Film 4 for the Letterboxd Season Challenge. The other films I plan to watch for the challenge are here.
Week 4, Sep 27-Oct 3: 60’s Blockbuster Week
Challenge: Watch an unseen film from among the Top 50 Highest Grossing Movies of the 1960s.
My Choice: It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World by Stanley Kubrick
This was another week where I had seen many of the big hitters – The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, Doctor Zhivago, etc. I wasn’t too enthused about any of the remaining options (geez, audiences in the ’60s liked long movies), but I figured at least It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World would have a ton of crazy cameos to keep me distracted, plus Criterion just added it to their collection, so it’s got to have SOMETHING.
Turns out it was quite a bit more fun than I expected. A speeding motorists drives off a cliff, and five people go down to see if he’s okay. SPOILER: He’s not. But he manages to tell them about a large sum of money he’s hidden. They all predictably start going after it, and this race/chase to the money takes up the bulk of the 160 minute running time.