The Producers is a 1968 American satirical dark comedy cult classic film written and directed by
Mel BrooksMel Brooks is an American film director, screenwriter, composer, lyricist, comedian, actor and producer. He is best known as a creator of broad film farces and comic parodies. He began his career as a stand-up comic and as a writer for the early TV variety show Your Show of Shows...
. The film is set in the late 1960s and it tells the story of a theatrical producer and an accountant who want to produce a sure-fire
BroadwayBroadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
flop. They take more money from investors than they need and plan to abscond to Brazil as soon as the play closes, only to see the plan improbably go awry when the show turns out to be a hit.
The film stars
Zero MostelSamuel Joel “Zero” Mostel was an American actor of stage and screen, best known for his portrayal of comic characters such as Tevye on stage in Fiddler on the Roof, Pseudolus on stage and on screen in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and Max Bialystock in the original film version...
as Max Bialystock, the producer, and
Gene WilderGene Wilder is an American stage and screen actor, director, screenwriter, and author.Wilder began his career on stage, making his screen debut in the film Bonnie and Clyde in 1967. His first major role was as Leopold Bloom in the 1968 film The Producers...
as Leo Bloom, the accountant, and features
Dick ShawnDick Shawn was an American actor and comedian.-Early life and career:Shawn was born as Richard Schulefand in Buffalo, New York. He played Sylvester Marcus, son of Mrs. Marcus , in Stanley Kramer's It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and Lorenzo St...
as L.S.D., the actor who ends up playing the lead in the
musical within the movieA story within a story, also rendered story-within-a-story, is a literary device in which one narrative is presented during the action of another narrative. Mise en abyme is the French term for a similar literary device...
, and
Kenneth MarsKenneth Mars was an American television, movie, and voice actor. He may be best-remembered for his roles in several Mel Brooks films: the insane Nazi playwright Franz Liebkind in 1968's The Producers, and the relentless Police Inspector Hans Wilhelm Fredrich Kemp in 1974's Young Frankenstein...
as the former Nazi soldier and playwright, Franz Liebkind.
The Producers was the first film directed by Mel Brooks. He won an
Academy Award for his screenplayThe Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best script not based upon previously published material. Before 1940, there was an Academy Award for Best Story for writing. For 1940, it and the award in this article were separated into two awards. Beginning with the...
. Decades later, it was selected for preservation in the
National Film RegistryThe National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
and placed 11th on the AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs list. The film was later remade successfully by Brooks as an acclaimed
Broadway stage musicalThe Producers is a musical adapted by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan from Brooks' 1968 film of the same name, with lyrics written by Brooks and music composed by Brooks and arranged by Glen Kelly and Doug Besterman. As in the film, the story concerns two theatrical producers who scheme to get rich...
which itself was adapted as a
film# "Overture" - Orchestra# "Opening Night" - Opening Nighters# "We Can Do It" - Max and Leo# "I Wanna Be a Producer" - Leo, Accountants, Mr. Marks and Dancing Chorus Girls# "Der Guten Tag Hop-Clop" - Franz, Max, and Leo...
.
Plot
Max Bialystock (
Zero MostelSamuel Joel “Zero” Mostel was an American actor of stage and screen, best known for his portrayal of comic characters such as Tevye on stage in Fiddler on the Roof, Pseudolus on stage and on screen in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and Max Bialystock in the original film version...
) is a failed, ageing Broadway producer who ekes out a living romancing lascivious wealthy elderly women in exchange for money for his next play. Nebbishy accountant Leo Bloom (
Gene WilderGene Wilder is an American stage and screen actor, director, screenwriter, and author.Wilder began his career on stage, making his screen debut in the film Bonnie and Clyde in 1967. His first major role was as Leopold Bloom in the 1968 film The Producers...
) arrives at Bialystock's office to do his books and discovers there is a two thousand dollar overcharge in the accounts of Bialystock's last play, because he raised more money than he needed. Bialystock persuades Bloom to hide the relatively minor fraud; and, while shuffling numbers, Bloom has a revelation—that a producer could make a lot more money with a flop than a hit—a scheme which Bialystock immediately puts into action. They will over-sell shares again, but on a much larger scale and produce a play that will close on opening night. No-one audits the books of a play presumed to have lost money, thus avoiding a pay-out and leaving the duo free to flee to
Rio de JaneiroRio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
with the profits. Leo is afraid such a criminal venture will fail and they will go to prison; but Max eventually convinces him that his drab existence is no better than prison.
After reading many bad plays, the partners find the obvious choice for their scheme: Springtime for Hitler: A Gay Romp with
AdolfAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
and
EvaEva Anna Paula Hitler was the longtime companion of Adolf Hitler and, for less than 40 hours, his wife. Braun met Hitler in Munich, when she was 17 years old, while working as an assistant and model for his personal photographer and began seeing him often about two years later...
at
BerchtesgadenBerchtesgaden is a municipality in the German Bavarian Alps. It is located in the south district of Berchtesgadener Land in Bavaria, near the border with Austria, some 30 km south of Salzburg and 180 km southeast of Munich...
. It is "a love letter to Hitler" written in total sincerity by deranged ex-Nazi Franz Liebkind (German for "Frank Lovechild"), portrayed by
Kenneth MarsKenneth Mars was an American television, movie, and voice actor. He may be best-remembered for his roles in several Mel Brooks films: the insane Nazi playwright Franz Liebkind in 1968's The Producers, and the relentless Police Inspector Hans Wilhelm Fredrich Kemp in 1974's Young Frankenstein...
. They persuade him to sign over the stage rights, telling him they want to show the world "the true Hitler, the Hitler with a song in his heart." To guarantee that the show is a flop, they hire Roger De Bris (
Christopher HewettChristopher Michael Hewett was an English actor and theatre director best known for his role as Lynn Belvedere on the ABC sitcom Mr. Belvedere.-Career:...
), a director whose plays "close on the first day of rehearsal". The part of Hitler goes to a charismatic but only semi-coherent,
flower powerFlower power is a slogan used by the American counterculture movement during the late 1960s and early 1970s as a symbol of passive resistance and non-violence ideology. It is rooted in the opposition movement to the Vietnam War. The expression was coined by the American Beat poet Allen Ginsberg in...
hippieThe hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
named Lorenzo St. DuBois, aka L.S.D. (
Dick ShawnDick Shawn was an American actor and comedian.-Early life and career:Shawn was born as Richard Schulefand in Buffalo, New York. He played Sylvester Marcus, son of Mrs. Marcus , in Stanley Kramer's It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and Lorenzo St...
), who can barely remember his own name and had mistakenly wandered into their theater during the
casting callIn the performing arts, casting is a pre-production process for selecting a cast of actors, dancers, singers, models and other talent for a live or recorded performance.-Casting process:...
. After Bialystock sells 25,000 percent of the play to his regular investors (dozens of lustful little old ladies), they are sure they are on their way to Rio.
The result of all of this is a cheerfully upbeat and utterly tasteless musical play purporting to be about the happy home life of a brutal dictator. It opens with a lavish production of the title song, "Springtime For Hitler", which celebrates
Nazi GermanyNazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
crushing Europe ("Springtime for Hitler and Germany/Winter for Poland and France"). Unfortunately for Bialystock and Bloom, their attempt backfires as, after initial dumbfounded disbelief, the audience finds L.S.D.'s
beatnikBeatnik was a media stereotype of the 1950s and early 1960s that displayed the more superficial aspects of the Beat Generation literary movement of the 1950s and violent film images, along with a cartoonish depiction of the real-life people and the spiritual quest in Jack Kerouac's autobiographical...
-like portrayal to be hilarious and misinterpret the production as a satire. Springtime For Hitler is declared a smash-hit, which means, of course, the investors will be expecting a larger financial return than can be paid out.
As the stunned partners turn on each other, they are confronted by a gun-wielding Franz Liebkind, who is enraged by L.S.D.'s portrayal of Hitler. He says they have broken the "Siegfried Oath", which they took in a deleted earlier scene. In desperation, the three band together and blow up the theater to end the production. They are injured, arrested, and tried. In spite of Leo's impassioned statement praising Max, the jury finds them "incredibly guilty" and they go to prison. They have apparently not learned their lesson, though, as the film ends with them rehearsing a new Franz Liebkind musical starring their fellow inmates. The show is entitled Prisoners of Love, and we see Leo Bloom overselling shares of the play to the other prisoners and even to the warden.
Cast
- Zero Mostel
Samuel Joel “Zero” Mostel was an American actor of stage and screen, best known for his portrayal of comic characters such as Tevye on stage in Fiddler on the Roof, Pseudolus on stage and on screen in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and Max Bialystock in the original film version...
as Max Bialystock
- Gene Wilder
Gene Wilder is an American stage and screen actor, director, screenwriter, and author.Wilder began his career on stage, making his screen debut in the film Bonnie and Clyde in 1967. His first major role was as Leopold Bloom in the 1968 film The Producers...
as Leo Bloom
- Dick Shawn
Dick Shawn was an American actor and comedian.-Early life and career:Shawn was born as Richard Schulefand in Buffalo, New York. He played Sylvester Marcus, son of Mrs. Marcus , in Stanley Kramer's It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and Lorenzo St...
as Lorenzo St. DuBois (L.S.D.)
- Kenneth Mars
Kenneth Mars was an American television, movie, and voice actor. He may be best-remembered for his roles in several Mel Brooks films: the insane Nazi playwright Franz Liebkind in 1968's The Producers, and the relentless Police Inspector Hans Wilhelm Fredrich Kemp in 1974's Young Frankenstein...
as Franz Liebkind
- Lee Meredith
Lee Meredith is an American actress. She was born Judith Lee Sauls and grew up in Fair Lawn, New Jersey. She is married to Burt Stratford....
as Ulla
- Estelle Winwood
Estelle Winwood was an English stage and film actress who moved to the United States in mid-career and became celebrated for her longevity.-Early life and early career:...
as "Hold Me! Touch Me!"
- Christopher Hewett
Christopher Michael Hewett was an English actor and theatre director best known for his role as Lynn Belvedere on the ABC sitcom Mr. Belvedere.-Career:...
as Roger De Bris
- Andréas Voutsinas
Andréas Voutsinas was a Greek actor and theater director. In the English-speaking world, he was best known for his roles in three Mel Brooks films, The Producers , The Twelve Chairs and History of the World, Part I .CareerAndreas Voutsinas was born in Khartoum, Sudan on 22 August 1932 by parents...
as Carmen Ghia
- Renée Taylor
Renée Taylor is an American actress, Academy Award nominated writer and one-time director, best-known for having played Fran Drescher's outspoken mother, Sylvia Fine, on the TV series The Nanny.- Career :...
as the actor playing Eva BraunEva Anna Paula Hitler was the longtime companion of Adolf Hitler and, for less than 40 hours, his wife. Braun met Hitler in Munich, when she was 17 years old, while working as an assistant and model for his personal photographer and began seeing him often about two years later...
- Barney Martin as the actor playing Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring, was a German politician, military leader, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. He was a veteran of World War I as an ace fighter pilot, and a recipient of the coveted Pour le Mérite, also known as "The Blue Max"...
- Bill Macy
Bill Macy is an American television and stage actor.Macy was born in Revere, Massachusetts, to Mollie and Michael Garber, a manufacturer...
as the foreman of the jury
- William Hickey
William Edward Hickey was an American actor. He was best known for his Oscar-nominated role as Don Corrado Prizzi in the John Huston 1985 film Prizzi's Honor, as well as the voice of Dr...
as the drunk in the bar
Production
Mel BrooksMel Brooks is an American film director, screenwriter, composer, lyricist, comedian, actor and producer. He is best known as a creator of broad film farces and comic parodies. He began his career as a stand-up comic and as a writer for the early TV variety show Your Show of Shows...
wanted to title the film Springtime For Hitler, but Embassy Pictures producer
Joseph E. LevineJoseph E. Levine was an American film producer.He was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His Embassy Pictures Corporation was an independent studio and distributor responsible for such films as Hercules , The Carpetbaggers, Harlow, The Graduate, A Bridge Too Far and The Lion in Winter.Levine is famous...
would not let him.
The original screenplay had Franz Liebkind make Max and Leo swear The Siegfried Oath. Accompanied by The Ride of the Valkyries, they promised fealty to
SiegfriedSiegfried is the third of the four operas that constitute Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner. It received its premiere at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 16 August 1876, as part of the first complete performance of The Ring...
,
WagnerWilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
,
NietzscheFriedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer and classical philologist...
,
HindenburgPaul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg , known universally as Paul von Hindenburg was a Prussian-German field marshal, statesman, and politician, and served as the second President of Germany from 1925 to 1934....
, the Graf Spee, the
Blue MaxThe Pour le Mérite, known informally as the Blue Max , was the Kingdom of Prussia's highest military order for German soldiers until the end of World War I....
, and "
Adolf You-Know-WhoAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
". The Siegfried Oath was restored in the musical version. In a
making-ofIn cinema, a making-of, also known as behind-the-scenes, is a documentary film that features the production of a film or television program...
documentary that accompanied the 2002 DVD release of the film, Brooks says that
Dustin HoffmanDustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....
was originally cast as Liebkind. According to Brooks, late on the night before shooting began, Hoffman begged Brooks to let him out of his commitment to do the role so that he could audition for the starring role in
The GraduateThe Graduate is a 1967 American comedy-drama motion picture directed by Mike Nichols. It is based on the 1963 novel The Graduate by Charles Webb, who wrote it shortly after graduating from Williams College. The screenplay was by Buck Henry, who makes a cameo appearance as a hotel clerk, and Calder...
. Brooks was aware of the film, which co-starred Brooks' wife,
Anne BancroftAnne Bancroft was an American actress associated with the Method acting school, which she had studied under Lee Strasberg....
, and, skeptical that Hoffman would get the role, agreed to let him audition.
The film was shot at the
Chelsea StudiosChelsea Studios is a television studio and sound stage at 221 West 26th Street in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City.-History:The building was originally an armory that was home to Ninth Mounted Calvary which moved to 14th Street in 1914....
in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, where the musical version (2005) was also shot.
Writer-director Mel Brooks is heard briefly in the film, his voice dubbed over a dancer singing, "Don't be stupid, be a smarty/Come and join the Nazi Party", in the song Springtime For Hitler. His version of the line is also dubbed into each performance of the musical, as well as the movie version.
Release
According to Brooks, after the film was completed, Embassy executives refused to release it as being in "bad taste"; however,
Peter SellersRichard Henry Sellers, CBE , known as Peter Sellers, was a British comedian and actor. Perhaps best known as Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series, he is also notable for playing three different characters in Dr...
saw the film privately and placed an advertisement in
VarietyVariety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
in support of the film's wider release.
Sellers was familiar with the film because, according to Brooks, Sellers had accepted the role of Bloom and then was never heard from again. The film premiered in
Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaPittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
on November 22, 1967 and subsequently had a
limited releaseLimited release is a term in the American motion picture industry for a motion picture that is playing in a select few theaters across the country ....
to only a small number of theaters.
It has been alleged that the film was "banned in Germany". Following the film's lackluster response in the UK, German distributors did decline to distribute it, but their lack of interest did not technically constitute a ban.
In Sweden, however, the title literally translates as "Springtime For Hitler". As a result of its success, all but two of Mel Brooks movies in Swedish have been given similar titles: "Springtime For Mother-In-Law" (
The Twelve ChairsThe Twelve Chairs is a classic satirical novel by the Soviet authors Ilf and Petrov, released in 1928. Its main character Ostap Bender reappears in the book's sequel The Little Golden Calf.-Plot:...
); "Springtime For The Sheriff" (
Blazing SaddlesBlazing Saddles is a 1974 satirical Western comedy film directed by Mel Brooks. Starring Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder, the film was written by Brooks, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, Norman Steinberg, and Al Uger, and was based on Bergman's story and draft. The movie was nominated for three...
); "Springtime For Frankenstein" (
Young FrankensteinYoung Frankenstein is a 1974 American comedy film directed by Mel Brooks and starring Gene Wilder as the title character, a descendant of the infamous Dr. Victor Frankenstein. The supporting cast includes Teri Garr, Cloris Leachman, Marty Feldman, Peter Boyle, Madeline Kahn, Kenneth Mars, Richard...
); "Springtime For The Silent Movies" (
Silent MovieSilent Movie is a 1976 satirical comedy film co-written, directed by, and starring Mel Brooks, and released by 20th Century Fox on June 17, 1976...
); "Springtime For The Lunatics" (
High AnxietyHigh Anxiety is a 1977 comedy film produced and directed by Mel Brooks, who also plays the lead. This is Brooks' first film as a producer and first "speaking" lead role...
); "Springtime For World History" (
History of the World, Part IHistory of the World, Part I is a 1981 comedy film written, produced, and directed by Mel Brooks. Brooks also stars in the film, playing five roles: Moses, Comicus the stand-up philosopher, Tomás de Torquemada, King Louis XVI, and Jacques, le garçon de pisse...
); "Springtime For Space" (Space Balls); and "Springtime For The Slum" (
Life StinksLife Stinks is a 1991 comedy-drama directed by and starring Mel Brooks. It is known as one of the few Mel Brooks comedies that is not a parody, nor at any time does the film break the fourth wall. It co-stars Lesley Ann Warren, Howard Morris and Jeffrey Tambor...
).
Reception
When it was first released, the film received a mixed response and garnered exceptionally harsh reviews from New York critics—
Stanley KauffmannStanley Kauffmann is an American author, editor, and critic of film and theatre. He has written for The New Republic since 1958 and currently contributes film criticism to that magazine....
("the film bloats into sogginess",
The New RepublicThe magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...
);
Pauline KaelPauline Kael was an American film critic who wrote for The New Yorker magazine from 1968 to 1991. Earlier in her career, her work appeared in City Lights, McCall's and The New Republic....
("amateurishly crude",
The New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
); and
Andrew SarrisAndrew Sarris is an American film critic and a leading proponent of the auteur theory of criticism.-Career:Sarris is generally credited with popularizing the auteur theory in the U.S...
—partly because of its directorial style and broad ethnic humor. Negative reviewers noted the bad taste and insensitivity of devising a broad comedy about two Jews 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.
Renata AdlerRenata Adler is an American author, journalist and film critic.-Background and education:Adler was born in Milan, Italy, and grew up in Danbury, Connecticut. After gaining a B.A. in philosophy and German from Bryn Mawr, Adler studied for an M.A. in Comparative Literature at Harvard under I. A...
wrote that it was a "violently mixed bag. Some of it is shoddy and gross and cruel; the rest is funny in an entirely unexpected way. It has the episodic,
revueA revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century American popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from 1916 to 1932...
quality of so much contemporary comedy—not building laughter, but stringing it together skit after skit, some vile, some boffo. It is less delicate than
Lenny BruceLeonard Alfred Schneider , better known by the stage name Lenny Bruce, was a Jewish-American comedian, social critic and satirist...
, less funny than Doctor Strangelove, but much funnier than
The Loved OneThe Loved One is a 1965 black comedy film about the funeral business in Los Angeles, which is based on The Loved One: An Anglo-American Tragedy , a short satirical novel by Evelyn Waugh...
or
What's New Pussycat?What's New Pussycat? is a 1965 comedy film directed by Clive Donner and starring Peter Sellers, Peter O'Toole, Romy Schneider, Capucine, Paula Prentiss and Ursula Andress. It was Woody Allen's film debut, as well as his first produced script. The Academy Award-nominated title song by Burt Bacharach...
According to her, Mostel is "overacting grotesquely" while co-star Wilder is "wonderful" playing his part "as though he were
Dustin HoffmanDustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....
being played by
Danny KayeDanny Kaye was a celebrated American actor, singer, dancer, and comedian...
."
Others considered the film to be a great success. Time Magazines reviewers wrote, "...hilariously funny... Unfortunately, the film is burdened with the kind of plot that demands resolution...[and] ends in a whimper of sentimentality... The movie is disjointed and inconsistent..." and "... a wildly funny joy ride ...", "...despite its bad moments, is some of the funniest American cinema comedy in years." 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." Over the years, the film has gained in stature, garnering a 93% certified fresh rating from
Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
.
Roger EbertRoger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
later claimed that "this is one of the funniest movies ever made." In his review decades later, Ebert wrote,
"I remember finding myself in an elevator with Brooks and his wife, actress Anne Bancroft, in New York City a few months after The Producers was released. A woman got onto the elevator, recognized him and said, 'I have to tell you, Mr. Brooks, that your movie is vulgar.' Brooks smiled benevolently. 'Lady,' he said, 'it rose below vulgarity.'
Reviews in Britain were positive to very positive.
Awards and honors
In 1968, The Producers won the
Academy AwardAn Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay—Written Directly for the Screen, and
Gene WilderGene Wilder is an American stage and screen actor, director, screenwriter, and author.Wilder began his career on stage, making his screen debut in the film Bonnie and Clyde in 1967. His first major role was as Leopold Bloom in the 1968 film The Producers...
was nominated for
Best Actor in a Supporting RolePerformance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
.
In 1969, The Producers won a
Writers Guild of America, EastWriters Guild of America, East is a labor union representing writers of television and film and employees of television and radio news. The 2006 membership of the guild was 3,770....
Best Original ScreenplayThe 22nd Writers Guild of America Awards honored the best film writers of 1969. Winners were announced in 1970.-Film:*Best Original Drama**Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Written by William Goldman*Best Adapted Drama...
award.
In 1996, this film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States
Library of CongressThe Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
and selected for preservation in the
National Film RegistryThe National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
.
American Film InstituteThe American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
recognition
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies
The first of the AFI 100 Years… series of cinematic milestones, AFI's 100 Years…100 Movies is a list of the 100 best American movies, as determined by the American Film Institute from a poll of more than 1,500 artists and leaders in the film industry who chose from a list of 400 nominated movies...
- Nominated
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs
Part of the AFI 100 Years… series, AFI's 100 Years…100 Laughs is a list of the top 100 funniest movies in American cinema. A wide variety of comedies were nominated for the distinction that included slapstick comedy, screwball comedy, romantic comedy, satire, black comedy, musical comedy, comedy of...
- #11
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Songs
Part of the AFI 100 Years… series, AFI's 100 Years…100 Songs is a list of the top 100 songs in American cinema. The list was unveiled by the American Film Institute June 22, 2004 in a CBS special hosted by John Travolta, who appeared in two films honored by the list, Saturday Night Fever and...
:
- Springtime for Hitler - #80
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes
Part of the AFI 100 Years... series, AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes is a list of the top 100 movie quotations in American cinema. The American Film Institute revealed the list on June 21, 2005, in a three-hour television program on CBS...
:
- "Not many people know it, but the Führer was a terrific dancer." - Nominated
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) - Nominated
Re-releases and adaptations
In 2002 The Producers was re-released in three theaters by
Rialto Pictures and earned $111,866 at the box office. As of 2007, the film continues to be distributed to art-film and repertory
cinemasA movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
by Rialto.
Brooks has adapted the story twice more, a
BroadwayBroadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
musicalMusical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
(
The ProducersThe Producers is a musical adapted by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan from Brooks' 1968 film of the same name, with lyrics written by Brooks and music composed by Brooks and arranged by Glen Kelly and Doug Besterman. As in the film, the story concerns two theatrical producers who scheme to get rich...
, 2001) and a
filmA film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
based on the musical (
The Producers# "Overture" - Orchestra# "Opening Night" - Opening Nighters# "We Can Do It" - Max and Leo# "I Wanna Be a Producer" - Leo, Accountants, Mr. Marks and Dancing Chorus Girls# "Der Guten Tag Hop-Clop" - Franz, Max, and Leo...
, 2005).
The Producers (1968) is currently available on
DVD, released by
MGMMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
.
Influences
- Max Bialystock is named after the city of Białystok, Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. A 'bialyBialy, a Yiddish word short for bialystoker kuchen, from Białystok, a city in Poland, is a small roll that is a traditional dish in Polish Ashkenazi cuisine. A traditional bialy has a diameter of up to 15 cm and is a chewy yeast roll similar to a bagel...
stoker' is a roll similar to a bagel.
- Leo Bloom is named for the protagonist of James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
's classic novel UlyssesUlysses is a novel by the Irish author James Joyce. It was first serialised in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, in Paris. One of the most important works of Modernist literature,...
, Leopold BloomLeopold Bloom is the fictional protagonist and hero of James Joyce's Ulysses. His peregrinations and encounters in Dublin on 16 June 1904 mirror, on a more mundane and intimate scale, those of Ulysses/Odysseus in The Odyssey....
. Leo meets Max on June 16 (BloomsdayBloomsday is a commemoration observed annually on 16 June in Dublin and elsewhere to celebrate the life of Irish writer James Joyce and relive the events in his novel Ulysses, all of which took place on the same day in Dublin in 1904...
), the date on which UlyssesUlysses is a novel by the Irish author James Joyce. It was first serialised in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, in Paris. One of the most important works of Modernist literature,...
takes place. Bialystock at one point calls Leo "Prince Myshkin", the titular protagonist in DostoevskyFyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky was a Russian writer of novels, short stories and essays. He is best known for his novels Crime and Punishment, The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov....
's novel The IdiotThe Idiot is a novel written by 19th century Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It was first published serially in The Russian Messenger between 1868 and 1869. The Idiot is ranked beside some of Dostoyevsky's other works as one of the most brilliant literary achievements of the "Golden Age" of...
.
- In the search for "the worst play ever", Max reads aloud from one of the rejected manuscripts. It is the opening sentence of Kafka
Franz Kafka was a culturally influential German-language author of short stories and novels. Contemporary critics and academics, including Vladimir Nabokov, regard Kafka as one of the best writers of the 20th century...
's The MetamorphosisThe Metamorphosis is a novella by Franz Kafka, first published in 1915. It is often cited as one of the seminal works of short fiction of the 20th century and is widely studied in colleges and universities across the western world...
, where Gregor Samsa finds himself transformed into a giant cockroachCockroaches are insects of the order Blattaria or Blattodea, of which about 30 species out of 4,500 total are associated with human habitations...
, and Bialystock dismisses it as "too good". The book was also used as a joke in Mel Brooks' movie SpaceballsSpaceballs is a 1987 American science fiction comedy parody film co-written by, directed by, Mel Brooks and starring Bill Pullman, John Candy, Mel Brooks & Rick Moranis. It also features, Daphne Zuniga, Dick Van Patten, and the voice of Joan Rivers. The film was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on...
: "Prepare for Metamorphosis, are you ready Kafka?".
In a case of life imitating art, however, The Metamorphosis was produced on Broadway (1989), featuring Mikhail BaryshnikovMikhail Nikolaevich Baryshnikov is a Soviet and American dancer, choreographer, and actor, often cited alongside Vaslav Nijinsky and Rudolf Nureyev as one of the greatest ballet dancers of the 20th century. After a promising start in the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad, he defected to Canada in 1974...
as Gregor and René Auberjonois as Gregor's father.
- Roger De Bris is named for the Yiddish term for circumcision
The brit milah is a Jewish religious circumcision ceremony performed on 8-day old male infants by a mohel. The brit milah is followed by a celebratory meal .-Biblical references:...
.
- Carmen Giya is named after the Volkswagen Karmann Ghia
The Volkswagen Karmann Ghia is a 2+2 coupe and convertible marketed from 1955 to 1974 by Volkswagen – combining the chassis and mechanicals of the Type 1 , styling by Luigi Segre of the Italian carrozzeria Ghia, and hand-built bodywork by German coach-builder Karmann.The Karmann Ghia was...
, a popular car in production in 1968.
- The "singing Hitlers" at their audition sing a number of pieces. Mentioned or performed are Lilac Time
Das Dreimäderlhaus , adapted into English language versions as Blossom Time and Lilac Time, is a Viennese pastiche 'operetta' with music by Franz Schubert, rearranged by Hungarian Heinrich Berté , and a libretto by Alfred Maria Willner and Heinz Reichert...
, "A Wand'ring Minstrel I", "Beautiful Dreamer"Beautiful Dreamer" is a parlor song by Stephen Foster . It was published posthumously in March 1864 by Wm. A. Pond & Co. of New York. The first edition declares on the title page that "Beautiful Dreamer" is "the last song ever written by Stephen C. Foster. Composed but a few days prior to his...
", and "Largo al factotumLargo al factotum is an aria from The Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini, sung at the first entrance of the title character; the repeated "Figaro"s before the final patter section are an icon in popular culture of operatic singing...
" ("della ... città" being all that is heard).
- Siegfried from the Siegfried Oath is the main character in The Ring of the Nibelung
Der Ring des Nibelungen is a cycle of four epic operas by the German composer Richard Wagner . The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas and the Nibelungenlied...
by Richard Wagner.
Precedents
A showman over-selling shares in a deliberate flop, to be able to pocket the excess investment, was the basis for the RKO Radio feature film New Faces of 1937. The film starred comedian
Milton BerleMilton Berlinger , better known as Milton Berle, was an American comedian and actor. As the manic host of NBC's Texaco Star Theater , in 1948 he was the first major star of U.S. television and as such became known as Uncle Miltie and Mr...
, dancer
Ann MillerJohnnie Lucille Collier, better known as Ann Miller was an American singer, dancer and actress.-Early life:...
, and singer Harriet Hilliard (later
Harriet NelsonHarriet Nelson was an American singer and actress. Nelson is best known for her role on the long-running sitcom The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.-Early life and career:...
of
Ozzie and HarrietThe Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet is an American sitcom, airing on ABC from October 3, 1952 to September 3, 1966, starring the real life Nelson family. After a long run on radio, the show was brought to television where it continued its success, running on both radio and TV for a couple of years...
). This film itself was based on an earlier play, Shoestring.
An obscure murder mystery film, The Falcon in Hollywood (1944), had a much darker take with a scheming movie producer resorting to sabotage and murder when the surprisingly good performance of the inexperienced director and cast threatened to sink his investment scam.
Similarly, in the 1943 novel
The FountainheadThe Fountainhead is a 1943 novel by Ayn Rand. It was Rand's first major literary success and brought her fame and financial success. More than 6.5 million copies of the book have been sold worldwide....
by
Ayn RandAyn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....
, Howard Roark is chosen to design a resort called Monodnack Valley and it is subsequently revealed that the investors had sold 200% of the shares, convinced that the project would be a flop and that they had chosen Howard Roark as the worst possible person for the job.
In popular culture
- Peter Sellers
Richard Henry Sellers, CBE , known as Peter Sellers, was a British comedian and actor. Perhaps best known as Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series, he is also notable for playing three different characters in Dr...
was a fan of the film and appeared on Michael ParkinsonSir Michael Parkinson, CBE is an English broadcaster, journalist and author. He presented his interview programme, Parkinson, from 1971 to 1982 and from 1998 to 2007.- Early life :...
's BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
1 chat show Parkinson in a Nazi helmet reciting the entire "Hitler was a better painter than Churchill" speech. (Parkinson BBC1 09/11/74 & BBC Audiobooks (5 February 1996))
- The title of the U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
album Achtung BabyAchtung Baby is the seventh studio album by Irish rock band U2. It was produced by Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, and was released on 19 November 1991 on Island Records. Stung by the criticism of their 1988 release Rattle and Hum, U2 shifted their musical direction to incorporate alternative...
comes from a line in the movie.
- An episode of the 1980s series Remington Steele
Remington Steele is an American television series, co-created by Robert Butler and Michael Gleason. The series, starring Stephanie Zimbalist and Pierce Brosnan, was produced by MTM Enterprises and first broadcast on the NBC network from 1982 to 1987. The series blended the genres of romantic...
has a pair of men try a similar scheme by over-selling the rights to the tour of a horrible singer only to have her be a sell-out. In keeping with a running theme of the series, Steele notes the movie as the real-life inspiration for the scam.
- At its theatrical release in Sweden, the film was given the Swedish title Producenterna (The Producers), but it was not a success then. After it was re-released under the title Det våras för Hitler (Springtime for Hitler), it scored with the Swedish audience. Because of this, all of Mel Brooks' films were given a title with Det våras för... (Springtime For...) in Sweden, up until Life Stinks (Det våras för slummen, Springtime For The Slums). For example, Blazing Saddles
Blazing Saddles is a 1974 satirical Western comedy film directed by Mel Brooks. Starring Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder, the film was written by Brooks, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, Norman Steinberg, and Al Uger, and was based on Bergman's story and draft. The movie was nominated for three...
was retitled Det våras för sheriffen (Springtime For The Sheriff) and SpaceballsSpaceballs is a 1987 American science fiction comedy parody film co-written by, directed by, Mel Brooks and starring Bill Pullman, John Candy, Mel Brooks & Rick Moranis. It also features, Daphne Zuniga, Dick Van Patten, and the voice of Joan Rivers. The film was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on...
was retitled Det våras för rymden (Springtime For Space). After this, Mel Brooks himself has complained at the Swedish habit of always calling his films something with 'Springtime For...' and so, his last two films have been called Robin Hood: Karlar i trikåer (Robin Hood: Men in TightsRobin Hood: Men in Tights is a 1993 French-American adventure comedy film and a parody of the Robin Hood story. Produced and directed by Mel Brooks, the film stars Cary Elwes, Richard Lewis, and Dave Chappelle in his film debut...
) and Dracula: Död men lycklig (Dracula: Dead and Loving It Dracula: Dead and Loving It is a 1995 comedy film starring Leslie Nielsen, directed by Mel Brooks. It is a parody of the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, and of some of the films it inspired....
), although the latter is called Det våras för Dracula on the Swedish DVD cover.
- Season four of Curb Your Enthusiasm
Curb Your Enthusiasm is an American comedy television series produced and broadcast by HBO, which premiered on October 15, 2000. As of 2011, it has completed 80 episodes over eight seasons. The series was created by Seinfeld co-creator Larry David, who stars as a fictionalized version of himself...
revolves around The Producers. Larry DavidLawrence Gene "Larry" David is an American actor, writer, comedian and producer. He is best known as the co-creator , head writer, and executive producer of the television series Seinfeld from 1989 to 1996, and for creating the 1999 HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm, a partially improvised sitcom in...
is hired by Mel Brooks as a surefire way of ruining the play and ending its run. Instead, reflecting the actual plotline of the play, David turns it into a huge success.
- According to critic David Ehrenstein
David Ehrenstein is an American critic who focuses primarily on issues of homosexuality in cinema.-Life and career:Ehrenstein was born in New York City. His father was a secular Jew with Polish ancestors, and his mother was of African American and Irish descent. His mother raised him in her...
, the film marked the first use of the term "Creative Accounting."
- In an episode of House
House is an American television medical drama that debuted on the Fox network on November 16, 2004. The show's central character is Dr. Gregory House , an unconventional and misanthropic medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in...
, Dr. House is looking for a new employee and after the interview, which Dr. Wilson felt went well, Wilson exclaims "That's our Hitler!", one of Mostel's lines from the film.
- In The Perks of Being a Wallflower
The Perks of Being a Wallflower is an epistolary novel written by American novelist Stephen Chbosky. It was published on February 1, 1999 by MTV...
this is Patrick's favorite movie.
External links