Sid Caesar

In the wake of the 45-million-dollar gross of the original Airport (1970), Universal was all but required by an act of Congress to produce Airport '75. Of all the Airport films, this is the best example of "famous folks in peril" that helped define the disaster era of the 1970s. Charlton Heston heads the all-star cast as Alan Murdock, the former test pilot who must keep a disabled 747 from crashing in flames. The crisis begins when a businessman (Dana Andrews), flying his small private plane, suffers a fatal heart attack and the plane smashes into the cockpit of the 747.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the casino, along comes the Griswold family from the popular series of National Lampoon's Vacation movies, raising a ruckus in the now family-friendly gambling capitol of the world. Clark (Chevy Chase), the bumbling Griswold patriarch, gets into his usual quota of trouble--especially on a sightseeing trip to the Hoover Dam (where puns on the word "dam" come fast, furious, and idiotic). Meanwhile, Mrs.

Spencer Tracy, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Jonathan Winters and Jimmy Durante are just a few of the stars that shine in this laugh-out-loud adventure about a goofy assortment of vacationing motorists who compete to locate a stolen fortune. It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World was the first movie to be presented in the single lens Cinerama format and originally ran over three hours. This 16x9 enhanced DVD of the general release 161 minute version is from 35mm interpositive film elements newly transferred from the 65mm Ultra Panavison originals.

Mel Brooks's 1981, three-part comedy--set in the Stone Age, the Roman Empire, and the French Revolution--is pure guilty pleasure. Narrated by Orson Welles and featuring a lot of famous faces in guest appearances (beyond the official cast), the film opens well with Sid Caesar playing a caveman, then moves along to the unlikely but somehow hilarious juxtaposition of Caesar's soldiers (the other Caesar, not Sid) with pot humor, and ends on a dumb-funny note in the French bloodbath. This is a take-it-or-leave-it movie, and it works best if you're in a take-it-or-leave-it mood.

Thirty big-name stars, 300-horsepower horseplay and 3,000 breakneck miles: that's the revved-up sequel Cannonball Run II. A real-life race inspired both The Cannonball Run and this follow-up. Director Hal Needham drove in a good-natured yet admittedly illegal race called The Cannonball Sea-to-Shining Sea Memorial Trophy Dash. To elude the law, Needham and his pals disguised their entry as an ambulance.