Great fun with a criminal mastermind

Rating: 8/10 (9 December 2000)

The opening scene of "The Producers" has to be one of the most brilliantly constructed comic scenes ever. The scene develops with the meeting of Biallystock and Bloom where at first they despise each other but soon on the discovery that they could become partners in crime they show trust in one another. It is the overbearing impresario, Biallystock, who controls the scene as he manipulates the accountant, Bloom, into at first feeling sorry for him and later into believing that he (Biallystock) could be a criminal mastermind cunning enough to pull off the fraud. In his scene which is only about 10 minutes long it is fantastic to watch the trust develop between the naive, emotionally withdrawn Bloom and the flawed but charismatic Biallystock. The shambolic apartment is a great setting with the grime on the windows shielding the two misfits from reality. They are both dreamers who want to escape this dilapidated existence and we too go along for the ride trusting in Biallystock's scheme.