Film: 'The Producers' (1968)

It's madness. Utter madness. A time capsule of lunacy from times long gone. How could 'The Producers' ever have been made, and why didn't Mel Brooks ever make anything quite so good again? Was this first drawing upon his well of directorial insanity such a depleting factor, or was 'The Producers' the regular first movie 'baby' that gestated for years and years, being perfected all the time. It's probably a little of both.

What's it about? Naive accountant Leo Bloom (Gene Wilder) is sent to assist madman theatrical producer Max Bialystock (Zero Mostel) with his accounts, where said producer is in the midst of fund raising campaign via giving old ladies romantic thrills in one of the strangest sequences ever put on film. The whole movie is riddled with sequences you would never find anywhere else, and benefits enormously from sheer novelty. Indeed, it's still utterly unique, despite having it's own musical remake. Getting past that first sequence, bloom inspires Bialystock into putting on a guaranteed flop so that they can make off with the money they have made by oversubscribing the movie to its backers. What play do they choose from everything ever written and submitted to Bialystock? 'Springtime For Hitler'. Enough said.

Is it funny? Do you need to ask the that question of a movie that was Mel Brooks' first directorial effort, that has Gene Wilder's first starring role, and effectively resurrected Zero Mostel after years of blacklisting torment? Well, I assume it resurrected his career, not having any idea when he started working again. The answer to the question of 'Is it funny?' really depends on whether you can accept 'Springtime in Hitler' as a ludicrously funny epic stage musical that succeeds despite itself, or if the cumulative Nazi Germany jokes tip you over the edge into some kind of revulsion. It is gloriously funny, in the strangest way. Also, there is some 60s sexism on display, but you really have to take the context into account. It was the 1960s.

It's a great comedy, one of the very few outright comedies lingering in my collection, grouped in with 'Airplane', 'Young Frankenstein', 'Monkey Business', 'Horse Feathers' and a few others. Comedies work so very seldomly that finding even one excellent one is like striking gold in the middle of a desert. I'll have to rewatch 'The Lonely Guy' to see if it makes this exalted list too. Yes, 'The Producers' works. It might be uncomfortable at times, but it works. It's the best Mel Brooks movie, and perhaps the only other other to come close is 'Young Frankenstein'. I smile when other people guffaw, so a titter or two is an indicator of something special.

O.

Note: There's a fairly hard and fast rule that the good Mel Brooks films are the ones in which he he doesn't appear and/or in which Gene Wilder does appear, and it's one rule that defiantly works. The only possible contradiction to the rule is 'Blazing Saddles', but since 'Young Frankenstein' works so much better, let's call it a debateable win for the Brooks Rule.