It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (Blu-ray)

THE CRITERION COLLECTION

Stanley Kramer followed his Oscar-winning Judgment at Nuremberg with this sobering investigation of American greed. Ah, who are we kidding? It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, about a group of strangers fighting tooth and nail over buried treasure, is the most grandly harebrained movie ever made, a pileup of slapstick and borscht-belt-y one-liners performed by a nonpareil cast, including Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Ethel Merman, Mickey Rooney, Spencer Tracy, Jonathan Winters, and a boatload of other playing-to-the-rafters comedy legends. For sheer scale of silliness, Kramer’s wildly uncharacteristic film is unlike any other, an exhilarating epic of tomfoolery.

• Restored 4K digital transfer of the general release version of the film, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• High-definition digital transfer of a 197-minute extended version of the film, reconstructed and restored by Robert A. Harris using visual and audio material from the longer original road-show version, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• 2013 audio commentary featuring It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World aficionados Mark Evanier, Michael Schlesinger, and Paul Scrabo
• 2013 documentary on the film’s visual and sound effects, featuring interviews with visual-effects specialist Craig Barron and sound designer Ben Burtt
• Excerpt from a 1974 talk show hosted by director Stanley Kramer and featuring Mad World actors Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett, and Jonathan Winters
• Press interview from 1963 featuring Kramer and cast members
• Excerpts about the influence of the film from the 2000 AFI program 100 Years . . . 100 Laughs
• Two-part 1963 episode of the TV program Telescope that follows the film’s press junket and premiere
• The Last 70 mm Film Festival, a 2012 program featuring Mad World cast and crew, hosted by actor Billy Crystal
• Selection of humorist and voice-over artist Stan Freberg’s original TV and radio ads for the film, with a 2013 introduction by Freberg
• Trailers and radio spots
• PLUS: An essay by film critic Lou Lumenick and illustrations by legendary cartoonist Jack Davis