One of the funniest films ever made. A great team was formed- Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks. Very politically incorrect, occasionally in poor taste, and just plain hilarious. Run and see it now.

Was this the one with the Singing Hitlers or something?

"It's Springtime for Hitler and Germany..."

I'd like to sing along with you but I don't know the lines, the rythem, the . . .Well, you get the idea!

This film will be a Broadway play in April 2001. How can that do justice to this fine film?
It seems some of you don't know the plot. Here goes: Zero plays a washed up theatrical producer, Wilder is his accountant. Together, they scheme to overfinance a play and flee with the money, so they look for a guaranteed flop ("Springtime for Hitler.") See the film on cable or rent it for the rest, it is well worth it.

Great Line-Leo (Wilder) to Max (Zero)- "Max, he's wearing a dress!" When NBC ran this film in the early 70's, the drag scene was cut. When it went into late-night showings, the scene was restored.
Another great line- Max to little old lady:"Can't produce plays without checkie."

By the way, there were no singing Hitlers. There WAS a chorus and singers in Nazi uniforms. (The same costumes from "Patterns of Force?") The late Dick Shawn played LSD, who played Hitler in the play-within-the-movie, and he did a (very) small bit of singing.

The Broadway musical version of this film is a huge hit; long lines to buy tickets a year in advance (yes, it is sold out for a year) and a $100 top ticket price.

Mel Brooks' immortal, dubbed singing line: "Don't be ••••••, be a smarty, come and join the Nazi party!" I just saw this movie for the first time recently (checked it out of the library) and ... WOW!

Puts most current "comedies" to shame, doesn't it? (including, unfortunately, some of Mr. Brooks' more recent work.) "The Producers" has had its first theatrical run in 20 years at a revival house here in New Jersey. It was kept out of theaters due to a rights dispute, the particulars of which I am unclear on.
Also recommended: "My Favorite Year", a 1982 pic directed by Richard Benjamin. This was a comic treatment of an incident when a young Brooks was working on "Your Show Of Shows", in which he was assigned to keep Errol Flynn sober for his guest shot on that show.

"The Producers" has had its first theatrical run in 20 years at a revival house here in New Jersey.

What the heck are you talking about? It's on BROADWAY for cryin' out loud! It swept the Tony awards this year!

"My Favorite Year" contains one of my favorite lines of all time: "I'm not an actor, I'm a movie star!

Re: "The Producers" everybody raves about Zero and Gene, and rightly so, but Dick Shawn really made the movie for me.

I heard the Broadway version was nominated for a record 15 awards - exactly how many did it scoop?

And it's on TV tomorrow night!

Oh, thanks for getting all of us in America's hopes up, Sven! :-)

oops..... sorry...

'Sokay. I'm definitely waiting for it to show up on TV here, tho.

-By the way, there were no singing Hitlers. There WAS a chorus and singers in Nazi uniforms.-

The scene where they ask for the singing Hitlers is during the auditions...I think the line goes " Singing Hitlers wait in the wings, we're seeing dancing Hitlers on stage" (or something much funnier!!!!!)

Also a great bit is where Gene Wilder has hysterics after Zero Mostel takes his blue blanket.
"I'm wet, I'm in pain and I'm STILL hysterical!" after he's had water splashed in his face and then been slapped to bring him to his senses.

Zero Mostel; "I'm off to Little Old Lady Land"

"Springtime for Hitler and Germany
Winter for Poland and France"

Possible Next Gen connection: The credits listed an Edward Brown as camera operator. This is probably the same Edward R. Brown, who was Next Gen's first director of photography.

It is the same Edward R. Brown.

Full Circle: A movie based on the Broadway production of The Producers, starring its top-drawer players, Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, will begin production and be released in 2005. Bet it will cost a lot more than the $800,000 the original cost back in 1967. (Broderick's and Lane's salaries alone will probably be in the millions)

The above mentioned movie will be released on Christmas Day, 2005. From the TV commercials, it looks absolutely awful, with Lane overacting to the extremus. Broderick, as Bloom, is no Gene Wilder. Zero could get away with playing a role broadly, and I used to think that Lane could get away with it as well. Not any more.

Is it possible that the plot for The Producers was ripped from an old episode of Racket Squad? Maybe so; this TV Party page explains more (scroll about 3/4 down the page).

Racket Squad, like Dragnet, claimed to have taken their stories from real life cases, so maybe Mel Brooks knew of the real incident that was the basis of that episode of Racket Squad?