It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (partially lost deleted scenes from comedy film; 1963)

Movie poster.

Status: Partially Lost

The 1963 chase comedy film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, premiered with a length of 3 hours and 22 minutes. Several weeks after it's premiere, Stanley Kramer decided to cut it down in order for it to be more accepted and shown in theaters and cinemas.^[1]^[2]

Althought many scenes were found thanks to both a special 1991 partial reconstruction laserdisc^[3] and a 2014 Criterion DVD that included even more scenes,^[4] approx. five minutes worth of scenes are still lost.

Deleted Scenes

Not only many actors that did a short cameo ended up in the cutting room floor, but also some situations and interactions were never shown. The scenes that are still lost are:

Captain Culpepper (Spencer Tracy), not only was pestered by his obnoxious wife and daughter, but also by Uncle Mike (Morey Amsterdam) who wanted him to invest in a kind of resort, and Dr. Chadwick (Eliott Reid) who kept telling him his mother-in-law required an expensive psychiatric treatment.

The nervous man (Don Knotts) tries to do a call on a restaurant (after being told by con man Otto Meyer (Phil Silvers) that they were chasing him because he was an agent and that he should call for help), but another lady (Barbara Pepper) is using the phone and restaurant costumers try to calm him.

Actors Cliff Norton and King Donovan had scenes as an airport official and detective, but were cut for unknown reasons. Scene description for their appearances is still unknown.

Three scenes were partially found. Althought their audio was found and released in digital media, the visuals for these are still lost.

Since the more recent scenes were found in 2014 and in bad condition, it's presumed all the scenes that are still lost are going to be that way forever.

All these scenes are known to exist thanks to photographs, confirmations of the cast, and the final script.

Gallery

Don Knotts and Barbara Pepper on a deleted scene.
Edie Adams and Sid Caesar, in a backstage photo from a lost deleted scene.

External Link

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_a_Mad,_Mad,_Mad,_Mad_World

References

[1] ttps://web.archive.org/web/20020403223439/http://www.hometheaterforum.com/madworld/mad.html

[2] ttps://books.google.com/books?id=q_ePAQAACAAJ&q=In+Search+of+lost+films

[3] ttps://articles.latimes.com/1991-08-26/entertainment/ca-856_1_mad-world

[4] ttps://www.criterion.com/films/28579-it-s-a-mad-mad-mad-mad-world

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