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Okay, I've heard that this movie was originally an hour longer than the version we can see today. Is that true?
No, but it was longer when it first opened. This article will give you an overview of the
running times.
Where is the Big "W" and can we go see it?
This article will tell you all about it but the short answer is no, you can't go see it...what little is left of
it.
Who were the stunt people in this movie?
Just about everyone who was in the Stuntman Association at the time. The following list covers the main stars. The people
in the right-hand column may not have doubled the given star in every scene but they reportedly did so in most. (At least three stuntmen
doubled Spencer Tracy in different scenes — one for running, one for driving and one for the aerial stunt at the end. The latter was
performed by Bill Couch who, with ample padding, doubled Buddy Hackett.)
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STAR
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STUNTPERSON
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Sid Caesar
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Carl Saxe
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Milton Berle
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Regis Parton
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Jonathan Winters
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Jack Perkins, John Hudkins
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Ethel Merman
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Helen Thurston
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Buddy Hackett
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Bill Couch
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Mickey Rooney
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Jesse Wayne
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Eddie Anderson
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Loren James
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Peter Falk
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Janos Prohaska
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Arnold Stang
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Janos Prohaska
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Dick Shawn
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George Robotham
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Terry-Thomas
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Chuck Couch
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Phil Silvers
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Marvin Willens
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These folks were all longtime stuntpeople. Chuck Couch was later the main double for Jack Lord on Hawaii Five-O and Janos
Prohaska gained fame playing odd creatures, including many of the aliens on Star Trek and the bear on The Andy Williams Show.
Was anyone injured during the filming?
Arnold Stang hurt his foot when he stepped on a cactus but apart from normal scrapes and bruises, there was only one injury. Phil
Silvers pulled a groin muscle (one of his own) running during the scene in the alley behind the building at the end. He was out for several
days and his stuntman filled in for him in several non-stunt scenes, carefully keeping his face away from the camera.
Earlier in the shoot, Silvers came close to drowning, he later claimed. It was in that wonderful scene where he's sitting in a
car as it slowly sinks in a river. Mr. Silvers couldn't swim and, after standby frogmen hauled him to shore, someone asked him why he'd agreed to do
the shot. "It was a great gag," he said, "and I didn't want them to cut it."
Is it true the men who animated the main titles hid their names in there?
Yes. There's a moment in them when a cartoon figure blows up the world (with a tire pump) until it bursts...and all the names of
all the cast members explode across the screen. If you freeze-frame during it, you may be able to catch the names of Bill Melendez, Bernie
Gruver and other animators who worked on the titles, along with a lot of gibberish. It's easier to do this with home video but some of us
managed to spot 'em on the big screen back in '63.
Why doesn't Stan Freberg have any lines?
Actually, he does but for years, he didn't know it. The master satirist was a last minute cast insertion. Freberg, who
wrote and produced many of the film's commercial spots was visiting the set to consult with director Stanley Kramer about the ads when Kramer asked
him to step into a role. Another actor (apparently, Pat Buttram) had a sudden conflict and was unable to do the scene on the day it had to
shoot. Freberg quickly learned and filmed a 3-page scene in which he played a deputy who was caught reading comic books by the sheriff, who was
played by Andy Devine.
Later, when it came time to edit the film down to an endurable length, dozens of scenes were cut in whole or part, and among the trims
was all of Freberg's dialogue with Devine. For years, Stan thought he'd been reduced to a non-speaking role in the film...but at a screening
just a few years ago, a couple of Mad World buffs pointed out to him that he is heard in the film. In one scene where two cops
are speeding along, they hear a voice over the police radio saying, "Item: One van filled with furniture...item: one red Volkswagen..." and so
on. That's Stan Freberg in his role as Andy Devine's deputy.
Were there many actors who were scheduled to be in the movie and then didn't appear?
Quite a few. Jackie Mason, for instance, was originally asked to play one of the gas station attendants but his nightclub
schedule prevented that. Most of the small roles were cast a day or two before they shot and sometimes, the actors they wanted weren't
available at the right time. Character actors Roy Roberts and Phil Foster were in the longer version of the movie but were cut out when it was
trimmed to its current length.
The curator of this page has a few theories about casting that may never be provable. One is that there was to have been another
unbilled cameo (like those of Jerry Lewis and Jack Benny) at the end. When most of the male stars are stranded on the fire escape, a fire
engine pulls up and one fireman climbs to the top of the ladder. The way the scene is staged, it looks as if the idea was to do a "reveal" of
someone special as this fireman, but it turns out to be Sterling Holloway, who was one of the least-known performers in the film. The theory is
that this was going to be some very famous comedian — perhaps Ed Wynn, who was known for his "fire chief" role — but that they were
unable to get a proper superstar when the time came to shoot that scene.
One other theory is not about other performers in the film but about two who were exchanging parts. I suspect Buster Keaton and
Jimmy Durante were at one point planned to play each others' parts. Durante plays a gangster named "Smiler Grogan." Isn't that the perfect name
for a character who's going to be played by Buster Keaton? The Smiler dies at the beginning of the film, just after handing off the secret of a
buried treasure to a group of contemporary comedians. Wouldn't the symbolism be perfect if that were Buster Keaton, the one comic in the cast
distinctly from the silent era, passing the torch to today's comics and sending them off on a chase reminiscent of silent comedy? And the role Keaton
finally played in the film is "Jimmy the Crook" and he had a long dialogue scene with Spencer Tracy. Isn't that perfect casting for Jimmy
Durante? (As mentioned elsewhere, that scene is among the missing film elements but it was in the movie when it debuted.)
More questions will be fielded here in the months to come. If you want to know something not covered here, drop us a line and
we'll try to answer it.
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