USB DONE RIGHT: Two magic boxes that let computer audio ...
USB DONE RIGHT: Two magic boxes that let computer audio ...
USB DONE RIGHT: Two magic boxes that let computer audio ...
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Software<br />
Feedback<br />
Your System<br />
Belongs on the Wall<br />
Target Wall Stands<br />
at The Audiophile Store<br />
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World<br />
(Blu-ray)<br />
Milton Berle, Buddy Hackett, Ethel<br />
Merman, Spencer Tracy, all-star cast<br />
MGM<br />
Gerard Rejskind: This long comedy<br />
is from the 60’s, but not the real 60’s.<br />
Stanley Kramer (known for such films at<br />
Judgement at Nuremberg and Guess Who’s<br />
Coming to Dinner) made it in 1963, the<br />
year before the cultural revolution <strong>that</strong><br />
began with the emergence of the Beatles.<br />
Its spirit is actually <strong>that</strong> of the 1950’s,<br />
76 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine<br />
and I do not mean <strong>that</strong> as a compliment.<br />
However it has a couple of redeeming<br />
qualities I shall get to in a moment.<br />
Here’s the setup. A number of tourists,<br />
some related and some not, are<br />
passed on a dangerous mountain curve<br />
WHY A FREE ISSUE<br />
by an elderly motorist (Jimmy Durante)<br />
who drives off the road, and — in an era<br />
before seat belts — is “thrown clear.”<br />
Before We remember he kicks when the a bucket number (all of competitors too would<br />
put literally, on line and only if it’s only subt<strong>let</strong>y the cover you image want, and the table of<br />
you should look to some contents. other film),<br />
We he would reveals tell <strong>that</strong> them he buried <strong>that</strong> you a treasure don’t go in fishing a without bait.<br />
Sure, California we live park. from The what tourists you spend decide through to our site and<br />
the find pages the treasure of our and print split issue. it up, But but you their could spend days<br />
agreement falls reading apart within material moments, for free. than pure.<br />
We and think soon <strong>that</strong>’s it is every the only man, way and woman, we can convince for you of the<br />
him/herself. UHF difference,<br />
of why This you very might long want film, to trust shot us in with what the future of your<br />
was still billed music as or Cinerama home theatre but system. was<br />
We actually have readers Super Panavision, on every continent is loaded except Antarctica.<br />
with sight Most gags, of and them no cliché discovered is so hoary us on line.<br />
<strong>that</strong> it cannot They read be used a lot at of least our free twice. material.<br />
The saving grace And is, then however, they joined <strong>that</strong> the us.<br />
large cast includes nearly every comic<br />
of the age, including many who are still<br />
remembered and revered half a century<br />
later. The major characters are played<br />
by Milton Berle, Mickey Rooney, Buddy<br />
Hackett, Sid Caesar, Phil Silvers, Andy<br />
Devine, Don Knotts and even Buster<br />
Keaton. And then there are walk-ons<br />
by the likes of Jack Benny, Howard Da<br />
Silva, Carl Reiner, and even The Three<br />
Stooges. Where else can you see these<br />
comedy stars of the golden age, not<br />
on grainy kinescopes, but in 70 mm<br />
widescreen? Nowhere, <strong>that</strong>’s where.<br />
I’ve already alluded to this film’s<br />
running time, which —like its title — is<br />
longer than it absolutely has to be, and<br />
to fill up all <strong>that</strong> time the screenwriters<br />
resort to plot twists <strong>that</strong> were ancient<br />
when movie cameras were still handcranked.<br />
One of the competing couples<br />
attempts to win the race by chartering a<br />
plane, but a second couple does exactly<br />
the same. There are problems with both<br />
planes, but different ones, with neither<br />
getting any points for either originality<br />
or plausibility. One couple goes to a<br />
hardware store for picks and shovels in<br />
order to dig up the treasure, but accidentally<br />
gets locked in, and uses every<br />
cliché there is in an attempt to get out (a<br />
lot of it involves explosives). The Buddy<br />
Hackett character has a difference of<br />
opinion with a gas station owner, and it<br />
all ends with nothing of the station left<br />
standing. I admit to laughing. A lot.<br />
There are two major characters I<br />
have not yet mentioned. Singer Ethel<br />
Merman, at her shrillest and brassiest,<br />
is the mother in law from hell, and is<br />
the butt (I use the word advisedly) of<br />
sexist joke after sexist joke, many of<br />
them involving her underpants, which<br />
make the Sears catalog of the time seem<br />
racy. And there is the wonderful Spencer<br />
Tracy as the police captain who is<br />
tracking the movements of this unlikely<br />
bunch, but whose motives may be less<br />
Is this movie funny? Sure it is, and<br />
many of the laughs are delivered by<br />
people who were the very best in the<br />
business. Expect to wince twice for each<br />
time you laugh, but in a movie of this<br />
length you still get a pretty fair payoff.<br />
At least you do until the end.<br />
Then writers William and Tania<br />
Rose fall off the diving board, with the<br />
most agonizingly awful denouement one<br />
can imagine. I won’t describe it, because<br />
watching it again was bad enough, but<br />
there should be a “critics’ cut,” which<br />
would omit the last awful 10 minutes and<br />
move straight to the final credits. You’ve<br />
been warned.