Comedy is a Grim Business: The Making of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

It was the most audacious idea ever for a movie-four hours long, with two intermissions, a glittering all-star cast, and a world-class moviemaker-produced at a cost completely unheard of for, of all things, a comedy. And not just any comedy, but the comedy to end all comedies.

To make such a film a reality, it would take a director with stature, assurance, and, most importantly, a deal that would effectively allow him to make whatever he wished. A man without fear, a man with a gambling spir...