It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Mythology

   I know what you are thinking now how can myth and a broad comedy like Mad World can relate to each other?  Well mythology is such a broad term and it could mean quite a number of things but I do feel that Mad World’s epic scope of storytelling, cast, and humor can be looked upon as several types of myth.  One can see the recurring mythic themes in this movie if one looks close enough.  These themes include the underworld, the apocalypse, the quest, the fall, the gods, sacred mountains, tricksters, twins, and pairs, as well as doubles. Not only will these archetypes/themes be addressed later on but we should also look into how Mad World was also a mythology for American comedy at the time and how it references different sources of humorous diversions of previous eras.

     The underworld has been told in various world mythologies such as the Greek and Mesopotamian most prominently but its thematic element can also be applies to Mad World as well.  Indeed the Crumps (Monica and Melville) are stuck in the basement of a hardware store by accident in the dark.  Melville’s struggle to escape the dark hole is only worsened by his male pride.  It seems as though every time he thinks of some plan immediately and quite literally blows up in his face and the entrapment seems to be a mystical punishment for his arrogance throughout the film so far.  Indeed the basement sequence can be seen as a Hades of sort for the Crumps that is full of frustrations, chaos, humiliation, and pain.

It can also be said that Otto Meyer’s hazardous drive down the rocky valley because the character Mike Mazurki’s miner lives down there and not he cannot get out.  It can almost be a metaphor to a type of hell, one in which he rightfully put himself into after swindling Lennie early on.  He now has to take directions from the miner’s son who not only leads him down another steep road which almost certifies his journey further down to his own madness and debauchery,  Its only near the end of the first act that in the context of referencing mythological elements that the little boy that Otto thought would help him escape this wildlife prison actually resembles Karma itself in the way he leads Otto’s car down the river in which it predictably drowns.  Its as if the boy was more of a punisher than a life savior for poor Otto (especially when he waves his hat to the drowning Otto). Indeed before the end of the first act all of the characters with the major exception of Captain Culpepper who seem to be in a symbolic hell one way or the other.

      

     Another thematic element that is popular among world mythology is the apocalypse. In many of the narratives, the violent destruction of the universe leads to the birth of a new, and often better, world. In others, the apocalypse either marks the end of all time and a return to chaos, or it heralds the end of all earthly life and the beginning of existence in eternity.  In those myths wherein the world is reborn after its destruction, the apocalypse serves a function similar to that of the deluge: like the flood, the catastrophe that destroys the world cleanses and renews it.

    Several recurring themes appear among these visions of the last days of the Earth.  In many myths, both the disintegration of the world’s society and the degradation of the Earth’s environment signal the approach of the apocalypse.  For example, a decline in morality often becomes evident near the end of time.  Sometimes monsters or demons emerge near the end of time.  In several myths the end comes when a final reckoning occurs on a Day of Judgment. (Stookey 18-19)

   The entire runtime(s) of Mad World represents the apocalypse but in a jolly, comedic way especially in Ernest Gold’s merry-go round type of score but make no mistake the film leaves a trail of destruction and bitterness in its wake.  Of course the film’s main characters’ motivations is fueled by earthly greed by racing each other for the money that causes reckless driving, withholding information from the police, and causing all types of assault and battery on themselves and other people. From wrathfulness from Lennie Pike; the lusty, crazy goofball that is Sylvester Marcus; and the drunken disregard from the pilot of Tyler Fitzgerald is all signs of moral decline that leads to destructive humorous consequences.  As well as the “merrymakers” somewhat civilized comedy of manners that is shown in the beginning has now turned into greedy almost beast like creatures who no longer think of what is right and wrong but now only care about themselves.  In another post I wanted to discuss about Mad World parallels to the Bible I wanted to explore more deeply how Culpepper is the antichrist.  Indeed he fits all the description of how he fits the model of the moral cop but by the end he has now stolen the money from the racers and attends to stow it away.  However after the last destructive act of the film in which a fire truck ladder goes awry and damages the male characters’ body and soul and oddly almost all of them are put into a crucifixion pose as if they are about to be persecuted for their crimes.

  It almost resembles the ending of Life of Brian in a way both have male characters being crucified for their crimes but remain positive in the face of their imminent demise by a sight gag or a catchy tune.  Another interesting examination is the fact that the male characters are all worried about being judged and if you look at this from a mythological angle its almost worried and bitter about meeting their maker and being pronounced their fate.  Indeed Culpepper mentions “the judge will have me up there, to throw the book at!” as if he was speaking more about the higher being judging him the most severe because morally he was supposed to regulate evil but instead allowed bitterness and greed corrupt his heart.

 Much like what happens to Satan in John Milton’s Paradise Lost when he rebels he is thrust out of his position of a man of law and order and must be accountable for his rebellion against the law.
Human beings have always had a goal of some kind, have always sought a state of completion or redemption, either, here on earth or in union with the gods after death,  They have pursued earthly goals as discovers of distant lands or as warriors or conquerors; they have striven for technical progress in the form of improved tools and greater control over nature; and they have looked for long life and happiness on Earth.  Numerous myths reflect man’s sometimes meandering efforts to reach these targets, culminating in the achievement of a new level of being.  Obstacles and ordeals mark the mythic path to any kind of accomplishment.(Eliot 247)

   Sacred mountains are central religions and are the subjects of many legends.  For many, the most symbolic aspect of a mountain is the peak because it is believed that is the closest to heaven or other celestial bodies.  Many religions have some sacred mountains that either are holy (like Mount Olympus in Greek Mythology) or are related to famous events (like Mount Sinai in Judaism and descendant religions). In some cases, the sacred mountain is purely mythical, like the Hara Berezaiti in Zoroastrians volcanoes such as Mount Etna in Italy, were also considered sacred.  Mount Etna was believed to have been the home of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire.(Sacred) These two things go hand in hand in Mad World.  Although the major difference between Jason, Odysessus, and King Arthur and Mad World is the fact that unlike these heroic myths these unheroic, greed induced characters decides to split up and go after the money.  That’s also another difference between the heroes I mentioned earlier, in most myths the object that the heroes pursue after has some magical property that can heal wounds or make one immortal; the object in Mad World  is stolen money in which in American culture can definitely any wounds you have financially so it spins this archetype on its heads and spoofs it quite nicely.  As well as the idea of the sacred mountain, here in the movie the mountain is replaced for a state park.  The movie clearly spoofs this idea about the park being sacred as it contains palm trees that crosses itself as a giant W and composer Ernest Gold’s choral score hits the high note whenever its on screen.  This is seen to the characters as a celestial gift from above as they frantically dig up this holiest of the holy sacred grounds to achieve their hopes and dreams.  To then its their version of the Holy Grail to which they thought impossible.

    The next to last bit of thematic element to discuss is the symbols of duality, the twins that appear in tales from many cultures serve several different functions within myth tradition.  However in other narratives a subtle twinning is implied when contrasting figures are clearly paired or when a character obviously servers as the double, or alter ego, of another being.  In a few myths the differentiated selfhood of twins is embodied in a single figure, usually a creator god.(Stookey 189)  The biggest twins in the film are Smiler Grogan/ Captain Culpepper, one is a thief and the other is a high ranking police captain.  Both are old and both are ready to retire from their current positions.  One has a dark past and the other while honest and true eventually turns his back from the law so he himself can achieve his unreachable happiness with the money.  One other mythic idea that is presented in the movie is that the Santa Rosita police department represent both the Greek gods, in that I mean even though they are not human themselves.  Much like the Greek gods, they are not impersonal, nebulous “powers,” they are characters.(Skill 58)  One can even interpret the phones the police use is a way of other police/men/gods to communicate about what the other characters are doing.  In this sense, with all this constant tailing it makes them all very omnipresent.

 There is no question about it, Captain Culpepper is Zeus.  His office is on one of the top floors and much like the god in Homer’s epics The Iliad and The Odyssey he tries to control the destiny of the unknowing racers.  In The Iliad, Zeus tries to prevent Sarpedon, (one of his sons) from dying in battle because the fates has decreed it so.  However his wife, Hera reminds Zeus that it would be hasty to defy destiny, for it would create disorder among the gods, and, it would disrupt the order of the universe.

 An almost identical scene happens in Mad World when Culpepper receives reports that the Crumps locked themselves in the hardware store basement and when he is about to give orders to let them out the police sergeant (played by Alan Carney) tells him “that ain’t fair” because as he puts it, “if they got themselves in there they ought a get themselves out.”  Culpepper argues that they all are suspects and it doesn’t matter but the sergeant rebuttals him by stating “it’s a race, ain’t it?” and that the rules should apply to everyone otherwise “it ain’t fair” to which Culpepper reluctantly complies to.  This type of impersonal, nebulous point of view from the police continues throughout the film, even through the intermission, when in the roadshow premiere you could still hear the police calls as they story continues off screen when you were wandering in the lobby. (Thankfully this part is restored in the upcoming blu-ray release) This also adds a level of omnipresence to the mythological nature to the film.  Much like Zeus, Culpepper is not perfect as a man of the law he is easily corrupted, as a family man he is spotty at best, and he let this insane race go on further than necessary without police interference in order to solve a case that he has been unsolved for 15 years. Both Zeus and Culpepper also disguises themselves for their own purposes: lust and greed.  For Culpepper all he has to do is put on his run over hat while in the park to be quickly and regarded by the racers.  These mythological elements gives this comedy a strong connection to the epics of old as well as turning its tropes on its head however its not the only type of mythology that this film has in common.
      

PART II

“The first function of a mythology - myths and mythic rituals, sacred songs, and ceremonial dances - is to waken in the individual a sense of awe, wonder, and participation in the inscrutable mystery of being.”
-Joseph Campbell

“A world that can be explained by reasoning, however faulty, is a familiar world.  But in a universe that is suddenly deprived of illusions and of light, man feels a stranger.  His is an irremediable exile, because he is deprived of memories of a lost homeland as much as he lacks hope of a promised land to come.  This divorce between man and his life, the actor and his setting, truly constitutes the feeling of Absurdity.”
-Albert Camus

  As much as we can compare Spencer Tracy to Zeus,

Milton Berle to a confused Odysseus,

 Jonathan Winters to Herkales,

 Phil Silvers to Loki,

or Ethel Merman to the banshee let us not forget that it is comedy.

 However as Stanley Kramer and William and Tania Rose set out to make a “comedy to end comedies” it is safe to say that Mad World can be looked upon as a comedy mythology.  It is one of the first attempts to make a comedic epic by doubling the cast of comedians/ comedic actors, the running time of a regular comedy, and the elaborate sight gags.  Epics, in general, provide a richer form of entertainment, drawing upon and affirming cultural myths, or in the case of the revisionist epic, bending or destroying the myth.  Hollywood, and the movie business in general, has always at its core been built around the epic.  To some an epic film is one with larger - than - life dimensions, a mythic, timeless movie.  To reach the zenith of the myth, the storytelling must be very, very good.  Only then does the viewer find that sense of transcendence that only the best art supplies.(Hopp 3-4) You can apply this to Mad World for I feel it is culmination of American humor from Hollywood silent comedy, theatre, radio, cartoons, comic strips, and television that was produced from the past and present to create this extravagance of mirth, and I want to examine it bit by bit.
   Mad World is not the first to examine or homage comedies of the time period, filmmakers like Preston Sturges and Frank Tashlin has certainly done this in their films; however I believe Mad World is not a traditional comedy; its running time is longer than most comedies and the jokes are more based on traditional slapstick and character based type of humor instead of the traditional verbal wit you would in a Marx Brothers or W.C. Fields film. Let’s first look at how the theater has influenced the film, well first you can see vaudeville sprinkled throughout with stars who has done the medium before cracking into radio, the movies or television: Milton Berle, Mickey Rooney, Buster Keaton, the Three Stooges, and a host of others and either continues to do their schtick onscreen or play some other vital role.  A good chunk of them are acting out of character like Mr. Berle which adds another level of humor for the audiences who were watching this at the time.

 As well as seeing references to that type of comedy such as the pairing of Mickey Rooney and Buddy Hackett who is clearly a reference to the physically, opposite duo teams such as Abbott and Costello and Webber and Fields.  Stage plays that involve farces you can see in the early scenes of Mad World in the way the characters and dialogue are positioned and their different cultural backgrounds adds to this effect, even the scenes involving them trying to split the money fairly has a bit of social satire/ comedy of manners to it.

   Radio is another medium that comedians has succeeded greatly for a good number of years. We see comedians such as Jack Benny, Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, and Stan Freberg join the fray.  However as stated with the references of theater in the film you can also see references to radio as well.

 Indeed there are radios everywhere in the police station and the fact that Andy Devine, Charles McGraw, and Zasu Pitts’ roles as police officers talking over radio with their unique other references include Jack Benny and Eddie “Rochester” Anderson in the cast as well as a reference to the famous hall closet gag in Fibber McGee and Molly when Lennie opens the back of the furniture van and the furniture falls out into the road in a heap.

Not to mention Culpepper’s wife daughter’s voices over the phone lends itself to verbal/ vocal humor you would’ve heard and radio comedy program.  Mad World is like the comedy/sitcom shows that were on the air in the 40s and 50s as The Everything Guide to Comedy Writing states:

    

“Repetion of gags, catchphrases, and character quirks in radio shows

thrilled a loyal following who still laughed even though they knew

exactly what was going to happen.  Sometimes, these shows

would also have a continuing storyline, like a soap opera that

guaranteed that the audience would tune in to see what happened

in the next episode.” (Comedy 182)

       Even though Mad World is a three hour film it sill has elements of radio sitcom from the comedians, their distinct vocals as well as elaborate stunts that requires spectacular sound effects makes this film one gigantic episode from a sitcom from the radio box.
     Everyone who has seen Mad World knows that the film has its share of cartoonish moments.  I think the film really pays perfect tribute to the screen cartoons and the newspaper comic strips.  In another essay I did called, “Is Mad World a live action cartoon?”  I already illustrated the point is that you see influence from Warner Brothers and Tom and Jerry cartoons.

As well as featuring cartoon voice actors, Stan Freberg and Edward Everett Horton into the mix gives the argument even more weight. However what I failed to mentioned is that much like the Warner Brothers cartoons there is a lot of New York/ urban brashness in the characters in both the cartoons and the actors of Mad World.  This leads into another area that the writers seem to pay close attention to and that is the newspaper comic strip particularly Krazy Kat and Peanuts.

Why these two?  Well, George Herriman’s Krazy Kat has a slapstick premise about a cat and mouse (something that predates the Tom and Jerry cartoons) only difference is that its violence is mixed with a surreal southwestern setting and languages that involved Shakespearean, Yiddish, Chinese, and Egyptian!  While Mad World doesn’t go quite as far as Herriman’s characters there is a level of slapstick violence mixed with elaborate chase scenes that almost reaches the height of Krazy Kat and Ignatz.

  Not to mention having a bunch of comedians who clearly grew up in the heart of New York city can be found in the southern California desert can be seen as somewhat surreal if you really think about it hard enough.  However the film’s black and morose humor can also be attributed to Charles M. Schultz’s Peanuts. Even though the characters in Mad World are adults there is a rotten childishness to their actions as well as sadness and gentleness in the mix.

Russell is clearly the Charlie Brown, while Mrs. Marcus is a dead ringer for Lucy Van Pelt, and Melville as a Linus figure (its even more telling seeing how he wears a blue suit).  If that’s not enough there’s even a Snoopy reference with Ben Blue and his plane!

  Television is another influence for this film seeing how a good number of the comedians in the ensemble cast had a start or made a move to television.  While television is more restricted as far as budgets its still a great way for stars like Sid Caesar and Phil Silvers to let loose their comedic chops to millions of TV goers.  The same applies here however they have to expound these talents twice times over in order to create characters from the schtick.  The many ways the plot of Mad World is almost like a big budget episode of a sitcom of the day like I Love Lucy.

 Which is not uncommon seeing how in the 60s television sitcoms began to have adopted the high conceptual ideas to their shows like The Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres.  However difference being Mad World includes all of the great character actors from many shows into the film which gives it an edge on most sitcoms from the time period.
     Last but not least, Mad World takes cue from silent and modern sound comedies of the time.  At the time of Mad World, Hollywood was trying to get people away from their new TV sets that their eyes were glued onto.

So in the 1950s Hollywood began to go bigger with their productions as well as how wide they shot the film.

 Cinerama, Todd A-O, and Cinescope produced such epic gems such as The Ten Commandments, Around The World In 80 Days, and Lawrence of Arabia which would considered mythic films in their own right.  As well as a host of westerns, musicals, and costume dramas there was no genre that Hollywood could blow up into a 3+ hour epic with an intermission attached not even the genre of comedy.  Kramer and the Roses had a task before them in giving an audience a widescreen comedic experience that was longer than the average comedic talent in the business on screen.  Since they wanted to make a comedy to end all comedies they had to look back at the past with silent comedies.

 In those days the visual gags had to make up 95% of the films‘ humor, something Mack Sennet, and Hal Roach were no slouches in doing as silent shorts like the Keystone Kops did this easily and what the tone of the visual humor of what Mad World tries to achieve.  However comedians such as Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd provides a face, a persona, an archetypes to their wild antics and at times, a rhyme or reason for their behavior and you see this in the motivations of the the book, What’s So Funny explains the function:

      

“The sound comedy is far more literary.  Given the opportunity to use the

essential tool of literature, words, as an intristic part of the film’s conception,

the filmmaker did not hesitate to do so. In silent films, the use of words in titles

was intrusive, a deliberate interruption of the cinematic medium and a substitution

of the literary one.  We stop looking and start reading.  But the sound film provided

the means to watch the action and listen to the words at the same time.  Whereas

the silent performer was a physical being - and only through the physical an

intellectual one - the sound performer was both physical and intellectual at once.

  Another difference is that because he could talk, the sound performer was

more like all ordinary human being in society than a specially gifted comic - athlete - dancer - gymnast clown.  Further, the visual interest in sound films was not the physical

motion of the performer but the visual juxtaposition of the people with their social and physical milieu.  Images and imagery replaced movement.  All such shifts were in what we can termed a “literary” direction, making the film far more like a play or novel.  And as in the play or novel , the underlying unity of such comedies was provided by structure - what the characters did what happened to them as a result contrasts between the

characters, conflict between the characters and the social milieu, stylistic contrasts,

oppositions, parallels and balances." (Funny 245)

   

 In this instance Mad World would considered as a novel as big as anything that Cervantes and Dickens would have written as well as the episodic nature it has inhabits.  In the sound comedies distinguished clowns such as the Marx Brothers, Bob Hope, and Danny Kaye graced the screen with their lovely vocals and this trend of having the clowns have their solo vehicles is something that has continued to this day.  However screwball or romantic comedies would also be a contender for filmgoers as the actors/ actresses were not necessarily comedians themselves such as Cary Grant, Doris Day, James Stewart, and Katherine Hepburn but had tremendous comedic chops to be one if they wanted as they provide comedic reactions, slapstick, and verbal wit to get their points across.  The difference, however, between a solo vehicle and a romantic comedy is that the lead performer(s) in a vehicle film has to carry the movie all by themselves with a few character actors to help every once and a while.  However a screwball or romantic comedies has leads who while funny and believable in their parts will need character actors to give the story an overall boost.  Not to say the lead actors/ actress were not hilarious in their respective roles but if you look at a film like The Lady Eve or Bringing Up Baby but if you think about it real hard, the real reason why those films are so memorable and hold up today is because you have character actors like William Demarest spread out throughout of yesteryear would have laughed just see the face of someone they have recognized in other films and know they are going to get a certain type of schtick with that person whether it was physically or verbally humorous.  They were the actors/ actresses that either grounded or convince you how zany the particular story was.
    This is where Mad World comes in and tells you this was a rave and very special kind of comedy it combines the two together for epic absurdness.  You have the main ensemble cast like Berle, Caesar, and Winters who have enough personality to carry their own vehicle films.  Yet there are character actors like Charles Lane, William Demarest, Andy Devine, Sterling Holloway, Edward Everrett Horton, and Mike Mazurki that pop up in certain scenes.  Which is an odd combination for a Hollywood comedy of the time if you look at the formulas of straight comedies at the time.

 You don’t put Walter Breenan with The Three Stooges.....actually bad example.

 What I mean to say is you don’t see S.Z. Sakall with a heavy hitter like Red Skelton for instance both are powerhouses amongst themselves and that would be in danger of overcooking the stew.  Now occasionally you get a character actor like William Bendix swapping jokes with Lou Costello in Who Done It? However for the most part you keep these two things separate.

  If you did get character actors they would be straight as an arrow like Charles Lane going against people who are unabashedly brash or silly.  However this is what separates Mad World and the other comedies of the time it dared to bring in fully comedians and the stand out character actors who were gifted in comedic timing.

 By doing this Kramer really did set out to make a comedy to end all comedies as it brought all these elements that I have mentioned above and making it an epic novel to rival Charles Dickens’ own epic comedic novels such as The Pickwick Papers and Martin Chuzzlewit. Whether you like the end product or not you have to admit that Kramer made a world full of slapstick, chaos, and satire way before the Simpsons made this a staple for an American audience.

I will end this essay by quoting a passage from What’s So funny?:

 “The greatest film comedies communicate serious values through the

comedy itself: they do not serve a comic digest if between the serious

courses.  Indeed, a comedy that sermonizes at us might well be more

banal, less complex, less serious than a totally wacky film that goes

about the silly business without a conscious idea in its (or its character

mouths).  The lunacy might contain a very complex underlying view of

human experience, whereas any ideology that can be summed up

neatly in a piece of explicit, terse movie dialogue is going to ‘say’ less

than it says.

As a result the most effective film comedies - as well as the most thought

-provoking ones - are mimetic rather than didactic, descriptive rather than

prescriptive.  They present a picture of a particular social or human condition

without tacking on a simplistic moral solution to the comic problems, and without

telling the viewer to apply the solution to his own life.” (Funny 243)

     
      I believe Kramer, as a director of great films involving great moral messages had set out to make a great comedy for the masses and I believe he had succeeded in spades.

Works Cited:
1.Bent, Alexander. The Everything Guide to Comedy Writing: From stand-up to sketch - all you need to succed in the world of comedy. Adams Media: 2009.
2. Eliot, Alexander, Mircea Eliade, and Joseph Campbell. Myths. McGraw-Hill: 1976.
3. Hopp, Glenn. Videohound’s Epics: Giants of the Big Screen. Visible Ink Pr: 1998.
4. Kramer, Stanley (director). It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Cast: Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, and Spencer Tracy. MGM. 1963
5. Sacred Mountains.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_mountains. Retrieved from December 9th, 2013.
6. Skill, Elaine Strong. CliffNotes on The Iliad. CliffNotes Incorporated: 1962
6. Stookey, Lorena Laura. Thematic Guide to World Mythology (Thematic Guides to Literature). Greenwood: 2004.
7. Walker, Nancy A. What’s So Funny? Humor in American Culture (American Visions: Readings in American Culture). Rowann & Littlefield Publishers: 1998.