It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) *****

I was just 13 when I first saw It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (available on BBC iPlayer just this week) on the wide screen at one of Manchester’s largest cinemas and I remember that I wished I could just stay in my seat and watch it all again. That is despite the fact that it is two-and-a-half hours long in its theatrical cut. Actually, director Stanley Kramer (better known among true cinephiles for more serious films such as Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and On the Beach) originally made it one hour longer still. Those who were lucky enough to watch the full version presumably enjoyed an interval with ice-creams accompanied by a Wurlitzer organ. Yes, those were still around in 1963. As the title suggests, the film is a crazy romp whose sole purpose is joyful entertainment. A group of strangers driving along a road in four different vehicles witness a man plunging over the side in his car. When they rush to help him he reveals in his dying breath that he has hidden $350,000 (a tidy sum in those days), the product of a robbery, in a park in southern California. This triggers a mad dash to try to get there first, before the police, and various other characters who become involved along the way. There is a great deal of slapstick humour — almost a tribute to the old black and white comedies of Buster Keaton and Laurel & Hardy — as well as exciting and often hilarious car chases. But what makes the film unforgettable, in all its delightful silliness, is the stellar cast. Rarely have so many big names come together in one movie. Ethel Merman is superb as the mother-in-law from Hell, Spencer Tracy creepy as the police captain nearing the end of is career, Terry-Thomas outrageous as a cactus-loving English colonel and Phil Silvers devious as a man on the make, to mention but four. There’s a whole parade of stars who have brief cameo appearances as well, including Buster Keaton and Jimmy Durante. Watching it again, 57 years on, even on a small screen, I roared. Sheer, unadulterated fun.