With this all-star Cinerama epic, producer/director Stanley Kramer vowed to make "the comedy that would end all comedies." The story begins during a massive traffic jam, caused by reckless driver Smiler Grogan (Jimmy Durante), who, before (literally) kicking the bucket, cryptically tells the assembled drivers that he's buried a fortune in stolen loot, "under the Big W." The various motorists setting out on a mad scramble include a dentist (Sid Caesar) and his wife (Edie Adams); a henpecked husband (Milton Berle) accompanied by his mother-in-law (Ethel Merman) and his beatnik brother-in-law (Dick Shawn); a pair of comedy writers (Buddy Hackett and Mickey Rooney); and a variety of assorted nuts including a slow-wit (Jonathan Winters), a wheeler-dealer (Phil Silvers), and a pair of covetous cabdrivers (Peter Falk and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson). Monitoring every move that the fortune hunters make is a scrupulously honest police detective (Spencer Tracy). Virtually every lead, supporting, and bit part in the picture is filled by a well-known comic actor: the laughspinning lineup also includes Carl Reiner, Terry-Thomas, Arnold Stang, Buster Keaton, Jack Benny, Jerry Lewis, and The Three Stooges, who get one of the picture's biggest laughs by standing stock still and uttering not a word. Two prominent comedians are conspicuous by their absence: Groucho Marx refused to appear when Kramer couldn't meet his price, while Stan Laurel declined because he felt he was too old-looking to be funny. Available for years in its 154-minute general release version, the film was restored to its roadshow length of 175 minutes on home video; the search goes on for a missing Buster Keaton routine, reportedly excised on the eve of the picture's premiere.



STARS.........: Spencer Tracy, Milton Berle, Ethel Merman
DIRECTOR......: Stanley Kramer
WRITERS.......: William Rose, Tania Rose
GENRE.........: Comedy | Adventure | Action
IMDB RATING...: 7.6/10  29,739 votes
IMDB link.....: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057193
RUNTIME.......: 2h 39mn
SIZE..........: 4.45GB
VIDEO CODEC...: x264 ([email protected])
RESOLUTION....: 1920x696
ASPECT RATIO..: 2.76:1
BITRATE.......: 3500 Kbps (3-pass)
FRAMERATE.....: 23.976 fps
AUDIO.........: English E-AC3 5.1 512kbps
SUBTITLES.....: ENG
CHAPTERS......: Yes
SOURCE........: MGM Blu Ray Remux
ENCODED BY....: Sartre
ENCODE DATE...: 2016-10-28