The first 14
minutes of this film are total rubbish—in fact, they might discourage you from
watching the rest of the movie (1 hour and 29 minutes). But the moment Leo
Bloom (Gene Wilder) acts out when Max Bialystock (Zero Mostel) touches his blue
blanket, I sat back down and focused to see what makes this 1968 film a comedy
classic.
Rated 11th in
AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Laughs, this comedy masterpiece wasn’t well
received during its initial release and was itself a flop—ironically, just like
the plot of the movie. The film is about making a Broadway production for $1
million that’s designed to be a financial flop.
Now, ironically this
movie (The Producers) production budget was 941,000—almost a million.
This movie was
written and directed by Mel Brooks, marking his directorial debut. He later won
an Academy Award that same year for Best Original Screenplay.
I’m more
familiar with Wilder from his later movies, but this was my first time seeing
Zero Mostel on screen. While he was good, Wilder seemed to outshine him in his
role.
The movie starts
by introducing Mr. Bialystock, a flimsy womanizer who sleeps with elderly women
to raise funds for his plays. He’s visited in his office by an accountant named
Leo Bloom, who discovers that Bialystock had produced a failed play but still
pocketed $2,000.
While going
through Max’s books and trying to help him hide the $2,000 he stole from his
investors (after Max begged and convinced him to), Bloom thinks out loud about a
scheme that could make millions. The plan is to raise $1 million for a $60,000
play without letting any of the investors know about the others. They’d sell
shares to each of them, and when the play inevitably flops, the investors would
get nothing.
Max hears this
scheme and convinces Leo they can pull it off, even after Leo warns that it
could backfire and send them to jail for fraud.
Bialystock and
Bloom start a production company, pick the worst script they can find (written
by a mentally unstable man), hire the worst director possible, and cast the
worst actors available.
They sell shares
of the play’s profits to investors—some 100%, some 50%, and the rest 25%,
totaling a sale of 25,000% of what should only be 100%.
Now that they’ve
done everything wrong, they’re confident nothing could go right with the play
to make it a hit.
This movie is indeed very funny, and the music is exceptional. I’ll definitely keep this in my archive, and I think you should too.
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