At left above is the cover for the new DVD of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, which comes out September 18. I must say I'm a little baffled by this design, which was also employed on one of the VHS releases. See that photo at lower right? Know who that is? That's Edward Everett Horton, a wonderful character actor who is (a) just about totally unknown today and (b) in the movie for all of ten seconds. So why does he have one of the largest photos while Spencer Tracy — the film's main star — has a small one and other stars, much better known than Mr. Horton, are absent?
The most logical explanation I can come up with is that whoever designed this thing thought it was a photo of Jimmy Durante. Either that or this cover is the handiwork of Edward Everett Horton, Jr.
This is the "restored" version which, as you've all heard me say ad nauseum, is not really restored. It's cobbled together from discarded scenes and out-takes. I don't think much of it and, about a year ago when I finally got to sit and talk with Stanley Kramer for a time, he didn't seem to think much of it, either. (I haven't written a column about that chat because, among other reasons, I can't figure out how to tell it so it sounds like something that could happen on this planet. I had wanted for years to meet Mr. Kramer and ask him a few questions about Mad World but it never happened. Then, when I went out to the Motion Picture Country Home to visit Pat McCormick, it turned out his roommate was Stanley Kramer and…well, it was a very odd afternoon because Pat can't talk since his stroke, and Mr. Kramer's memory kept coming and going.)
In any case: An overlong Mad World containing scenes that don't belong is still better than no Mad World. And this DVD contains a good "Making of…" documentary, trailers and subtitles in English, French and Spanish. So I'm buying one and if you want to, they're taking advance orders over at Amazon.Com, which you can reach by clicking here.