Before Broadway:
A Look At Mel Brooks' The Producers

by Catherine Lucy

Mel Brooks' first feature length directorial effort was The Producers (1968). Brooks went all out on his first film--not only did he direct it, but he also wrote the screenplay and composed the music. The only thing missing from the film is Brooks himself, although his voice has an uncredited role. The Producers is a worthy comedic effort that hints at Brooks' genius to follow, but the screenplay is ultimately the best thing about this film.

Zero Mostel stars as Max Bialystock, a washed-up Broadway producer who courts elderly, rich women, and then suckers them into giving him money to produce non-existent plays. When a new accountant named Leo Blooom (Gene Wilder) shows up to work on Bialystock's books, he innocently notes that a producer could actually make more money, under certain conditions, if he produced a flop instead of a hit. Bialystock is intrigued by the idea of becoming an instant millionaire, and the two, now co-producers, seek out the worst script, director, and actors they can find to guarantee a flop. The result is "Springtime for Hitler."

The play's author (Kenneth Mars) is a Nazi sympathizer who wants everyone to know how wonderful Hitler was. Bialystock then chooses a flamboyant director who throws in a few musical numbers, and a doped-up hippie actor (Dick Shawn) to star in the play. Backed by a million dollars worth of silver-haired investors, the producers are guaranteed to retire as millionaires when the play flops and closes, at little cost to them. But of course, things don't go as planned.

The screenplay is tight and well-paced. Other than a few brief and embarassing scenes (by today's standards) with the incompetent but sexy secretary Bialystock hires, every scene has a purpose and sticks to it. The picture doesn't wander or try to incorporate more into the story than there really is. And Brooks doesn't rely on parody to produce comedic results as he does in his later films. In The Producers, the humor lies within the story's concept. This is not a great comedy, although Mars and Shawn's performances bring laughs, and Mostel is brilliant. The one real negative aspect is the opening credits sequence, which is terribly is dated both because of its music and the quirky editing that plague so many movies from the 1960s. However, the film's concept is timeless and could easily be made today. In fact, Brooks recently turned it into a Broadway musical, which promptly won a slew of Tonys.

End note: The more I watch Brooks' films the more I notice the influence of Charlie Chaplin. There are some very obvious similarities, such as: two Jewish guys who direct, write, star in, compose music, and even sing (!) in their own films. They both made fun of Hitler (Brooks in The Producers and To Be or Not to Be; Chaplin in The Great Dictator). They both co-starred with their wives. Brooks even made his own silent movie titled Silent Movie. Brooks also tries to bring an element of humanism to his characters, as Chaplin did. His people may be uneducated, tramps, or lacking in some other favorable quality, but they are still humans who evoke our sympathy and compassion.

©2001 Catherine Lucy
CineScene