Mel Brooks' best film.

Rating: 8/10 (1 August 2013)

While I prefer Blazing Saddles over The Producers, I will concede that the latter is a better film. I just prefer Westerns over Broadway.
What makes this film brilliant are the characters. Zero Mostel's Max Bialystock is a slovenly man with a comb-over who seduces randy octogenarians to finance his failures on Broadway. Gene Wilder's Leo Bloom plays a hyper-sensitive, anxiety-ridden, security blanket holding accountant who puts ideas in his head for the ultimate scam. Kenneth Mars' Franz Liebkind is a crazy Nazi who probably fears the atrocities in Germany just as much as he praises Adolf. Dick Shawn's L.S.D. is a goofy flower child who vainly tries to sound and act hip. Lee Meredith's Ulla is sexy eye candy; like Leo Bloom, you can't keep your eyes off of her.
Scenes like Bialystock seducing octogenarian women, the hundred or so men doing "Heil Hitler" at the audition or L.S.D.'s terrible singing are classic comedy. As for the play itself, the opening is very entertaining; especially the Swastika dance. The scenes with L.S.D. seem to come off as Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In to me, though that's not a bad thing.
All in all, a very entertaining film and deserving of its Oscars. Great acting, superb writing and joyous fun. I can see how it was impossible for Mel to top The Producers; it's near perfect.