The Producers (1968)
Directed by Mel Brooks
A conniving Broadway producer and his meek accountant plan to profit from charming wealthy old biddies to invest in an overbudget production, and then put on a sure-fire disaster, so nobody will ask for their money back — and what's more disastrous than a tasteless musical celebrating Adolf Hitler.
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What critics compared The Producers to
But of course, absurd as the idea may seem, some attempts to wring humor from the horrors of Nazi Germany have stood the test of time: Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator,” Ernst Lubitsch’s “To Be or Not To Be,” Mel Brooks’ “The Producers,” and Roberto Benigni’s “Life Is Beautiful,” to name a few.
But it’s been more than 50 years since Brooks & Co. first serenaded us with “Springtime for Hitler,” and it’s tough to imagine anyone taking the piss out of the Nazi Party better than The Producers.
Despite what Disney and Fox Searchlight's trailer marketing might lead you to believe, Taika Waititi's Jojo Rabbit is neither the quirky New Zealander's riff on Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator, nor the feature-length version of Mel Brooks' fake "Springtime for Hitler" musical from The Producers.
Forty years ago, in “The Producers,” Zero Mostel slept with rich old ladies in order to raise money for a Broadway show; Zohan labors on behalf of a corner store, demonstrating, once again, that small business is the soul of the American economy.
It's a variation on a gag that happily served Mel Brooks in The Producers, and as in that enterprise, the result is more innocent merriment than discomfort for the audience.
Mel Brooks exacted a greater revenge on the Fuhrer with the "Springtime for Hitler" routines in "The Producers" - and Wuttke's impersonation here is just as broad but not nearly as funny as either Dick Shawn's in the original Brooks comedy or Roger Bart's in the musical remake.
As with any historical calamity, the urge to view it from all sides - including farce - grows with time, and World War II has been mined for shock-comedy since at least “The Producers’’ in 1968.
When dealing with Nazis in "The Producers," Brooks' approach was to make fun of them to deflate them and take away their power.
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Ask Mel Brooks, whose greatest film, The Producers , came from his own experiences on Broadway.
Even given the grand tradition of artists using their work for sharp social rebukes — Mel Brooks ' genius swipe at Nazism in "The Producers," for one —Tarantino's mash-ups between the unconscionable inhumanity of others and his outrageous riffs on the matter defy comparison.
After sifting through a dubious slush-pile, like Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder searching for a flop in The Producers, they settle on a story about an uprising on a distant planet named Argo.
Brooks's first features, " The Producers " (1968) and " The Twelve Chairs ," told original stories.
Even so, it's hard not to compare Spaceballs unfavorably to Brooks' earlier, more deliriously cutting films (The Producers, Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles).
But, when you go back to classics like "Blazing Saddles" and "Young Frankenstein" or even "Spaceballs", it's a whole different story.
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We've been laughing at and booing Nazis for decades in such comic fare as To Be or Not to Be (1942), The Great Dictator (1940), and The Producers (1967).
The filmmaker clearly hopes that his comic Western will be this generation's companion piece to Mel Brooks' 1974 classic Blazing Saddles, a picture so revered that it rests in the number 6 slot on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 funniest American movies of all time (the highest ranked of three Brooks flicks, with The Producers at number 11 and Young Frankenstein at number 13).