Laugh ? I nearly started.....

Rating: 4/10 (3 June 2007)

"Very loud,"The Producers" "- as Noel Coward might have said.10 minutes of it goes a long way.I remember the posters on the Underground when the movie first came out."The funniest film I have ever seen",says Peter Sellers.Well,certainly everybody who's in it seems convinced they're being funny.Knowing looks,nods and winks are dispensed freely isn't this a hoot everyone seems to be saying,you've got to laugh haven't you?Er,no,actually,you haven't.You've seen one spoof Nazi production number and you've seen them all.Messrs Mostel and Wilder work themselves up into a frenzy to very little effect as far as I'm concerned although I note that many many people find them hilarious. Mel Brooks can be very funny,a master of the witty riposte,interviewee sublime and king of the punsters,but in "The Producers " he over eggs the pudding enormously - grotesquely even.Frantic humour can work but it needs a director in charge of his actors - a firm controlling hand. Contrast Bogdanovich and "What's up doc?" with Mr Brooks either failing or not bothering to get a grip on his cast. He did better with the sublime Madeline Khan in "Blazing saddles " and curbed the excesses of Gene Wilder in "Young Frankenstein" so perhaps "The Producers" was the start of a sharp learning curve. Certainly it exudes a certain "I'm making fun of the Nazis so it must be funny" quality that might make you feel guilty for not falling about. See past that and there might be less there than meets the eye.