'Mad (4 Times) World' Premiere To Benefit Utah Heart Work

Deseret News, 17 February 1964, page 2B

All proceeds from the Mountain West premiere of "Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" Wednesday night at the Villa Cinerama Theater will go to the Utah Heart Association.

Aided by Thiokol of Utah, Heart Fund officials Monday were pushing a last-minute drive to assure a capacity house for the premiere. The event will begin at 8:30 p.m. Giant lights, a band, red carpet and other features of a premiere are being arranged for the occasion.

"Mad (4 times) World" is the first motion picture to utilize one-projector technique for the Cinerama process. This gives the audience the feeling of being in the picture, as has been the case in all Cinerama productions, but the center lines have been eliminated through the use of only one projector.

At the wind-up of "South Seas Adventure" Saturday, the Villa was closed to the public so projection booths could be prepared for the new process. Test runs will be conducted before the opening.

"Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" is a unique production in several respects. For one, it represents the first major comedy to be produced by Stanley Kramer, who has been responsible for such movie dramas as "Judgment at Nuremberg," "Cyrano De Borgerac," "Inherit The Wind," "On the Beach" and "The Defiant Ones."

Another unique feature of the film is the fact that the producer has been able to sustain a chase theme through nearly three hours and keep a pace that has audiences laughing throughout.

The story deals with the frantic doings that ensue when several citizens, outwardly respectable and honest, learn about a cache of buried treasure, a $350,000 payroll, in small, unmarked bills, which had disappeared during a robbery 15 years earlier.

Kramer assembled some of the outstanding talents in the world of entertainment, most of them comedians, and switched them from their usual types to add another unique element to his film.

There are 15 major roles in the film, each taken by a name star. Stars and featured players are Spencer Tracy, Milton Berle, Ethen Merman, Sid Caesar, Edie Adams, Dick Shawn, Phil Silvers, Mickey Rooney, Buddy Hackett, Jimmy Durante, Dorothy Provine, Terry Thomas, Jonathan Winters, Jim Backus, Eddie (Rochester) Anderson, Ben Blue, Barrie Chase, Peter Falk, Paul Ford, Edward Everett Horton, Buster Keaton, Don Knotts, Carl Reiner, Madlyn Rhue, Arnold Stang and a few surprises.