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By PAUL BRENNER
One of Mel Brooks' famous sayings (he says so himself) is that if you approach the bell, make sure
that you ring it. In "The Producers" (Brooks' first feature film as writer and director), Brooks rings the bell until it
cracks. Now available as "The Producers: Special Edition" from MGM Home Entertainment, Brooks' first feature is as rude,
offensive, tasteless, and hysterically funny as ever.
Unlike the equally hysterical Broadway smash musical version, which owes more to Brooks' post-"Twelve Chairs" career of
concocting parodies of dead genres, the film steeps itself in Broadway lore and satirizes galloping '60s greed. The
master of ceremonies is Zero Mostel, the perfect actor for Brooks' unique brand of lens chewing filmmaking. Mostel plays
Max Bialystock, a seedy, washed up Broadway impresario, who cons meek accountant, Leo Bloom (a manic Gene Wilder), into
helping produce a Broadway flop and cheat the investors (a bevy of little old ladies hungry for sex) out of their
investment money. They think they've found "the worst play ever written,"a little gem called "Springtime for Hitler," a
surefire flop, but then the play becomes a smash and all hell breaks loose.
Mostel dominates the production like a colossus (Pauline Kael memorably called Mostel a "one man obstacle course").
Mostel's intimidating and freaky presence is reflected in Brooks' direction, which is front and center and grabs you by
the throat. The confrontational nature of both film and actor beat the audience into submission and you can either laugh
uncontrollably or stare slack-jawed for 90 minutes. One thing's for sure, you cannot look away.
The special features require flipping the disc over but they are worth the flipping. The highlight
is an hour-long documentary on the making of the film, featuring interviews with the surviving cast members and
production crew. There is a photo gallery and sketch gallery, an outtake (awful), a trailer (equally awful), and Paul
Mazursky reading Peter Sellers' statement to Variety praising the film. The DVD also offers the film in both standard
and widescreen formats and is presented in 5.1 Dolby Surround and Mono and it is subtitled in English, French and
Spanish. |
