I meant to post this yesterday since yesterday was the 58th anniversary of the premiere of my favorite movie, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. And every time I say that here, someone — often, the same guy — feels it's his duty to write in and inform me, like I have made some sort of factual error, that I'm wrong and it's not a very good movie. Apparently, I'm not entitled to my own opinion…only to his.
This is the main title sequence which was designed by Saul Bass with animation by Playhouse Pictures. In the sixties, your movie was not considered a movie in some circles if Saul Bass had not done your opening titles. Enormous amounts of technical ingenuity went into finding a way to animate for that big, elongated Cinerama screen format. (If you're experiencing a twinge of déjà vu here: Yes, I featured a clip of these titles on this blog before and wrote about them but that video was long ago deleted from YouTube and anyway, the last post about this here was 2008.)
This video was made from source material on which the colors were somehow altered. I am told that the colors on the Criterion DVD and Blu-ray are correct. Yes, I am considered by many an expert on this film — I'm heard on the commentary track of that Criterion release — but there is much about it I don't know…like how and why those colors were changed.
As I have said many, many times on this blog and elsewhere, I first saw this movie at the Cinerama Dome Theater on Sunset Boulevard near Vine the day after Lee Harvey Oswald shot John F. Kennedy and the day before Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald. Those were life-changing days for this country and the movie was a life-changing experience for me.
I remember so much about that evening. My parents and I were seated in the front row — a row that was later removed from the theater because it was too friggin' close. I could count the pores on Jimmy Durante's nose. I could also notice something hidden in these credits. The crew at Playhouse Pictures were not credited anywhere so they decided to sneak their names in.
At 2:15 into the titles when the world "blows up" and the names rain down, there are other names in there for a fraction of a second…
As any fool can plainly see, there the names of Ade Woolery, Bernie Gruver, Bill Melendez and other folks who worked for Playhouse. I asked Bill about this once and he said, "Yeah, we made up a list and we stuck in our names and also the names of our wives, girl friends or both." You may see some different names in there if you freeze-frame it for yourself…which of course you're going to do.
I have always been blessed with great eyesight so, yes, I caught the fastest glimpse of them when I saw this movie in 1963. I couldn't freeze-frame it there in the Cinerama Dome, nor could I stop it when I saw the movie years later in a conventional theater. I had to wait until it came out in Betamax format to satisfy myself that I had really seen what I was sure I'd seen at the age of eleven. Take a look and then I'll have some words about the Cinerama Dome…
People keep asking me if there's any word on the Cinerama Dome Theater, which has been shuttered since about the time we all donned our first COVID masks. As far as I know (and I don't know very far), it is still owned by Christopher Forman, owner of Arclight Cinemas, and rumor has it he plans to reopen it next month. I have no idea where that rumor came from, if Mr. Forman ever said it or if so, if he's changed his mind.
What I'm getting at is that your guess is at least as good as mine and it may even be better. If the rumor is true, I would expect an announcement very soon but I won't be surprised if there isn't one. I've seen my favorite movie in that building several times since '63 and it's always a joy. If they reopen and show it again, it might be the first time I venture into a theater in years.