As I explained yesterday here, I've seen the movie It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World more often than I've seen some of my best friends. It gets written about a lot online and for some reason, many folks lately are discussing the now-classic cars driven in it. They may not have been classics when the movie was made in 1962 but if you tried to amass examples of those models today, it would run you a lot more than the $350,000 that the characters in that film were trying to get their mitts on.
Various automotive sites have identified all the vehicles. For instance, here's the one in which Phil Silvers took a lovely river voyage…
That's a Ford Super Deluxe convertible — either the 1946 model or the nearly-identical 1947-1948 model. Apparently, the movie used at least one of each in various scenes. No one seems to be certain how many they had of some of these cars but clearly with all the stuntwork, it was vital to have at least a couple of each around. And many of them had to be duplicated at least in part on the soundstage for rear screen projection scenes.
If this kind of thing interests you, the Hemmings site (which traffics in classic cars) has identified them all in a four-part article and they'll also show you what it'll cost to buy each car today. So go see Part One, Part Two, Part Three and Part Four…and I'll warn you that all four parts are filled with SPOILERS, just in case you've never seen the movie.
And if you haven't ever seen this movie, make sure you read yesterday's post here. Thanks to the many people who sent me links about the Hemmings piece. I think Shaun Faulkner was the first.