THE PRODUCERS is the movie that reminds us that one
time, long ago, Mel Brooks used to make good movies. With this
and his 70's hits like BLAZING SADDLES and YOUNG FRANKEN-
STEIN, it must have seemed like he would be a formidable comedic
force to be reckoned with. But as time wore on and his output
extended to movies like DRACULA... DEAD AND LOVING IT and
LIFE STINKS, it was obvious Brooks burned out. The message
here is to stick with 60's and 70's Brooks and stay away from
everything from the past two decades.
To be sure, even his good movies had plenty of strained
moments where the comedy just wasn't working, especially in THE
PRODUCERS, which has annoying scenes of loud silliness that
make you want to throw the TV out the window. From the early
scenes, it seems like a bad, plotless movie, especially the scene
where Gene Wilder gets hysterical (translation: ultra-whiny) for a
minute and a half because Zero Mostel has taken his "blue blanket"
away.
Even a normally likeable performer like Wilder can get on
one's nerves with bad comedic material (Remember his Man-
Smitten-With-Sheep scene from Everything You Always
Wanted to Know About Sex?), and Lord knows there are
places here where you wish someone would shove an Everlasting
Gobstopper in his mouth to shut him up.
Wilder is an accountant who has come to balance
Broadway producer Mostel's books and soon becomes partners
with him in a scheme to produce a play that will be a surefire flop
and pocket the investors' money. First he needs some investors,
whom he culls from his usual bevy of blue-haired old ladies who
invest in exchange for sex with Mostel, the oldest and fattest gigolo
alive. His sex appeal is less than his first name, but to an arthritic
old lady, I guess it doesn't matter.
The rest of THE PRODUCERS continues on an episodic
scale, with scenes where Mostel and Wilder have to find the worst
play ever written ("Springtime For Hitler: A Gay Romp With Adolph
and Eva"), track down the author (a crazed Nazi), find a director
("the worst director to ever live," who also wears a dress... I thought
Ed Wood was dead.), audition some actors (including a hyperactive
hippie Hitler who acts like Robin Williams) and finally put on the
play itself.
Most of the best moments in THE PRODUCERS come
from the performance of "Springtime For Hitler" and its opening
song-and-dance number, complete with a chorus line of German
babes who form a moving swastika with their bodies. Tasteless
(but not as tasteless as the man-smitten-with-sheep scene --
remember that?) but incredibly funny, unlike the rest of the movie,
which is brainless and marginally funny. As a whole, though,
THE PRODUCERS is a classic of 60's comedy and one of the
few Mel Brooks successes.
Copyright © 1996 Andrew Hicks
