18. Frank Tallman - It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Stanley Kramer's comedy epic It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World marked a turning point in the director's career, for the first time moving away from the socially aware movies with which he made his name. With an all-star cast including Spencer Tracey, Mickey Rooney and Peter Falk (and a lot of others who have long since been relegated from the status of household names), it's a madcap romp which was both a critical and commercial success. While it's not strictly an action movie, one particular aerial stunt stands out from the crowd for its deceptive simplicity. Lasting only a couple of seconds, it nevertheless represents stuntwork at its most precise, as a plane flies through a billboard barely wider than its wings. A couple of inches either way and it would've been a disaster. Here it is in all its fleeting glory. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYx-vjY06Cs
