I love it. It’s a masterpiece.
Favorite line:
Begging your pardon, but the cameos are NOT silent film stars, they’re stars who were pretty much current at the time the film was made (aside from Buster Keaton and Zasu Pitts) Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, Peter Falk, Arnold Stang, Jesse White, Jack Benny, Jerry Lewis, the Three Stooges, Joe E Brown, Don Knotts, Sterling Holloway … not silent stars at all. In fact, most of them were known for their verbal humor.
I have a couple of problems with the movie. I thought it was riot when I first saw it, but I don’t think it holds up well. Most of the laughs are slapstick, when the stars were known for their verbal comedy. And the pacing seems slow for slapstick. Not to say it doesn’t have great moments, but …
And I find it awkward that many of the laughs are just the cameos. At the airport, the firemen are Moe, Larry, and Joe (DeRita): the laugh of seeing them as firemen is anticipation of what havoc they might wrought. But only if you know who the Stooges are. They don’t actually DO anything funny, they just stand there. Jack Benny drives by in a Maxwell (I assume it’s a Maxwell), only funny if you know his shtick. Etc etc. So, I still am mildly amused by it, but not more than a chuckle here and there.
It’s spectacular and funny both.
When I had to go to a defensive driving class, they showed the Dick Shawn car sequence as we waited for class to start. Loved it!
Reportedly, Stanley Kramer made the film after someone told him that he had no sense of humor. Kramer decided to prove him wrong. The movie only proved that the other guy was right.
The movie is only sporadically funny; most of the time you have big stars trying waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too hard to be wacky and crazy (the SNL “wild and crazy guys” sketch encapsulates the acting involved). Everyone overacts stridently and most of the gags are just “Hey, look! It’s <big name star> in an incongruous setting!” The attempts at slapstick are belabored and dull.
I saw it when it first came out and was highly unimpressed. I’ve seen it since and realized it was even worse than I remembered.
I thought the movie was hilarious when I first saw it…and still funny now. My favorite scene is in the Airplane with Buddy Hackett, Mickey Rooney and Jim Backus. Buddy Hackett has his facial expressions are genius.
I was starting to think I was the only one.
For me, most of the humor was obvious - and the movie seemed to be trying too hard.
I only ever saw this once, when I was a young teen, but I think what you said sums up the reason I couldn’t get into it–everyone just seemed to be TRYING too hard, and it just gave me a headache.
I’ve heard it said that if you’re trying to act/portray a comic character, you must never TELL the audience you’re funny (that is, go incredibly over the top) or you’ll only end up coming off as annoying. A few can make this work–Robin Williams when he improvises, for example–but maybe that’s because he seems to have so much joy in what he does that he doesn’t even seem to be trying, and the joy is contagious.
Someone else mentioned Airplane, which I think is a good example for how to pull off good comedy. The humor is wacky, but everyone is playing it straight and the humor itself, though over-the-top, comes off as very natural and unforced.
I think the original idea was if 10 comedians were funny, 20 is twice as funny. It was originally filmed with the most expensive and expansive technology of the day, Cinerama, so they went all out, trying to make the comedy to end all comedies.
But you can’t put 20 comedians in the same scene and make it work, so they were used sequentially, and that makes it too long. I think the movie was (and is) funny, but not as much as the producers wanted it to be.
I heard a story once where the producer (director?) was asked why they only used four "mad"s in the title. Why not a fifth one?
“Because that would have been redundant.”
This.
Plus, as a sensitive young teenager when I first saw it, I couldn’t help thinking about poor Cpt. Culpepper and all the crap he’s gong to have to go through after he gets out of the hospital. It just made me sad. I would have preferred the ending where he gets away with the money, goes off to his South Seas island or wherever he was going, and everyone else just shrugs and goes home. THEN something funny could happen to Ethel Merman’s character, and I would have laughed.
As it is, I’ve never wanted to see it again since it first came out.
Roddy
62 years old here. I loved MMW since first seeing it in early 70’s, and still watch it every year or two. Jonathan Winters’ scenes alone would be worth the time investment.
Love this movie, even though it does bog down in places.
Between this and “The Producers”, Dick Shawn may have been one of the funniest comedian/actors ever.
Hilarious. Maybe a bit dated here and there, and yes, I can see maybe "trying too hard’, but it’s still a comedy classic.
My feelings exactly. It still makes me laugh, and I still find it to be a lot of fun, overall.
I agree with a lot of what’s been said. Winters, Shawn, etc. are great. Lots of funny moments. But also some parts that are just duds. In particular, the final chase scene (once Tracy gets the money) is tedious and unoriginal. What a letdown.
In fact, Tracy is probably the most mis-cast actor in the film. He could do subtle, light comedy. But nothing this broad.
This is why God invented DVRs. You can zip thru the film in about an hour and hit your own personal favorite parts.
I think the “trying too hard” impression comes from seeing a bunch of talented comedians doing their best to mine a few laughs out of a script that’s, basically, not very funny. And I like the movie, but, yeah, it’s far from hilarious.
I first saw it when I was about 10. It was on TV so it must have come out some time before but it had bot me and my older brother in stitches. 
I doubt they couldn’t have done that even if they wanted to. The Production Code was still in force in 1963 and it would’ve frowned on someone getting away with a crime.
Funny then (I saw it in 1969 as an 8 year old), funny now.
I’m watching it right now.
Funny as ever.
Shelly Winters was in rare form.