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This page is about the 1968 film. For the 2005 movie, see The Producers (2005 film). For other uses, see The Producers (disambiguation) The Producers is a 1968 feature-length comedy film written and directed by Mel Brooks. In the film, two New York City con men (Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom) attempt to cheat theater 'angels' (investors) out of their investment money by deliberately producing a "flop," or intensely unsuccessful show.
Cast
PlotSpoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Max Bialystock is a failed, aging Broadway producer who ekes out a living romancing rich old women in exchange for money for his "next play." He encounters the nebbish accountant Leo Bloom when the latter is sent to Bialystock's office to do his books; in the process of this, a chance comment by Bloom inspires a scheme to massively oversell shares in a Broadway production, then purposely make a horrific flop, so that no one will ever audit its books, thus avoiding a payout and leaving the duo free to flee to Brazil with the profits. After an extensive search they find an unproduced play which Bialystock gleefully describes as "a love letter to Hitler," written in total sincerity by a deranged ex-Nazi named Franz Liebkind. They convince Liebkind to sign over the rights, then collect money from dozens of little old ladies—ultimately selling 25,000 percent of the play—and hire the monumentally untalented director Roger De Bris to stage the production. The part of Hitler goes to a charismatic hippie named Lorenzo St. Dubois (aka LSD), who wanders into the wrong theater by accident during the casting call. The result of all of this is Springtime for Hitler, a cheerfully upbeat (and apocalyptically tasteless) musical comedy detailing the life of the dictator, which opens with a lavish production number celebrating Nazi Germany overrunning Europe. Unfortunately for the protagonists, their attempt to make an unwatchable play backfires as, after initial dumbfounded disbelief, the audience finds the inept production so funny that they view it as an over-the-top satire on Nazism and universally hail it as a hit. After an enraged Liebkind attempts to shoot the producers in their office, the three of them band together and, in desperation, blow up the theater to end the production. They get caught in the explosion and are hauled off to jail. Found "incredibly guilty" in their criminal trial, they are sent to prison, where they proceed to create a new play starring their fellow convicts entitled "Prisoners of Love," running the exact same scam as before. Spoilers end here.
Release History
In 2002 The Producers was re-issued to three theaters by Rialto Pictures and earned $111,866[3] [4]at the box office. In 2001 Brooks adapted the film into a Broadway musical of the same name (The Producers). In 2005, a film, based in turn on that musical, was released (The Producers). The Producers is currently available on DVD, released by MGM. As of 2007, the film continues to be distributed to art-film and repertory cinemas by Rialto. ReceptionThe film received harsh reviews from New York critics Renata Adler ("shoddy and gross and cruel" in the New York Times), Stanley Kauffmann ("the film bloats into sogginess." -- New Republic), Pauline Kael ("amateurishly crude" in the New Yorker) and Andrew Sarris, partly due to its directorial style and broad ethnic humor [5]. Negative reviewers noted the bad taste and insensitivity (against a narrow and agressively conservative moral standard) of devising a broad comedy about two Jewish men conspiring to cheat theatrical investors by devising a designed-to-fail singing, dancing, tasteless Broadway musical show about Hitler (a mere 23 years after the end of World War II) [6]. Time Magazine's reviewers wrote, "...hilariously funny ... Unfortunately, the film is burdened with the kind of plot that demands resolution ... ends in a whimper of sentimentality ... The movie is disjointed and inconsistent ..."[7] and "... a wildly funny joy ride ..."[8], "...despite its bad moments, is some of the funniest American cinema comedy in years."[9] The film industry trade paper Variety magazine wrote, "The film is unmatched in the scenes featuring Mostel and Wilder alone together, and several episodes with other actors are truly rare"[10] Reviews in the U.K. were positive to very positive[6]. Awards and RecognitionIn 1968, The Producers won an Academy Award for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay—Written Directly for the Screen and was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Gene Wilder). The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. In 1969, The Producers won a Writers Guild of America Best Original Screenplay award. In 2004, The Producers was placed at #11 of the American Film Institute list of The 100 Funniest Films Of All Time. Trivia
QuotationsFrom Mel Brooks' interview: "I was never crazy about Hitler...If you stand on a soapbox and trade rhetoric with a dictator you never win...That's what they do so well: they seduce people. But if you ridicule them, bring them down with laughter, they can't win. You show how crazy they are."
See alsoDifferences between film and musical versions of The Producers References
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