The Producers (film)
"The Producers" is a 1968 satirical comedy film directed by Mel Brooks, which has gained recognition as one of the funniest movies in American cinema. The plot centers around Broadway producer Max Bialystock and his neurotic accountant Leo Bloom, who concoct a scheme to produce a play that is destined to flop. Their goal is to defraud investors by overselling shares in the theatrical production titled "Springtime for Hitler: A Gay Romp with Adolf and Eva in Berchtesgarten," which is intentionally designed to be offensive and poorly made. However, the unexpected twist occurs when the play becomes a surprise hit instead of the disaster they intended.
The film features memorable performances by Zero Mostel as Max and Gene Wilder as Leo, contributing to its enduring legacy. It showcases a blend of absurd humor and sharp dialogue reminiscent of the golden age of comedy, drawing inspiration from the likes of W.C. Fields and the Marx Brothers. Despite its controversial subject matter, "The Producers" was met with critical acclaim, winning an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and earning a nomination for Wilder's performance. The film has received cult status and was preserved in the National Film Registry, reflecting its cultural significance. In 2001, Brooks adapted the screenplay into a highly successful Broadway musical, further solidifying the story's influence in entertainment history.
The Producers (film)
- Release Date: 1967
- Director(s): Mel Brooks
- Writer(s): Mel Brooks
- Principal Actors and Roles: Zero Mostel (Max Bialystock); Gene Wilder (Leo Bloom); Kenneth Mars (Franz Liebkind); Lee Meredith (Ulla); Dick Shawn (Lorenzo St. DuBois (L. S. D.)); Estelle Winwood ("Hold Me Touch Me")
The Producers is a 1968 satire that is widely ranked among the funniest movies ever made. It includes outstandingly funny dialogue that recalls the "golden age" of American comedy, with echoes of W.C. Fields and Marx Brothers movies.
The film revolves around the production of a Broadway play that is designed to be a fraud—the play is supposed to flop, which will enable its producers to pocket all of the money they have raised while their many donors write off the loss. To this end they set out to produce the worst play ever written. What writer/director Mel Brooks created to fill the bill was titled Springtime for Hitler: A Gay Romp with Adolf and Eva in Berchtesgarten. The concept was so utterly offensive that Brooks had difficulty raising the money to produce the movie, but the result is a classic. The title song of the play must be heard to be believed. A sample lyric is "Springtime for Hitler and Germany/Winter for Poland and France," supported by a lavish production number in which a synchronized kick line of dancers revolves in the shape of a swastika.
Plot
Broadway producer Max Bialystock is an aging fraud who barely scrapes by on "investments" from elderly women. He services them sexually, and they give him money for his "next show."
The young accountant Leo Bloom comes to Max’s office to balance his books. Leo is neurotic in the extreme; he carries a small piece of a baby’s blanket as his own "blankie" that he rubs on his cheek when he feels fearful or upset.
Leo discovers a $2,000 overcharge in the accounts because Max raised more money than he could repay—Max sold more than 100 percent of the shares in the production. Max convinces Leo to hide the fraud. This in turn leads Leo to speculate that a producer could make a lot more money from a flop than a hit, because no one audits the books of an unsuccessful play. The investors simply write off their losses.
After a hilarious scene in which Max convinces Leo to go along with the plan, the pair decide to oversell shares in a new play on a grand scale. The goal is to produce a play that will close after its first night. The investors will assume that the play lost all of their money, and Max and Leo will escape with the oversubscribed profits.
The pair read hundreds of bad plays. Finally they run across the script for Springtime for Hitler: A Gay Romp with Adolf and Eva in Berchtesgarten. Written by an insane former Nazi named Franz Liebkind, the play is a "love letter to Hitler." Max and Leo convince Franz that they share his adoration for the principal monster of the twentieth century, and the playwright signs over the musical’s rights.
Max and Leo then try to assemble the worst possible team to put on the show. The director is noteworthy for producing plays that "close on the first day of rehearsal." They hire an incoherent hippie to play Hitler. The man gets the role after wandering into the casting call by mistake.
Max then turns to his regular circuit of lustful elderly women to raise money. He sells 25,000 percent of the production.
The musical is beyond tasteless, showing the Hitler who "had a song in his heart," frolicking like a carefree child at home. During the first act the audience is so appalled that they are riveted in their seats, disbelievingly witnessing the most grotesque and offensive musical imaginable. The audience reaction overjoys Max and Leo, and they go to the bar across the street to celebrate.
Unfortunately for the fraudsters, the audience concludes that the play is a satire. They think the musical is hilarious. During intermission some members of the audience come into the bar and rave about how wonderfully funny the play is. Terrified, Max and Leo rush back to the theater where they witness the audience thoroughly enjoying the performance. Franz is enraged and tries to close the curtain while he berates the audience. The audience thinks it is part of the play and howls with appreciation.
The worst happens. Springtime for Hitler is a huge hit, and Max and Leo owe their investors far more than it is possible to pay. Eventually, Max and Leo enlist Franz’s help in blowing up the theater. They botch the job and end up both injured and under arrest. A jury finds them "incredibly guilty."
The movie ends with Max and Leo in prison. They are running the same scam on other prisoners and even the prison’s warden for a show they are producing titled Prisoners of Love.
Significance
The Producers was the launchpad for Mel Brooks’ career as a director of comedies. Atypically for a first-time director, Brooks retained complete creative control over the movie. Its success helped lead to a series of major hits over subsequent years. One, 1974’s Young Frankenstein, also starred Gene Wilder and is arguably one of the funniest movies ever made, if not the funniest.
Critics and audiences alike heaped praise on The Producers, and although it was not widely distributed, it developed an almost-instant cult following. It was nominated for two Academy Awards, winning for best original screenplay. The other nomination went to Wilder for best supporting actor. The movie made him a star. The Writers Guild of America also nominated the script as the Best Written American Comedy and the Best Written American Original Screenplay, for which Brooks won.
In 1996 the Library of Congress included The Producers for preservation in the National Film Registry. The American Film Institute lists it in eleventh place among its "100 Funniest Movies of All Time."
More than thirty years after the movie’s release, in 2001 Brooks adapted the script into a Broadway musical starring Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane as Leo and Max. The musical was a huge hit, running for more than 2,500 performances and winning twelve Tony Awards. Then the stage musical was turned into a movie, completing an exceptionally profitable journey for Brooks.
Awards and nominations
Won
- Academy Award (1968) Best Screenplay (Original): Mel Brooks
Nominated
- Academy Award (1968) Best Supporting Actor: Gene Wilder
- Golden Globe (1968) Best Motion Picture Actor (Musical or Comedy): Zero Mostel
- Golden Globe (1968) Best Screenplay: Mel Brooks
Bibliography
Alleman, Richard. New York: The Movie Lover’s Guide: the Ultimate Insider Tour of Movie New York. New York: Broadway, 2005. Print.
Brooks, Mel. The Producers Screenplay, Final Shooting Script. N.p.: Brooksworks, 2005. Print.
Crick, Robert Alan. The Big Screen Comedies of Mel Brooks. Jefferson: McFarland, 2009. Print.
Sinyard, Neil. The Films of Mel Brooks. New York: Exeter, 1988. Print.
Smurthwaite, Nick. Mel Brooks and the Spoof Movie. Oxfordshire: Proteus, 1982. Print.
Schnieder, Steven Jay. 1001 Movies You Should See Before You Die. Hauppauge: Barrons, 2013. Electronic.