The Producers (1967)

• Year: 1967
• Released: 10 Nov 1968
• Country: United States
• Adwords: Won 1 Oscar. 3 wins & 5 nominations total
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063462/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_producers
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-producers
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English, German
• MPA Rating: PG
• Genre: Comedy, Music
• Runtime: 88 min
• Writer: Mel Brooks
• Director: Mel Brooks
• Cast: Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Dick Shawn
• Keywords: musical, dark comedy, nazi, broadway, scam,

	7.5/10
	96/100

The Producers Storyline

Brash and loud Max Bialystock was once a successful Broadway producer who now resorts to wooing and seducing elderly women, each with their own specific sexual peccadillo, to raise enough money for his shows. Leo Bloom, a nervous man prone to hysterics, is the latest person Max’s accounting firm has sent to audit Max’s books. The two decide to join forces to produce a Broadway show after an innocent passing comment by Leo: that a producer can make more money with a flop that closes after one performance than a success as the producer would not have to pay back the investors as the investors have bought into a specific percentage of the show. Thus their goal is to raise as much money as possible to produce a guaranteed flop that closes after one performance. Their first task is to find the worst show ever written, which they believe they have in the offensive “Springtime for Hitler”, a musical love story to the famed dictator written by patriotic and deranged Nazi German, Franz Liebkind. Max then goes into overdrive to raise the money from his regular stable of elderly female investors and those of a similar ilk. He is so successful in this venture, selling 25,000% of the show, that Max decides to get a human plaything as his short term reward. And they are able to hire who is considered the worst director in the business, Roger De Bris, and miscast the lead role with an actor who goes by his initials, L.S.D., which truly does match his nature. But with all these pieces to produce a sure-fired flop, have they actually created the perfect storm?

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The Producers Movie Reviews

A nearly flawless comedy

This is Mel Brooks’ first and best film. It combined great writing, outlandish sensibilities and top-notch acting. Everything just worked together flawlessly.

As far as acting goes, this was the first of several brilliant movies for Gene Wilder (followed up by Young Frankenstein, Start the Revolution Without Me and Willie Wonka), though the movie was really the showpiece for Zero Mostel! Mostel plays Max Bialystock, a washed up Broadway producer who seduces VERY old ladies to finance his long series of flops. Wilder is his assistant who helps him plan the ultimate caper—to deliberately produce the world’s WORST play and sell 25,000% of it (since it will fail–who needs to pay off the elderly backers?). Unfortunately, despite their finding the worst play imaginable (“Springtime for Hitler”), the worst director and worst actor, it is taken by the audiences as great camp and the play becomes an unexpected success!! And then, the fun begins! This movie is simply great. It is unconventional, but not quite as much as some of my other favorites (such as Monty Python and the Holy Grail or Strange Brew), so MOST viewers (if they give it a chance) will enjoy this.

Dare I say it, comedy classic?

Admittedly The Producers is very tasteless but in a triumphant way. In short, The Producers is a comedy classic to me and one of my personal favourite Mel Brooks comedies. The story is a great one about two men who team up to fleece theatrical investors with the worst play of all time- a musical biopic of Adolf Hitler, while the script is constantly hilarious. The gags flow with ease, with the numbers from Springtime for Hitler faring best of all, they are just jaw-dropping. The two leads are wonderful, Zero Mostel as the down-on-his-luck impresario and Gene Wilder as the shy accountant, as is Dick Shawn as the hippy star who takes the lead in the production. Overall, brilliant, tasteless but very funny. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Bialystock&Bloom

After seeing the musical remake of The Producers it made me appreciate the original all the more. Not even the creator himself Mel Brooks who did the remake as well should have touched the original. You just can’t improve on perfection.

Poor Zero Mostel as Max Bialystock once noted Broadway producer, but now the genius behind several flop shows. When things can’t get any worse he’s about to be audited when drone little accountant Leo Bloom shows up in his office and starts going over the books.

If this had been a Looney Toons cartoon the light bulb would have been over Mostel’s head and flashing as Gene Wilder as Bloom explains how with a little creative accounting one can make lots of money off a flop show. Then it’s off to go out and try to create the biggest flop in the history of Broadway. Something no one has ever actually tried for in the history of the theater itself.

Certain films are seminal moments in the history of the genre. In comedy two previous ones in my opinion could be It Happened One Night and Some Like It Hot. Both by creative geniuses Frank Capra and Billy Wilder and both radically different films. Mel Brooks put himself in that category with The Producers. And like another genius David O. Selznick spent the rest of his career producing good film, even great ones but never topped his first and best.

All I can say is that when the film opens with that Springtime For Hitler number done in Busby Berkeley style you’ll react like Brooks’s theater audience did and say he succeeded. But if The Producers teaches us anything it is that flops are born, not made.

Brooks put together a perfect cast in support of Mostel and Wilder. Standing out are Dick Shawn as the method acting Hitler, Kenneth Mars as the crazy Naxi author, and Christopher Hewett as the worst director on Broadway who takes a real liking to Wilder.

The Producers got an Oscar nomination for Gene Wilder as Best Supporting Actor. It won an Oscar for Mel Brooks for Best Original Screenplay.

All I can say is that if ever an award was deserved it was the Oscar Mel Brooks got. It was certainly original.