The Producers is a 1967 American satirical black comedy film written and directed by Mel Brooks, and starring Gene Wilder, Zero Mostel, Dick Shawn, and Kenneth Mars. The film is about a mild-mannered accountant and a con artist theater producer who scheme to get rich by fraudulently overselling shares in a stage musical designed to fail. To this end, they find a playscript celebrating Adolf Hitler and the Nazis and bring it to the stage. Because of this theme, The Producers was controversial from the start and received mixed reviews. It became a cult film, and found a 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 United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" 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 again in 2005.
Plot Max Bialystock is an aging Broadway producer whose career has veered from great success to the depths of near failure. He now ekes out a hand-to-mouth existence while romancing lascivious, wealthy elderly women in exchange for money for a "next play" that may never be produced. Leopold "Leo" Bloom, a neurotic young accountant prone to hysterics, arrives at Max's office to audit his accounts and discovers a $2,000 discrepancy in the accounts of Max's last play. Max persuades Leo to hide the fraud, and Leo realizes that, since a flop is expected to lose money, the IRS will not investigate its finances, and the investors will not expect a large financial return, so a producer could earn more from a flop than from a hit by overselling interests and embezzling the funds. However, Leo also points out that if the play is a hit, the producer would be charged with fraud since it would be impossible to cover paying the large amount of backers needed for such a plan. Max decides to make this into a scheme, and use the profits to flee to Rio de Janeiro. He convinces Leo to join him, treating him to lunch and a day out and saying that his drab life in accounting is little different from prison anyway. Leo has an epiphany and agrees to the con.
The partners find the ideal play for their scheme: Springtime for Hitler: A Gay Romp with Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden, a "love letter to Hitler" written by deranged ex-Nazi soldier Franz Liebkind. Max and Leo bond with Franz over schnapps and tell him they want to show the world a positive representation of Hitler. Now with the stage rights, Max goes to work seducing as many old rich women as possible, selling 25,000% of the play to investors. Right away, he uses some of the money to redecorate the office and hire an attractive Swedish receptionist, Ulla. They sign on Roger De Bris as their director based on his extraordinarily poor reputation, who immediately demands revisions to the play and a happy ending in which the Nazis win the war. The part of Hitler goes to a hippie actor named Lorenzo St. DuBois (nicknamed "L.S.D.") who accidentally wandered into the wrong theater during the casting call.
At the theater on opening night, Max tries to ensure a harshly negative review by appearing to attempt to bribe a New York Times theatre critic. Despite a promising start, with a distasteful opening number that causes several walk-outs ("Springtime for Hitler and Germany/Winter for Poland and France"), Max, Leo and Franz are horrified to see De Bris's revisions, and L.S.D.'s beatnik-like portrayal of Hitler, have turned the admiring tribute into a campy, comedic satire. Springtime for Hitler is declared a hit.
Back at their office, as Max and Leo are fighting after the latter attempts to turn himself in to get a plea bargain, a gun-wielding Franz confronts them, angered by the audience laughing at the depiction of Hitler. He tries first to shoot them, and then himself, but runs out of bullets. The three then decide to blow up the theater to end the production, but they are caught in the explosion and arrested. At the trial, where they are found "incredibly guilty" by the jury, Leo makes an impassioned statement praising Max, even for his faults, for being his friend and changing his life for the greater good (even as he also calls Max "the most selfish man I ever met in my life.") Max claims that they have learned their lesson and will never do such misdeeds again.
Max, Leo, and Franz are sent to the state penitentiary, where they produce a new musical called Prisoners of Love with their fellow inmates. While Max and Franz supervise rehearsals, Leo is put in charge of the money, overselling shares of the play to interested prisoners and the warden.
Cast
Production
Early publicity A substantive early New York Times account of the property's genesis dates to December 1961: "Edward Padula has acquired a new comedy by Mel Brooks tentatively called 'Springtime for Hitler'. The producer said yesterday that actually 'Hitler is not in the comedy.' 'It's a sort of play-within-a-play. The setting is contemporary England.' Kenneth Williams, rated by Mr. Padula as 'England's new comic discovery' is under consideration for the leading role....Work on the new Brooks comedy will start immediately after the local presentation of 'All American'."Calta, Louis, "Capitol Records to Issue Album as Partner of Richard Rodgers." New York Times, December 27, 1961, 18
Writing and development The title Springtime for Hitler was first coined by Brooks as a joke during the press conference for All American in 1962. Shortly afterwards, he also decided to relate this title to a character named Leo Bloom, an homage to Leopold Bloom, protagonist of James Joyce's Ulysses. It was reused by him years later once he had an idea about "two schnooks on Broadway who set out to produce a flop and swindle the backers". The inspiration was some people Brooks met during his early show business days: Benjamin Kutcher, a New York producer who financed his plays by sleeping with elderly women, became the basis for Max Bialystock, and the scheme had origins in two theater producers who had a lavish lifestyle while making various unsuccessful plays. When imagining what play "would have people packing up and leaving the theatre even before the first act is over", Brooks decided to combine Adolf Hitler and a musical. In a 2001 episode of 60 Minutes, Brooks stated that, while serving in the army, he was called "Jew boy", and he lightheartedly admitted that he made The Producers to "get even" with antisemites, particularly Hitler. In another interview, he further explained his reasoning, stating,
Brooks first envisioned his story as a novel, and changed it to a play when publishers told him it had "too much dialogue. Not enough narrative". He wrote the script in nine months, with the help of secretary Alfa-Betty Olsen. During the process, he mentioned in an October 1966 interview with Playboy that he was working on Springtime for Hitler, "a play within a play, or a play within a film – I haven't decided yet". Then, it evolved into a screenplay to take advantage of various settings, as "it could go places, it wouldn't have to stay in the office".
As Brooks sought backers for his 30-page film treatment, both major film studios and independent filmmakers rejected Springtime for Hitler, finding the idea of using Hitler for comedy outrageous and tasteless (with some even stating that they would consider the script if Brooks changed it to Springtime for Mussolini). This changed as Brooks's agent arranged for him to have a meeting with a friend of his, New York producer Sidney Glazier. Glazier laughed so much at Brooks's performance of the script, he accepted the project by saying, "We're gonna make it! I don't know how, but we're gonna make this movie!"
Glazier budgeted the film at $1 million, and sought financiers. Half the money came from philanthropist Louis Wolfson, who liked the idea of laughing at a dictator, and the remainder, along with the distribution, was arranged by Joseph E. Levine of Embassy Pictures. Levine's only condition was to change the title, as he felt many distributors would not carry a picture named Springtime for Hitler. Brooks renamed it The Producers, considering it ironic as "these guys are anything but producers". As Brooks "couldn't think of anybody to direct it", eventually he decided to take the task for himself, even though he himself had only directed one play before. While Levine was insecure in having an inexperienced director, Brooks convinced him by saying it would be cost-effective, and he knew how to do physical comedy after being a stage manager in Your Show of Shows.
Casting Brooks wanted Zero Mostel as Max Bialystock, feeling he was an energetic actor who could convey such an egotistical character. Glazier sent the script to Mostel's lawyer, but the attorney hated it and never showed it to the actor. Eventually, Brooks had to send the script through Mostel's wife Kathryn Harkin. While Mostel did not like the prospect of playing "a Jewish producer going to bed with old women on the brink of the grave", his wife liked the script so much, she eventually convinced him to accept the role.
Gene Wilder met Brooks in 1963, as Wilder performed with Brooks's then-girlfriend Anne Bancroft in a stage adaptation of Mother Courage. Wilder complained that the audience was laughing at his serious performance, and Brooks replied that Wilder was "a natural comic, you look like Harpo Marx", and said he would cast him as Leo Bloom once he finished the then-titled Springtime for Hitler. When production arrived, Peter Sellers accepted an invitation to play Leo Bloom, but he never contacted Brooks again, so Brooks remembered Wilder, who was about to make his film debut in Bonnie and Clyde. Wilder received the script to The Producers as Brooks visited him backstage during a performance of Luv, and his co-star Renée Taylor was brought for a brief appearance as the actress playing Eva Braun.
Dustin Hoffman was originally cast as Liebkind. According to Brooks, late on the night before shooting began, Hoffman begged Brooks to let him out of his commitment to do the role so he could audition for the starring role in The Graduate. Brooks was aware of the film, which co-starred his now-wife Bancroft, and, skeptical that Hoffman would get the role, agreed to let him audition. When Hoffman did win the role of Ben Braddock, Brooks called in Kenneth Mars as Liebkind. Mars was originally invited because Brooks envisioned him as Roger De Bris, given he played a gay psychiatrist on Broadway. Instead, Mars was interested in the Liebkind role, which became his film debut. He remained in character while not filming as a strategy of method acting. De Bris was instead portrayed by Christopher Hewett, the first actor who read for the role.
Recent American Academy of Dramatic Arts graduate Lee Meredith was invited to audition as Ulla on condition of being able to do a Swedish accent. She borrowed a book from the AADA library to learn the accent, and won the role with a screen test of the scene in which Ulla dances. Bancroft suggested her friend Andréas Voutsinas for the role of Carmen Ghia, feeling his thick Greek accent would fit. Brooks thought of Dick Shawn to play Lorenzo "L.S.D." Saint DuBois, and Shawn accepted because he liked the part and had no other work at the time. Brooks is heard briefly in the film, his voice dubbed over a dancer singing, "Don't be stupid, be a smarty / Come and join the Nazi Party", in the song "Springtime for Hitler". His version of the line is also dubbed into each performance of the musical, as well as the 2005 movie version.
Filming