VRP 2007 - It’s Mad, Mad Movie Nights!

The Vacation Reading Program 2007 kicks off in just a few days, and kids of all ages will descend on the Libraries for fun programs and story times.

As part of our VRP 2007 programming, the Forest Park Branch will feature Family Movie Night. We start off on June 18 with a screening of the comedy classic It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World in two parts (the second half of the movie will screen on June 25).

 

Mad World is a slapstick epic starring an unlikely mix of dramatic and comic actors, with cameos by some of the leading and legendary comedians of the day. Sid Caesar, Milton Berle, Jonathan Winters, Buddy Hackett, Mickey Rooney and Ethel Merman stumble across a dying Jimmy Durante, who tells them of a fortune in cash buried in a state park before literally kicking the bucket. It’s every man for himself as the team begins a mad race by car, plane and bicycle to find the treasure before someone else does. Along the way, unlikely alliances, encounters, trickery and general mayhem make for laughable situations. Spencer Tracy, as a police captain, monitors the race in an official capacity before his own troubles force him to join the madness.

The movie was released in 1963, and it shows its age. I doubt many kids will know the comedians that appear in the film, but many adults will remember Jack Benny, Phil Silvers and Buster Keaton and their shticks. Legendary director Stanley Kramer gets the movie off to a fun start with a wild and wooly car chase. Things bog down during the middle as the pack of crazies struggle their way to the park, but once the money is found, it’s a mad dash to a high flying, gut busting conclusion where all involved learn the high price of greed. The film is rated G with nothing too offensive and some slapstick violence.

In keeping with the VRP 2007 theme “Reading takes you everywhere,” our other movies involve adventures in travel. Family Movie Night starts at 7 PM and runs through July 30. Check the Events Calender for movie titles as well as other Forest Park programs and VRP activities at all CCLS branches.

Learn everything you’d ever want about It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World at Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com). Information on Stanley Kramer and the cast members can be found there, also.