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| Genre: | Musicals |
| Year: | 1968 |
| Rating: | NR |
| Length: | 1h 30mins |
| Cast: | Mel Brooks, Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Kenneth Mars |
The Producers, Mel Brooks's wildly hilarious directorial debut and the source for his Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, soars with savage satire and one of the most perfect pairings in movie history: Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder. Mostel portrays a grandiose but washed-up Broadway producer who teams up with Wilder's timid accountant to produce the worst show ever written, as part of a scheme to defraud investors. The chemistry between the two leads bubbles with animosity, affection, and mutually enabling dementia. Mostel reaches unimaginable heights of wide-eyed mania in scenes where he seduces a bevy of adoring octogenarians in order to bilk them out of their money. And in his first great role, the inimitable Wilder incorporates both his perpetual smirk and his patented hysterical rants into a multilayered portrayal of a of a man who is at first cajoled and bullied into -- but finally embraces -- a crazy dream. To top it all off is the play itself, "Springtime for Hitler: A Gay Romp with Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden," which stars Dick Shawn as a hepcat Hitler who grooves his way through the Great War. An over-the-top exercise in bad taste, it combines tap-dancing and goose-stepping with shameless glee. But let the viewer beware: the title song, "Springtime for Hitler," is a genuinely catchy tune that, once heard, is difficult to shake. This legendary comedy classic simply has to be seen to be believed. Gregory Baird
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