One of the most brilliant, wittiest, funniest films ever made.

Rating: 10/10 (19 January 2014)

Mel Brooks 1967 "The Producers" was way ahead of its time in terms of of zany, satirical comedy. It is utterly hilarious almost entirely throughout &, for my money, is THE champion mick-take film of all time. Mr. Brooks never spared anyone in his comedy films, of course. All were fair game but in this film Adolf Hitler & his Nazi party are taken to the cleaners & hung out to dry. So too homosexuals. The movie's premise is that Max Bialystock (Zero Mostel) & Leo Bloom (Gene Wilder) are trying to produce an almighty musical flop on Broadway after selling 100 per cent of its shares ten times over. After it's first night it should bomb so catastrophically that it will close, but they will make a bomb financially. So they search for the worst musical play they can find "Springtime For Hitler" written by a crazy ex-Nazi soldier (played by Kenneth Mars) living in New York. When they meet him for the first time he rambles on extolling Adolf Hitler's praises whilst denigrating Winston Churchill. After he left school Hitler went to art college & began his working life as a painter. Churchill, too, used to paint as a pastime for relaxation. "Hitler was a better painter than Churchill", he told Max & Leo. "Hitler could paint an entire apartment in one day, TWO COATS!". Absolutely brilliant & hysterically funny!!!. They cast another complete lunatic (Dick Shawn) in the role of Adolf Hitler & employed a raving transvestite homosexual (Christopher Hewett) as dance choreographer. One of his ideas is to dress his lady dancers as Nazi storm-troopers dancing in swastika formation. Max also hires himself a very sexy Swedish secretary, Ulla, played by Lee Meredith. Her shorthand typing isn't up to much but she even manages to make lighting Max's cigars sexy. "You'll bury me you Swedish tease!", he tells her. The audience, at first, don't find "Springtime For Hitler" remotely funny & are stunned into silence. "Well, talk about BAD TASTE!", exclaims one lady in the audience. Max & Leo, meanwhile, have retired to the bar before they get "stoned to death". Then Dick Shawn's madcap Hitler does his thing & the audience start to find it comical. The hoped for disaster does not transpire & they are facing financial ruin. As I say it is all utterly hilarious. I have read that Peter Sellers was first offered the role of Max Bialystock but turned it down. When he saw it he realised he had made a mistake & thought it the funniest movie he had ever seen & I can easily understand why. For anyone who has never seen it, if you get the chance DON'T MISS IT. The 2005 remake is pretty good but steals an awful lot from the original!. Adolf Hitler would have had everyone involved in this lined up against a wall & machine-gunned to death!!!.