ID

FBW002290      Fiction

Country / Year

USA, 1967

Original Title

The Producers / Springtime for Hitler

Other Title(s)

Frühling für Hitler (German)

Directed by

Mel Brooks

Produced by

Springtime Productions / Crossbow Productions; for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM) (Loew's, Inc.), Culver City, CA (New York, NY)

Staff

Script: Mel Brooks; Editing: Ralph Rosenblum; Costumes: Gene Coffin; Makeup: Irving Buchman; Music: John Morris; Musical direction: John Morris; Choreography: Alan Johnson

Cast

Zero Mostel (Max Bialystock); Gene Wilder (Leo Bloom); Dick Shawn (Lorenzo St. Du Bois); Kenneth Mars (Franz Liebkind); Estelle Winwood (Old Lady); Christopher Hewett (Roger De Bris); Andreas Voutsinas (Carmen Giya); Lee Meredith (Ulla); Renee Taylor (Eva Braun); Marvin Davis (Production Tenor); John Zoller (Critic); Madelyn Cates (Woman at Window); Frank Campanella (Bartender); Arthur Rubin (Auditioning Hitler); Zale Kessler (Auditioning Hitler); Bernie Allen (Auditioning Hitler); Rusty Blitz (Auditioning Hitler); Anthony Gardell (Auditioning Hitler); Mary Love (Old Lady); Amelie Barleon (Old Lady); Nell Harrison (Old Lady); Elsie Kirk (Old Lady); Barney Martin (German Officer in Play); Diana Eden (Showgirl); Tucker Smith (Lead Dancer); David Evans (Lead Dancer); Josip Elic (Violinist); William Hickey (Drunk in Theater Bar)

Length

88'

Format

farbe

Abstract

Max Bialystock is a down-and-out but still pompous theater producer who desperately wants to regain his former glory. Leo Bloom is his new, meek accountant. He tells Max Bialystock that the only way he will ever recover is to produce an enormous hit or to collect a lot of money from investors for a play guaranteed to fail. That way Max Bialystock could keep most of the investors' money. The pair exhaust themselves soliciting and reading the worst scripts ever penned. Finally, they hit upon a play that is a surefire flop, "Springtime for Hitler," written by Franz Liebkind, a Nazi fanatic living in Yorkville. Max Bialystock wins the backing of every spinster in New York, taking in hundreds of thousands of dollars to back his doomed play. The role tryouts are disastrous with the worst talent on Broadway turning out, and Max Bialystock selects for the lead a mindless, drug-bombed hippie, Lorenzo St. Du Bois. He and Bloom retreat to a bar near the theater to celebrate their failure. The two culprits slip across to the theater to watch the opening extravaganza number--Nazis in SS uniforms parading about the stage with voluptuous blondes dressed as Vikings, singing "Springtime for Hitler and Germany." Franz Liebkind sits in his seat salivating over this theatrical success. The audience is horrified and begins to leave the theater, but Lorenzo St. Du Bois appears as a swinging Hitler and patrons return to their seats, mesmerized by this unintentionally comic genius. Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom panic and realize that, no matter their efforts, they have produced a hit. They first conspire to kill all the actors, but then opt to blow up the theater. Accidentally the trio get blown up. Leo Bloom appears to speak on behalf of Max Bialystock but then turns on his mentor hysterically. All three are sent to prison where they immediately stage a prison show.

Subject Terms

Comedy; National Socialists

Bibliography

- Friedman, Lester: The Jewish Image in American Film. Secaucus, NJ: Citadel, 1987