The First Mel Brooks Film Is Comedy Fun

Rating: 7/10 (21 February 2015)

Mel Brooks' "The Producers" is a comedy that revolves one central idea: that it might be more profitable to produce a flop than to produce a successful play.
Zero Mostel plays Max Bialystock, an over the hill producer who lives on a shoestring. When he meets Leo Bloom (Gene Wilder), a neurotic but straight-arrow accountant, the two form an unlikely partnership. Object: failure.
The film has a manic beginning with plenty of hyperventilating, but soon settles into what filmgoers would later come to recognize as a trademark Brooks' wackiness. This is Mel Brooks' first film as a director and one can hear his (writing) voice in many of the lines.
The plot is somewhat irreverent, but it hits its comic targets reliably, in a way reminiscent of Chaplin's parody of Hitler, perhaps.
Brooks' style of humor may not be for everyone, but this first attempt at direction is an enjoyable film. Look for Dick Shawn as a kooky, beat Hitler in the play within the movie.