In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Classic movies aren't all super slow and overly dramatic and full of weird kisses where the actors don't move their lips at all (like, just in case you thought they were). Sometimes they are really, really funny. Case in point, this movie about a bunch of misfit type characters who set off to find a buried fortune supposedly hidden by an ex-con who dies in a car crash. It's a race for the money! Fast, frenetic, funny. See it!

How can you take the biggest names in comedy of that period and make an immense film showcasing all their talents and the single funniest character is.... Ethel Merman? The problem is that these are not 'character actors' but major comedians who each live and are funny in their own 'comic universe'. Brought together into a single narrative and a single movie it is leaden.Everyone from Phil Silvers to Jonathan Winters and Sid Caesar are wasted because these are comedians meant to comically DOMINATE their surroundings. The movie itself 'climaxes' in spectacular pandemonium but all the comedians never achieve that comic 'high' one expects of them. It is too long by a good 45 minutes as well. Ethel Merman DID make me laugh.

I just had rotator cuff surgery and this is one of my first film reviews post-surgery. So, although the movie is 3 1/2 hours long, I am being very brief because I just don't have the energy to write longer AND because they are already a ton of reviews for the movie.The story involves a group of seemingly normal people who go crazy due to greed and quickly become unhinged at the process of sudden wealth. In addition to this core group, you have many cameos (many of which could have been used better) of very famous comedy actors of yesterday such as The Three Stooges, Jack Benny, Joe E. Brown and many others.So is this film a brilliant comedy? Not exactly. Subtlety certainly is NOT something you see in the film and Ethel Merman's performance is ridiculously over the top (no one is THAT obnoxious). Instead it's more a turn off your brain and just enjoy sort of movie. Funny, high energy but rarely brilliant or clever...it's well worth seeing and holds up well but also isn't a film that makes the best use of its many stars.

With a cast of 50 people, including many big names of the movies and comedies of the era, "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" is one of the funniest movies of all time. It may be the very best and funniest film of those that barely have a plot. It has just enough of one to set in motion the hijinks and madcap race of numerous people to find their fortune, "tax free." All of the cast perform very well. Some stand out for their characters or particularly funny lines. Ethel Merman plays perfectly the nagging, shrill-voiced mother-in-law, Mrs. Marcus, whom no one can stand. Buddy Hackett is excellent as Benjy Benjamin, both for his character portrayal and some very funny lines. Phil Silvers is Otto Meyer, and reprises his Sgt. Bilko character to a tee; only this time he is as much disliked for his conniving as we find him funny. Terry-Thomas is the English gentleman, J. Algernon Hawthorne, who is "actually Colonel Hawthorne." He, too, has a touch of greed amidst his genteelness. Peter Falk and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson have somewhat smaller roles as cabbies, but their roles and lines are very funny. Others of the big name stars, Spencer Tracy, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar and Mickey Rooney have very good roles and some funny scenes, but otherwise straight dialog. The many smaller roles are funny or lend to the hilarity. Jerry Lewis, Jack Benny and the Three Stooges have very funny cameos. But, you'll notice I haven't yet mentioned one name that has a prominent role. Jonathan Winters as Lennie Pike steals every scene in which he appears. His character, his expressions, his temperament, and his lines at times are riotously funny. One particularly laugh out loud scene is the fight between Thomas's Hawthorne and Milton Berle's Russell Finch. I couldn't stop laughing in the long scene of Lennie Pike tearing into the two service station owners, Ray (played by Arnold Stang) and his partner after they tie him up. I can't think of another film that had such a hilarious total demolition of a set. Each encounter after that between Winters and Silvers was hilarious. Two of the funniest scenes also had the dialog to match the facial expressions and the setting. Jonathan Winters and Buddy Hackett are the laughter kings in these scenes. In the first, Hackett's Benjy says, "So now, there's only one way to figure it. And that is, every man … including the old bag (Mrs. Marcus), for herself." Mickey Rooney's Ding Bell says, "So, good luck and may the best man win." Benjy, "Right! Except you, lady. May you just drop dead." Pike, "All right. All right. We all agree on that."I'm chuckling as I write this last hilarious scene. Winters' Pike says, "If we find the money we still have to report the taxes. Otherwise it's like stealing from the government." Melville Crump (played by Sid Caesar) says, "Could you explain it to him please?" Berle's Russell Finch, "Who me? Well, don't you see, if we find the money, there may not be any taxes to pay on it … just because we did find the money." (Winters has an incredulous look of disbelief on his face). Finch continues, "What he was trying to say is …" Pike interrupts, "Everybody has to pay taxes. Even businessmen that rob and steal and cheat from people every day … even they have to pay taxes."This movie came out while I was serving in the Army in Europe, during the Cold War. I didn't see it for the first time until years later on TV. I think movie buffs today will find it as funny as it must have been when it came out. It's a very good family film for lots of laughs. Parents or grandparents can explain to the younger kids (who should enjoy some of the hijinks), that there's a message amidst the laughter. Crime and dishonesty don't pay.