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The Producers
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The Producers (1968) More at IMDbPro »

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The Producers (1968) -- Producers Max Bialystock (Mostel) and Leo Bloom (Wilder) make money by producing a sure-fire flop.
The Producers (1968) -- Trailerfan.com - Trailer (Flash)

Overview

User Rating:
7.7/10   18,236 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Up 7% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Writer:
Mel Brooks (written by)
Contact:
View company contact information for The Producers on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
10 November 1968 (USA) more
Genre:
Tagline:
Hollywood Never Faced a Zanier Zero Hour!
Plot:
Producers Max Bialystock (Mostel) and Leo Bloom (Wilder) make money by producing a sure-fire flop. full summary | add synopsis
Awards:
Won Oscar. Another 2 wins & 5 nominations more
User Comments:
This Quotable Classic is Still One of Mel Brooks' Very Best more (209 total)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)
Zero Mostel ... Max Bialystock (as Zero)

Gene Wilder ... Leo Bloom
Dick Shawn ... 'L.S.D.' - Lorenzo St. DuBois
Kenneth Mars ... Franz Liebkind
Lee Meredith ... Ulla

Christopher Hewett ... Roger De Bris
Andréas Voutsinas ... Carmen Ghia (as Andreas Voutsinas)
Estelle Winwood ... 'Hold Me Touch Me'
Renée Taylor ... Eva Braun (as Renee Taylor)
David Patch ... Goebbels
William Hickey ... The Drunk (as Bill Hickey)
Barney Martin ... Göring
Shimen Ruskin ... The Landlord
Frank Campanella ... The Bartender
Josip Elic ... Violinist
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Additional Details

Also Known As:
Springtime for Hitler (USA) (working title)
more
Runtime:
88 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Color (Pathécolor)
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
The original screenplay had Franz Liebkind having Max and Leo swearing on The Siegfried Oath, accompanied by "The Ride of the Valkyries" and promising fealty to Siegfried, Wagner, Nietzche, Hindenburg, The Graf Spee, The Blue Max, and Adolph "You know who." This explains Franz's outraged cry when entering Max's office, "You have broken the Siegfried Oath - you must die!" The Oath was restored in the musical version. more
Goofs:
Factual errors: The scam that is at the center of this story's plot wouldn't work. The idea was to create a play that would be a failure, and produce no profit, so that they could sell more than 100% stake in the profits. Profit is revenue minus expenses. The investors already paid the expenses; what they would expect in return is not a share of the profit, but of the revenue. The share of the revenue that they received, minus the share of the expenses that they paid, would amount to their share of the profit. Even if the play is unprofitable (that is, fails to bring in enough revenue to cover the expenses), if so much as one ticket is sold to that play, then there is revenue, and each investor would expect his share of that revenue. more
Quotes:
Ulla: [Sees Max and Leo and takes off dress] We make love?
Max Bialystock: No, we don't make love. Go to work.
[Ulla starts dancing to music on record player]
more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in Back in the Saddle (2001) (V) more
Soundtrack:
LOVE POWER more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
10 out of 11 people found the following comment useful.
This Quotable Classic is Still One of Mel Brooks' Very Best, 18 April 2007
10/10
Author: Dorian Tenore-Bartilucci (dtb) from Whitehall, PA

I know more people who quote lines from THE PRODUCERS than from Shakespeare; make of that what you will! :-) That said, people seem to either love it or hate it, but most folks I know agree this nutzoid farce has, to quote groovy LSD (delightful Dick Shawn), "Love Power!" Writer/director Mel Brooks' insanely zany yet strangely sweet tale of down-on-his-luck Broadway producer Max Bialystock (the great Zero Mostel, who should have been nominated for an Oscar himself) who uses his powers of persuasion (and wheedling, and bellowing, and conning :-) to convince meek accountant Leo Bloom (justifiably Oscar-nominated Gene Wilder) to help him make a surefire Broadway flop that, if their nutty book-cooking scheme works, will land them in Rio -- or, if it doesn't work, Sing Sing. This screamingly funny, no-holds-barred comedy won Mel Brooks an Oscar for Best Screenplay and put the former YOUR SHOW OF SHOWS writer on the map as a filmmaker. Anyone trying to make a comedy depending on controversy and questionable taste for its laughs should watch THE PRODUCERS first and see how a master does it! For that matter, Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder ought to watch it again themselves; after the duds they were churning out for a while there, maybe they need a refresher course in how to be funny. (Hell, it might be as simple as them teaming up again; Wilder seemed able to temper Brooks's mania for poo-poo humor and Brooks seemed able to help Wilder to better balance out his trademark blend of shrill hysteria and sweetness.) Much as my family and I also loved the Broadway and film editions of the musical version co-written by Brooks and Thomas Meehan and starring the incomparable Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick (even though I felt that Broderick wasn't quite as good as Leo Bloom as Lane was as Max Bialystock. That said, together they have great buddy chemistry), the original is still the champ.

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