The Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles — affectionately called "The New Bev" by many — is running a 35mm Technicolor print of my favorite movie, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World on the evening of Sunday, July 16. So will I be there to see it for the umpteen gazillionth time? Probably not, since I already bought tickets to see Puppet Up! in Hollywood that evening.
As you may know, I feel this movie should be watched on a big screen with a big, appreciative audience. What the Criterion folks did with their Blu-ray and DVD release was wonderful — the best possible home video version there could be — but I don't recommend it if you haven't seen Mad World the way it should be seen. (Among the many extras and bonus features of the Criterion version is a very long, detailed commentary track by my friends Mike Schlesinger and Paul Scrabo plus me. Listen to it but don't listen to it until you've seen the film a few times the "right" way.)
The absolute best way to see this movie is at the Cinerama Dome Theater in Hollywood which was — honest-to-Stanley-Kramer — built in 1963 to host the initial release of It's a Mad (Etc.) World. Alas, the place closed for that Pandemic thing and hasn't yet reopened. Instead, we hear, it's undergone extensive renovation and will reopen, we further hear, next Spring with this movie among its first offerings. I'll be there for such a screening but if you're local and you can't wait, info and tickets for the New Bev screening may be located on this page.