Why Can't I Sit Through Mel Brooks' The Producers (1968)?

I agree. But I don't really like Blazing Saddles, either. About the only movie of his I could see over and over is Young Frankenstein.

[quote] The pacing is sluggish, and despite a couple funny lines it has no comic energy.

You must have seen a different. The movie rolled along on a merry pace, it had plenty of energy and it was funny throughout. All the comic actors in it were wonderful and Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder were perfect. Wilder should have won an Oscar for it.

"The Producers" is his best work. I cannot suggest that this film doesn't reach you or your ilk, OP, because of its subtlety.

But perhaps an unsubtle palate too accustomed to ghost pepper violence can't find the savor in a non-video-game pace and the fact that the story is of its time, when the outrage was meaningful. Jews laughing at Nazis and making money off of them was a smack of righteousness and passage.

R3 Subtlety? The Producers?! lmao

No love for "The Twelve Chairs"?

Zero Mostel's subtlety of expression and naturalism is a tour de force not seen since Greta Garbo, said no one ever

I always loved the freeze frame at the end. where Bloom is joyfully running around the fountain and Max Bialystock cheering him on.

I ADORE this movie, but I'm Jewish. I cry honest to god tears of laughter at the whole "Springtime for Hitler" musical.

My favorite Mel Brooks film overall is Blazing Saddles.

Maybe you're hysterical, op, and wet. Yes, you're sitting there and you are hysterical, and wet.

The Inquisition number in "History of the World, Part I" is even funnier than Springtime for Hitler!

If you think this film is hard to watch trying watching the film of the musical version.

OP must be Whoopi. This whole problem would have been stopped had she learned the words to Springtime for HItler....("Look out her comes the master RACE")

It’s his best movie, closely followed by Young Frankenstein.

OP has no sense of taste or humor.

Mel Brooks "The Producers" is comic gold.

You know there are plenty of queens on DL just like Carmen Ghia, or Roger DeBris...

I mean this was their era...

God dag på dig!

It used to play a lot on NY channels when I was a kid. I then saw it years later at Film Forum and it was better than ever. Never saw the musical or its film. Sometimes you have to spare yourself. Also like the 12 Chairs which I saw twice when it came out.

It's not the movie, OP, it's you.

You're probably better off sticking to movies featuring Bruce Willis or Adam Sandler.

Woody Allen's Take the Money and Run had more laughs per minute that same year than The Producers.

The Producers is '68.

Take the Money and Run '69.

The opening credits are annoying too. They keep pausing the movie for them.

I'm sorry it's not about the Marvel universe, OP.

If Spiderman had been in it it would have been bigger than Oliver!, The Odd Couple, 2001, and Bullitt combined.

High Anxiety is under appreciated. Just the scene with the angry bellhop makes me laugh hysterically.

I'm not a big fan of The Producers either (though I love the stage version) - or Young Frankenstein and History of the World for that matter. In fact horror of horrors, I'd rather see Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein again than rewatch YF.

I do however like The Twelve Chairs, Blazing Saddles (and I as a kid had a huge crush on Cleavon Little in his cowboy outfit), Silent Movie (in a weird way one of the chattiest silents ever made), and Life Stinks.

As a Hitchcock fan I really want to like High Anxiety, but I'm reminded of Andrew Sarris' comment that it's hard to parody a filmmaker who's films display a malicious wit.

[quote]I as a kid had a huge crush on Cleavon Little in his cowboy outfit

That's because he was hot as hell.

Exactly!

I used to act with a guy who would whisper to me as we were about to go onstage "I'm wearing a cardboard belt!" It was his favorite line from the movie. It was never my favorite movie but I used to laugh when he said it.

I have a story about this movie that may be interesting or not. A friend and I went to see it when it played in my hometown moviehouse. It was already about 6 years old, we were in junior high - and we were the only two people in the theater. It played with another older movie, Hotel. The next picture the theater played was Deep Throat, and it played there for about 4 years, I think.

God did I see Cleavon Little in Two Gentlemen of Verona? That was a million years ago.

I agree with OP. Ironically, as hard as the film is to sit through, the last few minutes make up one of my favorite movie moments of all time (Prisoners of Love).

What is with people on here that if you dare say you don't care for a classic movie it means you must only like comic book movies?

Silent Movie

Why Can't I Sit Through Mel Brooks' The Producers (1968)?

Restless Leg Syndrome?

Blazing Saddles was one of the best comedy films ever to come out of Hollywood.

Cleavon Little was a great talent and fine person we lost far too soon.

Newfangled Preacher Man", Cleavon Little -1974 Tony Awards

OP, when I was a kid, 3 of my favorite movies were (in order), Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein and HIgh Anxiety. I just loved Mel Brooks. I also had been a big fan of Get Smart. I had never seen The Producers, which, despite his later successes, considered by many to be his best. The world then wasn't like it is today, when you can stream just about any movie - on your computer - at your fingertips. It was rarely shown on television, and years until it was released on VHS.

I finally got to see it in the early 80s, At a revival theatre in NYC. Eh... I was bored. I thought Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel were too over-the-top. I appreciated the idea of Springtime for HItler, but for me, it was a case of the concept being far better than the execution.

Maybe I would have loved it had I seen it when it was originally released. When it was fresh and unexpected.

Just want to let you know you're not the only one.

The only Mel Brooks anything I ever enjoyed was “Get Smart”.

Sorry, I can appreciate his brand of humor, but it’s not for me.

R31 Because it's true.

The first time I saw The Producers I was underwhelmed, too. I'm a huge Mel Brooks fan and I had expected a more polished movie, like Blazing Saddles or Young Frankenstein, so the lower budget and production flaws really stood out to me. That was one part of it, but I think it was that 1967 was just so completely, entirely different than 1974, and the 1967 culture didn't fit Brooks as well as 1974 did. Ulla the go-go dancer, the hipster Dick Shawn and his girlfriend, those kinds of things were fine in What's New Pussycat but not in The Producers. (Later, when it went on stage, those bits were basically nostalgia so they landed differently.)

Also, Gene Wilder wasn't as good in it as he is later on, he stumbles on some lines and I think he really fails to deliver key scenes, like the "I'm hysterical and I'm wet" bit, where he's just a little off.

I like the movie but I have to look past a lot of mediocre moments to get there.

All I can say about this thread, don't be stupid. Be a Smartie.

[quote]Why Can't I Sit Through Mel Brooks' The Producers (1968)?

Because your bedsores become unbearable after a few minutes of sitting still?

If R41 is a typical example of DL humor this site would be dead by now.

"Springtime For Hitler" lead us to other glorious phony stage musical numbers like "Hearts, Not Diamonds" in "The Fan", the "Elephant!" montage in "The Tall Guy" and "I See Me" from "Songbird!" in "Death Becomes Her", among others.

R15 that clip is so cringe-inducing with its 1960s homophobia, encouraging the audience to laugh AT the silly homos.

I've never seen the movie, but I would have turned it off at that scene, if not sooner.

I heard Mel Brooks wanted Richard Pryor to play the role Cleavon LIttle eventually played in "Blazing Saddles." I'm glad that didn't happen. I don't think Pryor would have been anywhere near as good.

R45 Maybe he would have been funny, though. Unlike Cleavon.

Blazing Saddles - Richard Pryor was nixed by studio bosses who felt his past arrests and other issues related to drug use made him uninsurable. Mr. Little got the role next, but Mr. Pryor was brought on as writer who contributed much of the comedy material.

Same reason John Waters' films don't have the same impact anymore: bad taste is now commonplace. Your cable/satellite channels are full of it 24/7 and run on about the same level as "Springtime For Hitler," but do so unironically.

What I truly hate and detest is the exaggerated pansies in top hats and tails in Blazing Saddles. I was very young when it came out and I was in a packed theater and remember this is 1973 and everybody is laughing at these cocksuckers mincing and flouncing about. Probably the worst moment I ever had watching a movie. I have no love for that film and will never watch it again. The Producers is a pre code film in its gentle mockery in comparison.

R29, no you did not. You might have seen him in Purlie, but he never appeared in Two Gentlemen of Verona.

Clifton Davis starred in "Two Gentlemen of Verona".

I saw The Producers as a kid with my family during the film's original run. I never heard my parents laugh that hard before or after, and they had lived through WWII and experienced considerable antisemitism in the US during the first few decades of their lives. I remember laughing a lot at Gene Wilder's portrayal of Leo Bloom, and the theater literally exploded with laughter when he pulled out his security blanket. Although I was able to laugh at most of the gags that were based on Jewish humor, the post from R49 reminded me how uncomfortable I was with the portrayal of the gay characters because I was struggling with my sexual identity in a hostile world, wasn't like the gay characters outwardly, and felt even more closeted than before I saw the movie. In some ways, Mel Brooks was an equal opportunity comedy offender (as was Joan Rivers), and I think how one responds to that type of humor is highly personal.

Clifton Davis and Cleavon Little were both black musical stars on Broadway at about the same time and had matinee idol looks so I confused them.

Fuck you all. Zero was perfect.

[quote] Fuck you all. Zero was perfect.

I thought he was. I thought Gene Wilder was, too.

R49 is the poster child for the French mistake.

Its funny to me that Zero is the homophobic one but he himself is so grotesque looking. Mel Brooks is no oil painting either.

[quote]Why Can't I Sit Through Mel Brooks' The Producers (1968)?

Tiny bladder?

Some of you simply need to sit down and take a deep breath or a maybe a hit of booze.

The Producers was satire with heavy doses of broad humor that had roots in both film and plays going back to Vaudeville/music hall era. There wasn't any of this modern day equality reinforced by hundreds of laws or rules saying you cannot hurt anyone's feelings.

Zero Mostel … Max Bialystock was not "homophobic", he just made fun of gays same as hundreds of others did in 1960's. This both real world and fiction... Suffice to say today his mimicing of Carmen Ghia wouldn't fly, but that wasn't case > 50 years ago.

Neither would the character Ulla and Max Bialystock's comments not to mention drooling over the young woman.

[quote]Why Can't I Sit Through Mel Brooks' The Producers (1968)?

Kidney failure?

Just watched this for the first time last night. I liked it but I understand what OP is saying. The setup for the show was way too long, there wasn’t enough of Springtime for Hitler, and Gene Wilder could be a bit much.

[quote]R37 Sorry, I can appreciate his brand of humor, but it’s not for me.

I believe it’s called Borscht Belt comedy. You either love it, or find it common.

The basic premise of the film (mounting show so intentionally bad it closes opening night so the producers can abscond with the backers money) appears in a forgotten no-star 1940s B-musical by (I think RKO or Republic). It gets an entry in Clive Hirschorns Movie Musical compendium but I can't find my copy to get its name.

The pigeon-loving Franz Liebkind is based on the pigeon-loving Ernie Ambrose (Joe Penner) in "The Day The Bookies Wept" a forgotten but unusually good 1939 comedy from R.K.O.

R63 In Mel’s autobiography, the only thing he admits to stealing is the name of Leo Bloom, which Mel claimed he took from James Joyce’s “Ulysses.”

Mel also wrote, “I don’t know what it meant to James Joyce, but to me Leo Bloom always meant a vulnerable Jew with curly hair.”

Mel loved movies and musicals his whole life, so it wouldn't surprise me if he “absorbed” some things he had seen on-screen into “The Producers.”