It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World (1963)

I don't know alot about the story behind the making of this film, but I'm guessing that Stanley Kramer, who normally directed dramas, wanted to do an all-star slapstick comedy. I've seen parts of the movie when I was younger but recently watched the whole movie. Watching the movie in 2022, 60 years after it was first released, it feels like a product of its time. Dialogue and jokes seem very old fashioned and dated, such as when Buddy Hacket calls the mother-in-law character (Ethel Merman) an old bag and various other names. Mickey Rooney is cast as Hacket's best friend, but he seems really miscast among the other comedians. It was nice to see a couple of Black comedians such as Eddie Anderson but when they appear they only appear for a few seconds, sadly.

As I watched the movie I kept thinking of a better title. I thought "Greedy" might be good, since all the characters are rushing to find a stash of hidden cash before the other does.

This movie reminded me of another film I enjoyed watching on tv as a kid years ago - "Scavenger Hunt". I remember enjoying it at the time but maybe it doesn't hold up, either; will have to look for it one day.

Another review from:
Confessions of a Film Philistine

Adam's Rib (1949)

Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn as husband and wife lawyers on opposing sides of the same murder case. One of Hollywood's greatest comedies about the battle of the sexes. Co-starring Judy Holiday. Directed by George Cukor.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)

Hepburn and Tracy are liberal white parents whose attitudes and beliefs are tested when their daughter announces she's marrying a black physician (Sidney Poitier).

It's an important film of its time.

Tracey died within days of completing his part and Hepburn won her third Oscar for her performance.

This was Poitier's year: He also starred in 1967's Best Picture Winner "In the Heat of the Night".

Spencer Tracy in Dante's Inferno (1935)

Henry B. Walthall is the moral center of the film; in the film, his character loves Dante's Inferno and creates a museum exhibit devoted to it.

Spencer Tracy, in a swell performance, plays a man who learns some important lessons in life from Dante's The Divine Comedy: INFERNO. The film is known for a 10-minute sequence showing a visual interpretation of hell, including people burning at the stake, falling off cliffs into a river of fire, and more. It's all in glorious black-and-white; combined with the haunting musical score, it's a very impressive and thrilling sequence worthy of an Oscar for Visual Effects - they are really impressive. Here's a video clip of the Hell sequence.

More on the film (some spoilers): The film begins with images of fire and smoke. Then the camera slowly pans out and we realize we are looking at burning coal. Tracy plays a sailor assigned to the boiler room on a luxury cruise liner. Some hoity-toity socialites look down at the men and start laughing. Carter looks up to a snickering woman and thinks to himself, "sister, one day I'm going to be up there laughing". 

He soon gets fired, and finds work in a carnival sideshow tent. He soon gets fired again, and is almost arrested when he is sitting at a beverage stand and cannot pay for his drink. A kindly old man (Henry B. Walthall, who was also in Birth of a Nation and Judge Priest) offers to pay for the drink. Carter is impressed and takes a liking to him, discovering that the old man (or "pop" as he's called) runs his own sideshow at the fair, which is sort of a run-down museum called "Dante's Inferno". Pop gives Carter a tour of the exhibit which features well known historical figures whose lives were doomed: Alexander the great, Cleopatra, etc. Carter likes the museum but notices no one is buying tickets. With a gift of gab, Carter steps up and "sells hell" (he says, "if there's one thing I know something about, it's hell!"). 

After assuming the role as master showman, the museum exhibit becomes a hit. He also falls in love with Claire Trevor, who plays Pop's daughter and employee of the exhibit. She and carter soon get married and have a baby. Then Carter expands the museum into a much bigger attraction with a live theatrical show, rides, and more. In one interesting sequence, someone tries to commits suicide in the exhibit by jumping off a ledge and everyone thinks it's part of the show; it then becomes an even bigger hit. In a montage sequence we learn that Carter builds an empire out of amusement parks all over the world. The adorable child actor who plays Carter's son is played by Scotty Beckett (1929-1968). 

One day an inspector comes to warn Carter that the exhibit is not stable and is in a dangerous condition; Carter bribes the inspector to keep quiet about it. Soon the entire structure falls apart and Pop is injured. (The inspector commits suicide.) 

Pop wakes up in a hospital room and asks for his favorite poem: Dante's Inferno. He shows it to Carter - this is when the 10-minute sequence of hell begins. Carter is warned, but when he and his wife are called to testify in court, both of them lie  - Carter to save himself, and his wife to save their child. 

The couple separates for awhile, and in the grand finale, Carter attends the maiden voyage of his luxury cruise, which becomes a disaster: the guests all get drunk, the substitute boiler room workers become drunk and rowdy, and Carter's little boy finds his way on the ship. A fire is started and soon spreads throughout the ship. The climax is a thrilling fight for survival, and Carter is back in the boiler room trying to save the ship. 

In the end he is reunited with Claire Trevor. Carter, now a business failure, says to his wife, "all I have to offer you is my love". She says, "that's all I ever wanted".

I highly recommend this film, but it is difficult to find. This film is not available on DVD yet but I hope one day it is. I saw it at a revival house on a couple of occasions. 

Directed by Harry Lachman.

Here are a few other reviews of the film:

Black Hole Reviews - Dante's Inferno

Movie Classics - Dante's Inferno

Mystery File - Dante's Inferno

Retro Vintage Photography

Top 10 Box Office Stars of 1948

1932| 1933| 1934| 1935| 1936 | 1937 | 1938 | 1939 | 1940 |
1941 | 1942 | 1943 | 1944 | 1945 | 1946 | 1947 | 1948| 1949 | 1950 |

1951 |1952 | 1953 | 1954 | 1955 | 1956 | 1957 | 1958 | 1959|1960 |
1961 | 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 |1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 |
1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977-present

Quigley's Annual "Top Ten MoneyMakers Poll" has been conducted every year since 1932 and is based on a yearly survey of motion picture exhibitors. The survey asks the exhibitors to vote for the ten stars who generated the most box-office revenue for their theatres that year. Though it doesn't reflect actual box-office receipts, the Quigley poll has long been regarded as a reliable indicator of a star's box-office draw. It is published annually in the International Motion Picture Almanac.

When looking over the list below, keep in mind that a star's ranking was frequently influenced by major blockbuster movies of their career, but not always in the year of the film's official release. This is because under the old method of distributing films, it often took a movie many months after its premiere to reach theatres throughout the United States. In the days of single-screen theatres (as opposed to today's multiplexes), films were not released simultaneously in hundreds of theatres across the country the way they are now. Instead, movies opened in a few large theatres of major metropolitan cities before gradually working their way into the smaller theatres and cities as the larger theatres chose to showcase new films. The more successful a film was, the longer it played in the big theatres, and the longer it took for people in the smaller cities to get to see it. Thus, individual films continued to generate box-office revenues for several years, spreading out the impact of their success on the annual ranking of their stars.

Written by Elizabeth, ReelClassics.com

1.

Bing Crosby




2.

Betty Grable



3.

Abbott & Costello




4.

Gary Cooper




5.

Bob Hope





6.

Humphrey Bogart



7.

Clark Gable





8.

Cary Grant




9.

Spencer Tracy




10.

Ingrid Bergman

1932| 1933| 1934| 1935| 1936 | 1937 | 1938 | 1939 | 1940 |
1941 | 1942 | 1943 | 1944 | 1945 | 1946 | 1947 | 1948| 1949 | 1950 |

1951 |1952 | 1953 | 1954 | 1955 | 1956 | 1957 | 1958 | 1959|1960 |
1961 | 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 |1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 |
1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977-present

The Old Man and the Sea (1958) Starring Spencer Tracy

Spencer Tracy plays Cuban fisherman Santiago, isolated at sea in a small little fishing boat reminiscining about old times and waiting for a catch. One day he's stunned to come across a huge marlin who circles his boat. Santiago harpoons it; and eventually attracts a few sharks on his way home. The sea struggles (between Spence and the fish) are exciting, and Dimitri Tiomkin's score is really good. Thanks to director John Sturges, who is at his best with action sequences like this. There are many moments of narration by Tracy; the words come directly from Hemingway's book. I was not convinced that Spence was a Cuban. But the movie, like the novel, is very allegorical and not everything makes sense. Several flashback sequences feature symbolic images of lions and fish, and in one scene we're taken back to an arm wreslting match between Spencer and a man who is referred to as a "negro" multiple times. In the end, the old man returns to his village exhausted, and is reaquainted with his young Cuban apprentice, a boy named Manolin, but all the old man can do is sleep. There was a made-for-TV 1990 version with Anthony Quinn.
Oscar win for best Original Music Score