Readers of this site know of my love for the movie, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. As I always say, I don't think it's anywhere near the best movie ever made but it's my favorite.
Monday night at the Motion Picture Academy, they had a screening of a restored print preceded by a panel discussion of folks who'd worked on it including cast members Jonathan Winters, Mickey Rooney, Stan Freberg, Carl Reiner and Marvin Kaplan. Billy Crystal was the surprise Master of Ceremonies. It was within walking distance of my home and I'd been invited by Freberg to be his guest and to hang out with him and the panelists backstage before.
And I didn't go.
I decided, perhaps wrongly in hindsight, that it was just one too many things to do before Comic-Con and I needed to stay here and get them done. If you're at the con and you see a big guy repeatedly kicking himself, that will be me.
But I heard it was great and several folks who were there told me that the movie went over extraordinarily well with that crowd and with the high quality of the print shown. Wish I could give you a first-hand report. I can however link to a few videos of the event and will over the next few days. Here's Mr. Crystal with his opening intro, which oddly enough does not end with him breaking into song and singing, "It's a wonderful night for Oscar…"