Dave Smith wrote:
> On 05/09/2011 6:46 PM, Janet Wilder wrote:
>
>>> I heard about this movie when I was about 14 from a orthopedic surgeon
>>> as he was applying a cast to my leg. He told his co-worker that he saw a
>>> great movie that had a outrageous song in it called "Springtime for
>>> Hitler" and then he started singing the first lines. I never saw the
>>> movie until years later in the 70's but I sure remembered the doc
>>> singing SFH. These days, the docs are probably talking about "Superbad"
>>> when they put on casts. :-)
>>
>>
>> I used to set my alarm to get up in the middle of the night when it was
>> on. It's still one of my all-time favorites.
>>
>
> I was disappointed with the recent remake of the movie. There was a good
> take off of it on Curb Your Enthusiasm.
>

Ever seen the 1980's remake of the 1940's Lubitch film "To be or not to
be" with Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft?

I recently got a copy of the 1960's "It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world."

I can remember seeing it several times as a kid, going back to the movie
house on several consecutive weekends just cause it was so funny,
Absolutely hilarious.

But when i watched it as an adult, it was just sad, from the start with
Jimmy
Durante literally kicking the bucket and the poor immigrant family run off
the road (comically) to the last prat fall that puts Ethel Merman in the
hospital
with a broken leg.

The cast list is ...

Main


* Spencer Tracy as Captain T. G. Culpepper, Santa Rosita Police
Department
* Milton Berle as edible seaweed company owner J. Russell Finch
* Sid Caesar as dentist Melville Crump
* Edie Adams as Crump's wife, Monica
* Ethel Merman as Mrs. Marcus, mother-in-law of J. Russell Finch,
mother of Emmeline and Sylvester
* Jonathan Winters as trucker Lennie Pike
* Mickey Rooney as comedy writer Dingy Bell
* Buddy Hackett as comedy writer Benjy Benjamin
* Phil Silvers as out-of-work piano player Otto Meyer
* Dorothy Provine as Emmeline Marcus-Finch, wife of J. Russell Finch
* Dick Shawn as Sylvester Marcus, a lifeguard, Mrs. Marcus' son,
Emmeline's brother
* Terry-Thomas as Lt. Col. J. Algernon Hawthorne

Secondary

* Jim Backus as boozy and rich airplane owner Tyler Fitzgerald
* William Demarest as Aloysius, Chief of the Santa Rosita Police
Department
* Jimmy Durante as "Smiler" Grogan
* Peter Falk as a cop-hating cab driver
* Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson as a cab driver
* Paul Ford as Col. Wilberforce
* Barrie Chase as Sylvester Marcus' bikini-wearing girlfriend

Cameo appearances

* Jack Benny as a man who drives by in a Maxwell, offering to help,
but is put off by Mrs. Marcus
* Paul Birch as a Santa Rosita Police Department officer
* Ben Blue as the vintage biplane pilot
* Joe E. Brown as the union official giving a speech at a
construction site
* Wally Brown as a Santa Rosita Police Department officer (died
before filming)
* Alan Carney as a sergeant with the Santa Rosita Police Department
* Chick Chandler as detective outside Chinese laundry
* John Clarke as helicopter pilot
* Stanley Clements as a local reporter at police station
* Lloyd Corrigan as the mayor of Santa Rosita
* Howard Da Silva as an airport official
* Andy Devine as the Sheriff of Crockett County, California (fictional)
* Selma Diamond (voice only) as Ginger Culpepper, Captain
Culpepper's wife
* Minta Durfee as a crowd extra
* Roy Engel as a Santa Rosita Police Department officer
* Norman Fell as primary detective at the "Smiler" Grogan accident site
* James Flavin as a Santa Rosita Police Department officer
* Stan Freberg as a Crockett County Deputy Sheriff
* Nicholas Georgiade as supporting detective at the "Smiler" Grogan
accident site
* Louise Glenn (voice only) as Billie Sue Culpepper, Captain
Culpepper's daughter
* Leo Gorcey as a cab driver bringing Crump and Monica to the
hardware store
* Stacy Harris (voice only) as police radio voice unit F-7
* Don C. Harvey as a Santa Rosita Police Department officer
* Sterling Holloway as a Santa Rosita Fire Department fire captain
* Edward Everett Horton as Mr. Dinckler, owner of the hardware store
* Allen Jenkins as a Santa Rosita Police Department officer
* Marvin Kaplan as garage/service station co-owner Irwin
* Robert Karnes as Simmy, a Santa Rosita Police Department officer
* Buster Keaton as Jimmy the Crook (boatman)
* Tom Kennedy as a Santa Rosita Police Department traffic cop
* Don Knotts as the nervous motorist
* Charles Lane as the airport manager
* Harry Lauter as a police dispatcher
* Ben Lessy as George the steward
* Bobo Lewis as vintage biplane pilot's wife
* Jerry Lewis as the man who runs over Culpepper's hat
* Bob Mazurki as Eddie, the miner's son
* Mike Mazurki as the miner bringing medicine to his wife
* Charles McGraw as Lt. Matthews
* Cliff Norton as a reporter
* Barbara Pepper as a crowd extra
* ZaSu Pitts as Gertie, the Santa Rosita Police Department Central
Division's switchboard operator
* Carl Reiner as the Rancho Conejo airport tower controller
* Madlyn Rhue as police secretary Schwartz
* Roy Roberts as a Santa Rosita Police Department officer
* Eddie Ryder as Rancho Conejo air traffic control tower staff member
* Charles Sherlock as a crowd extra
* The Shirelles (voices), singing "31 Flavors", at Sylvester's
bachelor pad
* Eddie Smith as an extra
* Arnold Stang as garage/service station co-owner Ray
* Nick Stewart as migrant truck driver forced off the road
* The Three Stooges (Moe, Larry, and Curly Joe) as Rancho Conejo
Airport firemen (they have the shortest cameo appearance; five seconds)
* Sammee Tong as a laundryman
* Doodles Weaver as a hardware store employee
* Jesse White as a Rancho Conejo air traffic controller
--
JL