy2's question is pointless . . . other than to spark similarly pointless discussion and debate. Agreed, as it is with all movie genres, beauty, food, etc 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesJazGuitar Posted March 25, 2022 Share Posted March 25, 2022 My Man Godfrey: This is my favorite comedy,,,, which one has to add around these parts otherwise some crazy nutjob will yell at you "that's your opinion!". 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomJH Posted March 25, 2022 Share Posted March 25, 2022 Top comedy of all time? Despite childhood nostalgia over Bud and Lou meeting Frankenstein, my vote goes to . . . 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LuckyDan Posted March 25, 2022 Share Posted March 25, 2022 I'd like to see this one again soon Watch this and tell me Joan Hackett didn't have the hottest butt in movies. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swithin Posted March 25, 2022 Share Posted March 25, 2022 I saw Mad World when it came out, at the Warner Cinerama in NYC. I found it pretty dull. I was very young, perhaps it was too sophisticated for me. I remember wondering why it needed to be made in Cinerama, since it didn't compare in scope to How the West Was Won, which I had seen the year before, at the Loew's Cinerama a few blocks away. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unwatchable Posted March 25, 2022 Share Posted March 25, 2022 1 hour ago, JamesJazGuitar said: My Man Godfrey: This is Is my favorite comedy,,,, William Powell is just about perfect in his role of Godfrey. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianNH Posted March 25, 2022 Share Posted March 25, 2022 Well, EricJ, let me offer this in friendly rebuttal. My son is 29 years old, and I guess that he falls into the rough categorization of millennial -- though I think he denies it. Anyway, he grew up watching old movies with his mother and me, all while we tried to instill in him an appreciation and gratitude for things that came before us. For the most part, he has shown that our efforts were not in vain. Once we asked him what his favorite movie was -- this was quite a few years back, mind you. Well, he surprised us when he said "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World." Why, we wondered. He really liked the dialog, and to this day he quotes almost every line from the movie. He loves Buddy Hackett, Jimmy Durante (Smiler Grogan), Spencer Tracy, and "The Old Bag" -- Ethel Merman. Not to mention the rest of the cast. We even once had a priest mention the movie in a homily, saying that younger people no longer know it. We spoke with him after Mass, and he was delighted to learn that IAMMMMW is our son's favorite movie -- and our son was with us at the time to confirm it! No age is completely dark. There is always light somewhere. And it will always be so. Be not afraid. Brian 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dargo Posted March 25, 2022 Share Posted March 25, 2022 1 hour ago, Swithin said: I saw Mad World when it came out, at the Warner Cinerama in NYC. I found it pretty dull. I was very young, perhaps it was too sophisticated for me. LOL Excuse me for laughin' at this comment of yours here Swithin, but the reason I AM is because THIS might be the very FIRST time I've EVER heard the word "sophisticated" applied to the movie It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World! (...and so in essence Swithin ol' boy, what you're sayin' here is that it would be a few more years down the road before you'd really get into those Noel Coward drawing-room comedies then, right?!.. AND which was probably just about the SAME time you began spelling certain words in the Language with that OH so unnecessary letter 'u', RIGHT?!) LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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