For those of you who live in Southern California — say, anywhere between Crockett County and Santa Rosita — the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood is showing my fave film, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World on Friday evening, December 22. Tickets are on sale now at this link and they will probably sell out. Every time some local theater shows this movie, tickets sell out quickly and I am at a loss to explain why more houses don't show it more often.
And yes, I've bought my tickets. As you may know, this is a movie that I believe needs to be seen on a big screen with a big audience that appreciates its big cast of big stars. Watching it at home without a big audience and/or a big screen is okay if you've already seen it a few times The Right Way and you're just refreshing your memory of that viewing. And if you do, watch the Criterion Collection DVD or Blu-ray of it which, among its other features, has a really, really long and detailed commentary track by Yours Truly and my pals Mike Schlesinger and Paul Scrabo.
Some of you, by the way, have clued me in that the film can be viewed for free on YouTube. The reason I haven't embedded it here is that I can't think of a worse way to experience this film, especially if you watch it on your phone while waiting for a dental appointment.
And there's another reason why I'm going to the Egyptian that evening. That theater has been completely remodeled and it's supposed to be beautiful and a grand place to watch movies now. We're going to get there early to see the place…and by the way, they're running Mad World as a 70mm film print. That's about half the size of Jimmy Durante's nose.