STANLEY KRAMER followed his Oscar-winning Judgment at Nuremberg with this sobering investigation of American greed. Ah, who are we kidding? It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, about a group of strangers fighting tooth and nail over buried treasure is the most grandly hare-brained movie ever made, a pileup of slapstick and borscht-belt-y one-liners performed by a nonpareil cast, including MILTON BERLE, SID CAESAR, ETHEL MERMAN, MICKEY ROONEY, SPENCER TRACY, JONATHAN WINTERS and a boatload of other playing-to-the-rafters comedy legends. For sheer scale of silliness, Kramer’s wildly uncharacteristic film is unlike any other, an exhilarating epic of tomfoolery. SPECIAL EDITION FEATURESRestored 4K digital film transfer of the general release version of the film, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack.New high-definition digital transfer of a 197-minute extended version of the film, reconstructed and restored by Robert A. Harris using visual and audio material from the longer original road-show version—including some scenes that have been returned to the film here for the first time.New audio commentary featuring It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World aficionados Mark Evanier, Michael Schlesinger, and Paul Scrabo.New documentary on the film’s visual and sound effects, featuring rare behind-the-scenes footage of the crew at work and interviews with visual-effects specialist Craig Barron and sound designer Ben Burtt.Talk show from 1974 hosted by director Stanley Kramer and featuring Mad World actors Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett, and Jonathan Winters.Press interview from 1963 featuring Kramer and members of the film’s cast.Interviews recorded for the 2000 AFI program 100 Years . . . 100 Laughs, featuring comedians and actors discussing the influence of the film.Two-part 1963 episode of the CBC television program Telescope that follows the film’s press junket and premiere.The Last 70mm Film Festival, a program from 2012 featuring cast and crew members from Mad World at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, hosted by Billy Crystal.Selection of humourist and voice-over artist Stan Freberg’s original TV and radio advertisements for the film, with a new introduction by Freberg.Original and re-release trailers, and re-release radio spots.PLUS: An essay by film critic Lou Lumenick and illustrations by legendary cartoonist Jack Davis.
