Ignore what I said a few weeks ago here about the new DVD release of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. This is not the "restored" version (which is not really restored) that was released on Laserdisc a few years ago, though it contains some of the same special features, including trailers and the "Making Of…" documentary. The version of the film on the DVD is…well, let's run through this again and I hope I get it right…
The film, as released in November of 1963 in selected cities was 192 minutes long. This includes the overture and entr'acte music.
Around a half-hour was then cut for the nationwide general release. This version was either 161, 162 or 163 minutes, depending on who was running the stopwatch. Again, the overture and entr'acte music are included in that total. (Like the version above, this one was on 70mm film.)
The first 35mm version was then mastered for general theatrical release. This one was without the orchestra and entr'acte music and lost one or two short scenes, as well. It clocked in at 154-156 minutes and was the version initially released on home video and used for most TV prints. Producer-director Stanley Kramer was sometimes quoted as preferring this version, explaining that the studio had pushed for a box office spectacle.
A few years ago, a fake "restored" version was released on Laserdisc and VHS, and run occasionally on Turner-owned TV networks. This one incorporated deleted footage (i.e., footage that was never in any theatrical release) and came in at 186 minutes. Some of the added material consisted of alternate takes for scenes that were cut after Version #1. Other scenes were ones that Kramer himself cut before the film's debut. Whatever, it was generally misunderstood to be a version in which someone had re-inserted all the material that had ever been excised. Not so. Almost none of the new footage was ever in the above two versions and many, many scenes were absent in any form, including a choice one involving a split-screen phone call between Spencer Tracy and Buster Keaton.
The new DVD features, on one side, a good print of the 154-156 minute version. Flip the disc over and, among the special features you'll find is a whole mess — an hour or so — of deleted scenes. They are not in sequence and some of the picture quality varies. I haven't waded through them all yet but it would seem to be everything they could find, as of the DVD's mastering. (A rumor I cannot corroborate says that even more lost footage has since become un-lost.)
Video and audio quality are quite good, so I would say that this DVD does the film justice and is the best-possible product that could be issued at this time.
I still love this movie but I do not disagree strenuously with the criticisms that my pal Andy Ihnatko voices in his review of the DVD. It hasn't been posted yet but it should turn up any day on Aaron Barnhart's splendid site, TV Barn, which you oughta be visiting anyway.