Rating of
2.5/4
"The Producers" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 01/27/12
A neurotic accountant is conned by a seedy smalltime producer into helping him create a surefire Broadway flop to cheat their backers out of their money. Mel Brooks is best known for his scattershot genre spoofs, but The Producers is far more of an old school farce in the sixties tradition. Zero Mostel absolutely owns this film as Max Bialystock, the bastard child of Groucho Marx and Margaret Dumont and every moment he is on the screen is comedy gold; particularly with Wilder as his straight man. But by far the most hysterical moment of the film is the opening number of "Springtime For Hitler" which still makes me roar EVERY time! Much of the film that does not involve Mostel is rather dated (Dick Shawn's contribution in particular) and whenever he is not on the screen feels like time wasted, but it's worth it for the play's title song alone (not to mention Lee Meredith. Ay caramba...) This and Blazing Saddles basically justify every duffer Brooks has made since.
