MovieChat Forums > It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) Discussion > Irwin we are going to have to kill him

Irwin we are going to have to kill him

posted 9 years ago by lonnieanixt
3 replies | jump to latest

The Gas station scene is one of the most amazing scenes in the history of cinema. It is the closest thing to a live action Bugs Bunny cartoon that has ever been filmed, and it needed a half a maniac in Jonathan Winter to pull it off, in his character Pike, we see a confluence of about 4 or 5 of his staple characters merging together, with all their varied personalities and character flaws magnified. Pike is not mean and rotten but he find ways to do mean and rotten things.
His attack on the Gas station is justified, and at first we pull for him, as he is being held against his will, and the two gas attendants are so stupid that they are dangerous, and in them, Pike come across two people very much like himself, ready at a moment notice to do something terrible and for all the wrong reasons, the three of them are so preposterous ,and so alike, and so totally out of control that it ids the definition of insanity. within five minutes of the meeting everything is in complete ruin and they are trying to truly kill each other. One may say this scene is a parable for the madness of War, and who isn't to say that some alien race may look down at our Wars, all started for no better reason than the battle at the gas station, an laugh their asses off.
The fact that the pristine and newly opened Gas Station is destroyed, with not one wall or light socket left standings is testament for mans capacity for evil and destruction which knows no bounds all it needs is the Catalyst -Pike, the deceiver-Myer, and The Dupes-the guys in the gas station, which is how it is played out, time and time again. in the end, just like real War, their are no winners, only survivors.

[–] steely3000 9 years ago

That's quite an analysis. One thing to note is that there are a few scenes deleted from this part, that the extended version of the movie includes. The regular version of this movie plays out like you say, with Ray an Irwin seemingly getting killed by Pike, along with their station. But in the extended version with the deleted scenes included, we discover Ray and Irwin alive after their station is destroyed, and really for the most part unhurt.

So yes in that sense it is like a Bugs Bunny cartoon, where at the end of it all the characters are unhurt. The scene is just played for laughs, and everyone watching knows the characters as simply characters we know from TV playing the farcical scene for us.

I wonder what would have happened if Ray and Irwin, rather than saying to each other that they will have to kill Lennie, tell Lennie to get on his girl's bike and leave. I assume Lennie would do that and try to hitch another ride to go to the park, since he didn't want to risk being killed.

[–] holbrookp 9 years ago

Good analysis! I have always thought this scene is one of the weaker of the movie. These two things drain its potential: the flimsiness of the gas station and the obvious use of stuntmen.

I heard groans at how easily it was falling apart even back during the movie's original run. It's so obviously just a cheaply built set with easily breakable materials. There didn't really need to be stuntmen used for a couple of scenes where they're most detectable. For those reasons, the scene drains away some of the overall comedy. The idea of the scene is great and would have worked much better with a little more realism.

And here's what I think would have happened to Ray and Irwin. Rather than tell Lennie to leave on the girl's bike, Lennie may have seen his best chance to get back at Pike and get there first would be to let Ray and Irwin in on the secret and take off with them in their wrecker. All the while, the guys would be torn between their desire to get rich and their fear of Lennie, who would still be mad at them for tying him up.

"All necessary truth is its own evidence." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

[–] steely3000 9 years ago

Yeah that's a good idea that may have worked. Lennie may have wanted to call a truce, and Ray and Irwin may ask him what is going on. In the telling, Ray and Irwin may figure out Lennie isn't lying about the money; after all, the Finches were in the station earlier trying to rent the wrecker for the day, and Meyer asked about an airport around. Half of the $350K would have built Ray and Irwin a better station, and so the three might have gone together to find the money.