The Producers

When you see a movie once and think it's hilarious, that's a good sign. When you see a movie about a half-dozen times and think it's still hilarious, that's more than a good sign. That means that not only can you put up with seeing it multiple times, but you also find new things that you didn't see before. Plus, there are some scenes that are too hilarious not to laugh at! The chemistry between stars doesn't hurt, either. What movie am I talking about? Mel Brooks' The Producers, his most sustained and inspired piece of lunacy!

Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel have amazing chemistry as meek accountant Leo Bloom and scheming Broadway producer Max Bialystock. Max seduces little old ladies for checks, and when Leo comes into his office one day, he finds that a producer can make more money with a flop instead of a hit. They decide to do his ploy, and create the world's worst play, Springtime for Hitler (a gay romp with Adolf and Eva), and meet interesting characters, including author Franz Liebkind (Kenneth Mars), director Roger DeBris (Christopher Hewett), and their Hitler, Lorenzo St.DuBois, aka L.S.D. (Dick Shawn).

What makes this comedy such a gem is its mixture of types of comedy. There is slapstick, there's satire, there's bad taste, and everything but the kitchen sink! The scenes I have seen so many times, but what makes me love them is how they, mainly Wilder, play their roles. Wilder is somewhat crazy, and relies on his blanket to calm himself down. Not only does he have comic perfection, he's a darned good actor to boot! Mostel is great as the would-be sleazy loser-producer, with eye movements that put Silent Bob to shame and a great voice.

The songs in it are great, also. Two of them were written by Brooks himself, `Springtime for Hitler' (with which I have auditioned for a role in a musical with) and `Prisoners of Love'. They're both very funny (real Brooks-ian) (note to Merriam-Webster: include that word right next to `bling-bling'). It's not exactly a musical, but The Producers is in a class of its own. Long live The Producers!

My rating: 9/10

Rated PG for bad taste and homosexual themes.

The DVD release of "The Producers" sends me every viewing back to 1968 when I first saw this brilliant, barrier-smashing comedy. Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder were the perfect pair to bring to life the adventures of a Broadway faded impresario, now a con man, and his neurotic, hyper, accountant accomplice.

Together they fleece old ladies, something Mostel's Max Bialystock was doing before the auditor, Max Bloom, came by to check the books. Mostel's seduction of the old, the awful and the ugly has no equal in movie physical comedy.

The scheme: put on the worst flop imaginable and when it closes virtually after opening night the two scammers snare riches: the investments they don't have to return. But if the show is a hit...

The producers' vehicle, "Springtime for Hitler," both brought audiences to a new level of appreciation for the malleable, creative power of film and...it made some viewers genuinely nervous, even upset.

Following Steve Allen's observation that a formula for comedy based on history is Tragedy+Time, director Mel Brooks brought to the screen, less than a quarter century after World War II ended, Dick Shawn as a campy fuehrer surrounded by the Nazi counterpart of the Rockettes. And Max and Leo are clearly Jewish in character if not so openly identified.

Kenneth Mars grabs laughs as the author of "Springtime for Hitler," an unreconstructed, Hitler-adoring flake who raises pigeons on the roof of a Manhattan tenement while accoutered in the odd leftovers of Wehrmacht uniforms.

When I fitted in seeing "The Producers" in its opening week I sat in the middle of an audience that was, to a certain extent, as befuddled as the film's playgoers watching the first part of the intended-to-outrage musical comedy about the Third Reich. Not only were SS uniforms, swastikas and photos of Hitler on the "stage" but the movie theater audience also digested, perhaps for the first time, a send-up of an uproarious gay couple, two real queens. One is effeminate to the core, the other is a cross-dresser (and a faultlessly garish one at that). This kind of stuff hadn't been done before in a Hollywood flick.

1968's audience had many who well-remembered World War II and some had fought in the conflict. I knew people who admitted feeling that the horrific global battle against Hitler had been trivialized by Brooks and his extroverted cast - until they could no longer hold back guffaws that segued rapidly into uncontrolled laughter.

That "The Producers" is also now a runaway Broadway hit is no surprise and I'd love to see a DVD release with Lane and Broderick. However fine they would be, it's the original that broke barriers.

The DVD has a number of worthwhile features including a fascinating "Making of..." segment. Peter Seller's short, famous encomium is read and there are the usual other additions. An outtake presenting an alternative blow-up of the "Springtime for Hitler" theater is interesting, largely because it shows how perceptive Brooks was in scrapping it for the shorter scene actually used.

"The Producers" is, in some ways, a subversive movie. Without stridently proclaiming a new aesthetic, it is exactly that and so it's a timeless classic. This is not satire about Nazism, Hitler and the Third Reich. It's treating as suitable material for slapstick and quick gags the detritus of an evil time.

But it's also a bit dated, no subject is taboo today for comedic treatment, and many who see it for the first time (as my teenage son did tonight) will enjoy the movie without getting the full impact of its assault on conventionality.

Is there any historical topic that will not, in the passage of time, be employed for pure comedy? Is it possible that the next generation will laugh at a comedy parodying Auschwitz? I hope not but I also can't be sure.

Many years ago I refused to watch "Hogan's Heroes" on TV because I personally knew former U.S. POWs. But that show, with Werner Klemperer as Colonel Klink, was very popular. "Hogan's Heroes" was to TV what "The Producers" was, and is, to film. And both made a mark that will be emulated as future generations go beyond satire to humorous treatment of matters most today consider beyond the pale of acceptability as a vehicle for laughs.

10/10

This is a marvellous piece - a combination of utter farce, black humour, Jewish schtick and high camp, "The Producers" remains a truly wonderful film.

From the opening sequences, where Theatre agent Max is a despairing old fool trying to avoid tax, through the "little old lady seduction" scenes, to the gorgeous rooftop scene where a mad German pigeon fancier tries to remain within the bounds of sanity and fails, via the meeting with "top" Hollywood director Roger" we're not alone" de Bris, the film traces the hapless and eponymous producers who devise a foolproof scheme to make money out of a flop. They employ a Nazi writer to script the musical "Springtime for Hitler", which is guaranteed to be a flopperoony. Of course, they manage to totally miss the mood of the day and the projected flop is a huge hit - whereupon they have to pay back the 16,000 percent of the cost that they acquired....

Wild, manic, joyous and deeply perceptive, this is Mel Brooks at his finest - Jewish gags abound, but never alienate, accountants get the mickey taken (cheers all round!) and the final production - well, if you haven't seen this film, where have you been living? One of the greats.

A down-on-his-luck Broadway producer, Max Biolystock (Zero Mostel), is reduced to funding his shows by romancing old ladies for cash. Enter neurotic accountant Leo Bloom (Gene Wilder), arriving at Biolystock's apartment to do his books. Upon discovering that Biolystock had extorted $2000.00 from his last Broadway flop, Bloom, simply on a whim, mentions to Biolystock that he could've made a fortune on the flop if he'd only gotten more money from the old ladies. Needless to say, this revelation gets Max's mind working---get the old ladies to invest $1,000,000 on what Biolystock knows will be a surefire flop, then run off with the excess cash! Max convinces the gullible Leo to join him on the scheme, and off the two men go, on a crusade to produce the biggest disaster Broadway has ever seen. They come across a god-awful work written by a former Nazi (Kenneth Mars) called "Springtime For Hitler," and decide to produce it. If it's a flop, Max & Leo will become rich. But if it's a hit, they'll go to jail....

If you're one of the infinite many who've been unable to secure any of those scorching-hot tickets to Mel Brooks' current Broadway phenomenon, "The Producers," there's always this, the original 1968 movie version to watch & enjoy. This Oscar-winner for Best Screenplay is a comedy classic, and easily Mel Brooks' masterpiece, a brilliantly funny film that hasn't aged a bit. Zero Mostel & Gene Wilder are hilarious & perfectly cast as the con-artist producers, with terrific chemistry between them (just their opening scene together, including the great bits about Leo's blue blanket, and Leo terrified of being jumped on by Max, is already one of the great filmed moments of comic acting). Kudos all around to the rest of the cast, too: Kenneth Mars as the deranged Nazi playwright of "Springtime For Hitler," Christopher Hewett as the no-talent gay director who only makes "Springtime" even more misguided than it already is, Dick Shawn in an outrageous performance as L.S.D., the hippie ham who lands the coveted role of Hitler (his audition song, "Love Power," is a major highlight), and the gorgeous Lee Meredith as Ulla, Max & Leo's dimwitted secretary. And then there's the "Springtime For Hitler" production number itself---yes, it's everything you've ever heard about it, a wonderfully hysterical "you gotta see it to believe it" moment in film comedy.

Mel Brooks' direction is spot on, and his hysterical screen writing here has never been better (though his co-writing with Gene Wilder on "Young Frankenstein" comes close). His Oscar win for the screenplay was very well deserved, indeed. "The Producers" is a timeless comedy classic, and the defining moment of Mel Brooks' long illustrious film career.

Mel brooks' first attempt at directing is this film " The Producers, " originally entitled "Spring Time For Hitler." It's the story of down and out producer Max Bialystock (Zero Mostel), once known as the 'King of Broadway' who can't believe his incredible streak of bad luck. Once when the Moon of his Fortune rode high, he had Six shows running at once. However now-a-days he's so poor, he wears a Cardboard belt. Into his life arrives a timid little man named Leo Bloom (Gene Wilder). As an accountant, he makes a startling discovery. In his last play Max, raised more money to produce his show than he needed. As a result, Leo speculates Max could make more money with a flop, than with a hit. Max demands to know how and a crooked scheme develops. Max decides to find the worse play ever written. He will then hire the worse, director, the worse actors and then raise a $1,000.000 for a flop of a play which is sure to close the first night, allowing Max to keep all the rest of the money. This then is the plot and with Bloom becoming his partner, the pair plans on keeping the fortune. The movie which also casts Dick Shawn as 'L.S.D.' or Lorenzo St. DuBois, Kenneth Mars as Franz Liebkind, Christopher Hewett and Roger De Bris all combine to create a wonderful masterpiece of hysterical madcap comedy. It is with little wonder this film began as an unwanted idea and ended up becoming the surprise hit of the decade. A milestone for Mel Brooks, but a Classic for any audience. ****