One of the funniest movies ever

Rating: 8/10 (3 September 2005)

Mel Brook's comedic masterpiece. Max Bialystock (Zero Mostel) is a has-been Broadway producer who hires Leo Bloom (Gene Wilder) to balance his books. Bialystock is so destitute he pulls out his belt and says, "Look! I'm wearing a cardboard belt." Leo Bloom is a neurotic mouse but he's good with the books and he discovers that if you raised money for a play and it flopped you could keep the money. So that's what Bialystock decides to do. He finds the worst play ever written, a musical called Springtime for Hitler, written by a Nazi Franz Liebkind (Kenneth Mars.) To direct the play they hire the worst director they can find, Roger De Bris who selects Lorenzo St. DuBois (L.S.D.) (Dick Shawn) a stoned aging hippie to play Hitler. The Producers is a comic encyclopedia of sight gags, in-jokes, one-liners and sophisticated wit. There are other funny movies, but no one has ever duplicated this much quality comedic material in one movie. Mostel was born for the part of the obnoxious Bialystock and Wilder looks like he's always been the timid accountant. Add the absolutely crazy Nazi Kenneth Mars and Dick Shawn's riotous parody of flower-power hippies to the cast of already lunatic characters. The musical numbers for Springtime for Hitler with chorus girls dressed as giant pretzels and beer steins are probably the funniest ever filmed. The Producers easily gets my vote for the funniest film ever made.