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The Producers | Year: 1968 Directed: - Mel Brooks Actors/Actresses: - Zero Mostel - Gene Wilder A Perfect Comedy This has to be one of the greatest movies ever made. First of all, Mel Brook's hilarious script, while more subtle than most of his later works (Men in Tights, Spaceballs, Blazing Saddles, etc.), is pure comic genius. Also, the perfect interplay and chemistry between the late Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder is probably the best seen in the movies since Groucho, Chicco, and Harpo (the Marx brothers, for those who don't know. For those who do, that is indeed the correct speling of his name, not Chico). Not to mention many great supporting performances from many others, such as Dick Shawn as a hippie named LSD. If you have never seen this movie before, you will fall out of your seat laughing. If you've seen the play, that is still not a good enough reason to not see this movie. In fact, the only reason you shouldn't see this movie is if you are in a coma, or dead. Overall, this is definitley a must-see-movie. Zero, Gene and Dick are Crazy Zero Mostel sells 25,000 per cent of a play. If he produces a flop he won't have to pay the backers anything. Not bad! Accountant Gene Wilder helps him with his foolproof crazy scheme. Of course the play has to fail. Thanks to burned out flower child Dick Shawn's performance as its star things take a different turn. This is a film that grows better with repeated viewing. It just shows how things snowball for the worst. Yet, in the end you can't beat down the human spirit for trying. The late and great Dick Shawn is a real standout akin to the role he played in "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World." This was Mel Brooks's first film as director. Mel Brooks was a former stand-up comic who took over-the-top ethnically based vaudevillian routines, which in some hands went beyond the limits of good taste, and transcended them into glossy cinematic tales with much broader appeal. In doing so some say that he compromised the loftier yet prurient nature and ultimate message that was the bedrock of his work, exchanging laughs for substance. I don't think that was the case here. DOOZY PREMISE WITH *SOME* GOOFY GAGS, BUT.. The theme held so much promise -- a couple of spent-out producers setting out to create the worst play ever to exploit an accounting glitch with finances. But something happened on the way to the execution. The comic timing is good, and Zero and Gene have an engaging chemistry which dangles a promise in the first 30 minutes. There was even an occasional giggle here and there, but soon the clock was ticking and I had only found the film annoying, overacted and frequently just downright silly. It's basically two guys fumbling around like a couple of idiots for a farcical hour and thirty minutes. "Springtime for Hitler" could've been hilarious, but even that fell flat. Come on, a drug-induced sixties, flower-power stoner playing Hitler is supposed to be funny? There's a whole bunch of weird bits of comedy that are definitely original. But that's all they are. That originality sports very little zest or appeal. Did I have to be born in the late sixties to get the humor? Is this a dated comedy? Maybe I missed something. Perhaps a rental if you have a particularly open evening. Buy The Producers at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on The Producers Search with the Priority Search Engine on The Producers This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
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