Mel Brooks' First And Best

Rating: 9/10 (30 May 2016)

Zero Mostel is a down-on-his-luck theater producer who is forced to romance elderly ladies to get money. Gene Wilder arrives at his office to examine his financial records, and notes that he had embezzled some money from his previous production...but this didn't matter as that production lost all its money anyway. Soon, the two of them hit upon a clever idea-make a theater production that is sure to flop, and they can embezzle all the money they can without fear of consequences!
To do that, the pair seek out the worst play, "Springtime For Hitler" by a crazed Nazi, worst director, a stereotypical flaming homosexual, and worst actor from an audition, a goofy hippie. Of course, the audience will hate it, right?
The movie depends on a shocking concept, and only a Jew would have dared to pull it off. Performances and stereotypes are overdone, but that is part of the comedy. It's a fundamentally tasteless idea, but Brooks has managed to make it funny. Too bad his successive movies would never reach such heights.