Fans Steaming Over ‘Mad World’ Showing : Fans Steamed Over Bad, Bad Copy of ‘Mad, Mad World’ at Dome

Many of the movie fans who lined up for a wide-screen look at Stanley Kramer’s classic comedy “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” at the Pacific Cinerama Dome Monday left feeling had, had, had, had, had.

“I’m steamed!” wrote Daniel Krause, in a letter to The Times. “I took the night off to see this comedy classic the way it should be seen, in wide screen (and in) stereo. . . . And they were showing a damn television print!”

Others wrote in echoing Krause’s complaint and anger, claiming that the film they saw on the day of the Dome’s 25th anniversary (“Mad World” opened the theater Nov. 7, 1963) was exactly the same as the one shown on television--with huge chunks of scenes lopped off, often at the expense of entire characters.

They were right.

Milt Moritz, vice president of marketing and public relations for Pacific Theaters, acknowledged that the 35-millimeter print used for three of four showings Monday was a studio copy that had been “panned and scanned,” meaning that about 30% of the film’s original wide-screen images were sacrificed in transferring them to the nearly square format of the TV screen.

“We never said it was wide screen,” Moritz said, when asked why management didn’t inform customers about the print before they bought tickets. “We just said it was a 35-millimeter print.”

Guests at the Dome’s invitational gala showing of “Mad World” on Nov. 3 saw a pristine 35-millimeter wide-screen print that was out on a one-night loan from the UCLA archives, Moritz said. Another wide-screen print was borrowed from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, but it was in such bad shape, it was pulled after one showing Monday and replaced with the TV print.

“Mad World” is one of 35 films being shown during the Dome’s 15-day silver anniversary retrospective and is scheduled to be shown two more times on Nov. 17. Moritz said he is scrambling to find another wide-screen print before those performances. If he can’t, he said, a sign will be posted at the Dome box office explaining to customers what $5 will truly buy.

“We made the effort (to show it in wide screen),” Moritz said. “It’s just unfortunate. A lot of these old movies just don’t exist the way we’d like to show them.”