Last night was the 55th anniversary of the evening the movie It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World had its world premiere at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood. It was also the 55th anniversary of the evening that the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood opened. A packed audience was there to see the movie in its natural habitat (where it ran for 66 weeks!) and to mark the birthday of a wonderful place to watch cinema on a wide, wide screen.
The ceremonies were hosted by a couple of gents involved in the history of the building, followed by Karen Sharpe Kramer, the widow of Stanley Kramer. Mr. Kramer produced and directed so many fine films, Mad World among them. Karen then introduced two special guests — the lovely (still and forever) Barrie Chase and Sandy Hackett, son of Buddy.
Barrie is one of only three people who had speaking roles in the film who is still alive. The other two are Nick Georgiade, who played the detective working with Norman Fell's character, and Carl Reiner. Mr. Reiner, who is 96.7 years old, is reportedly not going much of anywhere these days…and if he did make an appearance, it might not be to celebrate this movie which he wasn't all that wild about. It was great though to hear Barrie talk about the film. In the past when she appeared at screenings of Mad World, Mickey Rooney was usually there and not inclined to let her or anyone else say anything.
The film was the film…which I love for reasons I've written about here in the past. It's not the slapstick I like so much as just seeing all those great comedians interacting with one another and performing at the height of their comedic powers. Everyone is just so good in it…even Milton Berle, who otherwise did not leave behind much supporting evidence for his status as an important comic.
Mad World is available in a DVD/Blu Ray set from Criterion and even though I can be heard on the commentary track along with my pals Mike Schlesinger and Paul Scrabo, I only recommend this set as something you watch after you've seen the movie on a big screen with a big, enthusiastic audience. It's quite a different film watched alone or with a small group on your home TV. It was quite different on screen last night at the Dome.
You may be wondering how my friend Amber liked it. As you might recall, I held off showing it to her because I wanted her to experience it for the first time the way I did, 55 years ago — at the Cinerama Dome with a full house. Well, sadly, she wasn't feeling well enough to go. I may have to keep fooling her into liking me until the 60th anniversary screening.