The Producers movie storyline. Brash and loud Max Bialystock was once a successful Broadway producer who now resorts to wooing and seducing elderly women, each with their own specific sexual peccadillo, to raise enough money for his shows. Leo Bloom, a nervous man prone to hysterics, is the latest person Max’s accounting firm has sent to audit Max’s books.
The two decide to join forces to produce a Broadway show after an innocent passing comment by Leo: that a producer can make more money with a flop that closes after one performance than a success as the producer would not have to pay back the investors as the investors have bought into a specific percentage of the show. Thus their goal is to raise as much money as possible to produce a guaranteed flop that closes after one performance.
Their first task is to find the worst show ever written, which they believe they have in the offensive “Springtime for Hitler”, a musical love story to the famed dictator written by patriotic and deranged Nazi German, Franz Liebkind. Max then goes into overdrive to raise the money from his regular stable of elderly female investors and those of a similar ilk.
He is so successful in this venture, selling 25,000% of the show, that Max decides to get a human plaything as his short term reward. And they are able to hire who is considered the worst director in the business, Roger De Bris, and miscast the lead role with an actor who goes by his initials, L.S.D., which truly does match his nature. But with all these pieces to produce a sure-fired flop, have they actually created the perfect storm?
The Producers is a 1967 American satirical black comedy film written and directed by Mel Brooks and starring Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Dick Shawn, and Kenneth Mars. The film is about a theater producer and his accountant who, as part of a scam, have to stage the worst stage musical they can create. They eventually base it on Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Because of this theme, The Producers was controversial from the start and received mixed reviews. It became a cult film and found a more positive critical reception later.
The Producers was Brooks’s directorial debut. For the film, he won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. In 1996, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry and placed eleventh on the AFI’s 100 Years…100 Laughs list. It was later adapted by Brooks and Thomas Meehan as a stage musical, which itself was adapted into a film.
The Producers (1967)
Directed by: Mel Brooks
Starring: Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Dick Shawn, Estelle Winwood, Christopher Hewett, Kenneth Mars, Lee Meredith, Renée Taylor, Andreas Voutsinas, Bill Macy, William Hickey, David Patch
Screenplay by: Mel Brooks
Production Design by: Charles Rosen
Cinematography by: Joseph Coffey
Film Editing by: Ralph Rosenblum
Costume Design by: Gene Coffin
Set Decoration by: James Dalton
Music by: John Morris
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Embassy Pictures
Release Date: November 22, 1967
Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Dick Shawn, Estelle Winwood, Christopher Hewett, Kenneth Mars, Lee Meredith, Renée Taylor, Andreas Voutsinas, Bill Macy, William Hickey, David Patch
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