It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

Producer/director Stanley Kramer made his name as a director of “message films,” works that examined and challenged notions of society and the problems it faced. From the beginning of his career, Kramer worked outside of the studio system, forming his own production company. This allowed him to work cheaply by renting space instead of owning it, and without studio control. As a producer, he tackled prejudice (Cyrano de Bergerac), social responsibility (High Noon), disaffected youth (The Wild One), and authoritarianism (The Caine Mutiny). Moving into the director’s chair allowed him to have a more direct hand on the narrative as he examined racism (The Defiant Ones and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner), evolution vs. creationism (Inherit the Wind), and the threat of nuclear war (On the Beach).