An enjoyable classic worthy of owning

Rating: 10/10 (17 March 2004)

I had somehow never seen The Producers until the mid 1990's on an international United Airlines flight classic channel and now have a DVD of it that I watch a couple of times a year. It ranks with Spaceballs and To Be or Not To Be as my favorite Mel Brooks films. Mel does us all a great service as well by holding the Nazi's up for ridicule in this movie as he did in his remake of the 1942 original To Be or Not To Be with Jack Benny. The casting of Dick Shawn to play the actor performing as Hitler on stage was perfect. The contrast of Dick Shawn on stage as a laughingstock hippie Hitler while Kenneth Mars as the quite serious Hitler supporter and writer of "Springtime for Hitler" squirms and grows angry ("Hitler never said 'baby'..what is this 'baby'") is hilarious.