The Producers

The Producers
Review by Courtney Baker

Today we watch comedies that are different somehow. Back in the day, you could make fun of just about anything. Mel Brooks is proof of that. He’s written Spaceballs (making fun of Star Wars, mostly), History of the World: Part I (making fun of history), Blazing Saddles (westerns), and Robin Hood: Men in Tights (Robin Hood, obviously). But Mel Brooks parodies things while still making a watchable movie with a great story.

A vast majority of the recent comedies I’ve seen have focused on a group of buddies trying to have some fun and things end up going a way that they didn’t expect at all (oh, but I did). For example: The Hangover, The Hangover Part II, Hot Tub Time Machine, and Bridesmaids (not all of them necessarily GOOD comedies) all feature a group of friends in some unexpected situations. I find it interesting that 3/4 of the movies I named focus on a wedding party. I can’t name how many vampire parodies I’ve seen recently. If not those, then it’s probably a romantic comedy of some sort with the same plot as the romantic comedy before it. But I have, and always will, love any Mel Brooks film more than these. Mel Brooks is one of my favorites.

The Producers is a hilarious piece that starts off with a middle aged man courting more than one little old lady. He needs the money. The little old ladies are his investors. He’s Broadway producer Max Bialystock. In stumbles meek little accountant Leo Bloom, amusingly interrupting Max’s session with the old lady. Leo is brought back later to do Max’s books, and discovers that a producer could make more money with a Broadway flop than with a success. The two men team up trying to become rich with what they think will be the biggest flop ever- Springtime for Hitler.

It’s a play written by a former German who still loves Hitler and thinks him a genius. To make sure it’s a flop Leo and Max go out and find a horrible director who turns it into a musical (just when you think you couldn’t make Springtime for Hitler more ridiculous). To top it off, they recruit the worst cast in history, headed by the actor playing Hitler, Lorenzo St. DuBois (Dick Shawn)… L.S.D. for short. He’s a hippy who actually was looking for a the auditions for Boomerang when he stumbled into the Hitler tryouts, impressing Max with a very long song that involved throwing flowers in a very hippy fashion and was about “love, and hate. Psychedelically speaking, [he is] talking about ‘The Power.’” Who could be a worse Hitler?

The look on the faces of audience members when the play starts is priceless to say the least. Max and Leo, sure they have a flop, head across the street to celebrate with drinks. They should know that anything that can go wrong will, though.

Not only is it a great story with an appeal to our bad side, but the acting is great too. There’s good chemistry between Zero Mostel (Max Bialystock) and Gene Wilder (Leo Bloom) which makes for great comedy. I’ve always loved Gene Wilder. He played quite the meek and amusing accountant in this film, very childish, and interacts well with Zero Mostel’s more fatherly figure. It’s a very dominant/submissive relationship. This is easily demonstrated when they’re in the park. Max shepherds Leo along, buying him a hot dog, riding with him on the carousel, and taking him out on a boat, teaching him all this underhanded ways. All the while he’s reassuring him that he won’t get in trouble at work for not being there. Even if someone sees him, Max says “Then you’d see them, and why aren’t they at the office?” And with that, Leo announces with delight that he’s happy (after at first being unable to place the feeling).

People today can get this film. They relate to all the crazy in it, to the want for money and success, and maybe even the desperation of getting out of a situation that’s going to get you in major trouble (everyone’s had to have done something at some point!). You see the film’s title characters, the producers, and the little old ladies of the beginning and you think you can’t get any crazier. Oh, but you can. Everyone knows someone who’s a little bit crazy, and this movie
got all of them together for a laugh. We have an insane play write, a crazy director, and a cast that’s obviously more than a little bit off coming together to make what should be a sure-fire flop. Everyone wants to be successful, and even if we won’t do it, we know how to get what we want
underhandedly. As Bialystock points out when proposing their plan “Worlds are turned on such thoughts.” We’d all like to come into a lot of money and kick back in Rio. Whether we do it honestly or not is our decision.

Max and Leo choose to do it dishonestly, maybe appealing a more to the audience. Humans seem fascinated by wrongdoing. Would Leo have ever offered up that interesting tidbit that you could make more money with a flop than with a success if they weren’t? As they skip through the park together, would Leo get the thrill out of not being in work if he knew it was okay? Would people have even come to a play with Hitler’s name in it if they weren’t at all interested in the wrong that he had done? No. And I’m sure that even if it was just when we were children, we’ve all tried to finagle our way out of trouble as Max and Leo do.