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There is probably one good reason that The Producers won an Oscar for Screenplay. Such a film would have been absolutely unprecedented in movie history. Roger Ebert said that the impact of this film back then would have been even greater than There's Something About Mary today, in terms of both its risque content and its characterizations, and this would be true. Before The Producers, movie comedy would have been either stuff like The Three Stooges, or screwball comedies like the ones made by Howard Hawks or Billy Wilder. The worst thing that could happen in a comedy would be that relationships would screw up occasionally, but other than that, the characters were likeable, and weren't really crooked (although they might be sneaky and deceptive to those they love, but usually in hopes of attaining that love in the end). In The Producers, however, the two central characters are completely amoral, and they produce a play from an author fanatically devoted to Adolf Hitler.

Zero Mostel is Max, and Gene Wilder is Leo. Max was a formerly successful Broadway producer, now reduced to seducing rich old ladies to raise money for what always turn out to be flops. Leo is Max's new accountant, who discovers that Max actually made a profit of a couple of thousand dollars on his most recent flop. Leo unwittingly comes up with a perfect scheme: find the worst play possible, raise huge amounts of money by selling huge percentages of the play to many people, and he and Max can reap the benefits. Hours and hours (and hours and hours) of reading plays results in the most terrible of plays: "Springtime for Hitler", a "gay romp with Adolf and Eva.", written by a Nazi now living in an upstairs apartment. The author's response to the news is ecstatic: "We'll finally clear Hitler's name!!"

The two men know that they have a supreme flop on their hands, which results in a pretty sick and funny montage of Mostel fleecing seemingly every old lady in town. Afterwards, they pay a visit to a very bad (and very gay) director, who utters the classic line: "The entire third act has got to go! They're losing the war!", and who comes up with equally inappropriate changes. Soon, it's opening night, and things .... well, they don't quite turn out as expected for Max and Leo.

The most famous scene is the opening number to the play. A gaudy, ornate production, with dancing girls in Nazi uniforms among other sights, the lyrics include "Don't be stupid be a smarty/Come and join the Nazi party", and "We're moving at a faster pace/ Look out, here comes the Master Race." The number is in bad taste, but it is so outrageous that a person like me can't help but to always remember it, and laugh. Of course, I have to be careful when I whistle the tune; I might get caught, and people might wonder!! It is also scary to watch in some respects; if this number were presented in the early thirties, no doubt this would be considered almost effective propaganda. Everybody's dancing, and they're all so happy; why, let's join the new fad!!

I think, however, that the most compelling scene is when Max and Leo meet the playwright, who is the consummate Nazi supporter, shooting out venom at Churchill ("He couldn't pronounce Nazis. He said "Noses! Noses!", we weren't noses, we were Nazis!!!), while comparing Hitler's attributes to Churchill's apparent lack of same ("He was a better dresser than Churchill. He had more hair than Churchill. And he could dance the pants off of Churchill!!). This scene is very funny, and very shocking; it works much like watching the early episodes of All in The Family, and laughing because you just can't believe the words and phrases coming out of Archie Bunker's mouth. Even thirty years later, such phrases hit you, in both that show and this movie.

The two main performances are very memorable. Zero Mostel is totally amoral and desperate; he cares only about primitive appetites, mostly of the financial kind. And Gene Wilder represents the cinematic equivalent of a panic attack which is almost scary. During the first half of the film, Wilder exhibits some very strange neurotic impulses and hypertension which can only be described as untreatable.

The strange thing about "Springtime for Hitler" is that it isn't really all that funny; other than the opening number, nothing in it really pushes any buttons. In fact, it could be a standard sitcom, if World War II could become a sitcom, that is. The audience's reaction is what gets laughs, and one patron says the line that strikes fear into Zero Mostel's heart: "Who would have thought that the best play on Broadway would be Springtime for Hitler??"

The Producers is very amusing most of the time, and I think it is up there with some of the better comedies ever made. But Brooks has one up on most of those comedies, and even some of the other comedies (and dramas) produced today, and that has to do with his treatment of the ending. Every ending of every movie made nowadays has to be happy, not just for the audience, but for the characters as well. Everything has to work out for the players, because the filmmakers mistakenly believe that this translates into pleasure for the audience (which is utter baloney). Brooks does not make that mistake. Yet the ending is still funny.
 

Rating: ***½

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