The Producers (Special Edition) (1968) Review

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This is it! The source, THE PRODUCERS, the 1968 release with screenplay and direction by Mel Brooks, juicy parts by Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Kenneth Mars and others, and a well-deserved reputation as one of the funniest movie comedies ever. Filmed on a pittance (less than $1 million, cheap even by Sixties standards), THE PRODUCERS almost died unrecognized until it became a cult hit in New York, L.A., Chicago and then, everywhere.
SPOILER GRAF: The plot is brilliantly diabolical: a corrupt Broadway producer (Zero Mostel) and his nebbishy accountant assistant (Gene Wilder) deliberately oversell a play with the design to create a flop and keep the proceeds. They hire the worst possible playwright, director, and choreographer and deliberately insult the drama critics. But the play is so hilariously awful it becomes awfully hilarious. The essence of 1960s camp: It's good because it's so bad.
It's hard to overstate just how good Mel Brooks' first movie is. The low budget forced a lot of outside shooting in New York City, and as a result the movie looks fresh, not cosmetized. The premise of a play about "Adolf and Eva in a gay romp at Berchtesgaden" was, if anything, more offensive just 23 years after the end of the Second World War than it is today. A big gamble on Brooks' part, but it played.
This edition is well worth the extra couple of dollars over the "movie only" version. It includes a second CD, apparently put together about the time of the 2001 Broadway musical, and contains stills, bios, and an engaging documentary about the film's making and reception. The last is especially fun since all the principals involved (except the late Zero Mostel) are alive and active and possessed of strong memories of that "kooky" classic-in-the-making.
The 2005 movie with Broadway vets Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick is proving a disappointment to those who remember the original movie or the 2001 Broadway smash. The new movie took the Broadway book and set it in an imagined-and expensive--"indeterminate past" full of late 1950s cars and fashions. Unfortunately, what works on the stage doesn't always translate on film, and despite all the talent and money involved, the new movie comes across as stagey, self-absorbed and at times a bit labored. And LONG: half again as long as this original, which clocks in right at an hour and a half.
The verdict: All versions of THE PRODUCERS are funny, but the 1968 movie is the one to start with. Enjoy it now at a great price.

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Mel Brooks's directorial debut remains both a career high point and a classic show business farce. Hinging on a crafty plot premise, which in turn unleashes a joyously insane onstage spoof, "The Producers" is powered by a clutch of over-the-top performances, capped by the odd couple pairing of the late Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder, making his screen debut.\nMostel is Max Bialystock, a gone-to-seed Broadway producer who spends his days wheedling checks from his "investors," elderly women for whom Bialystock is only too willing to provide company.When wide-eyed auditor Leo Bloom (Wilder) comes to check the books, he unwittingly inspires the wild-eyed Max to hatch a sure-fire plan: sell 25,000 percent of his next show, produce a deliberate flop, then abscond with the proceeds. Unfortunately for the producers (but fortunately for us), their candidate for failure is "Springtime for Hitler", a Brooksian conceit that envisions what Goebbels might have accomplished with a little help from Busby Berkeley.\nTruly startling during its original 1968 release, "The Producers" does show signs of age in some peripheral scenes that make merry at the expense of gays and women. But the show's nifty cast (notably including the late Dick Shawn as LSD, the space cadet that snags the musical's title role, and Kenneth Mars as the helmeted playwright) clicks throughout, and the sight of Mostel fleecing his marks is irresistibly funny. Add Wilder's literally hysterical Bloom, and it's easy to understand the film's exalted status among late-'60s comedies. "--Sam Sutherland"

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Lord Peter Wimsey - The Nine Tailors (1975) Review

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(More customer reviews)With cross and candle and bell-knelling....More than one of the characters in THE NINE TAILORS is haunted. Lord Peter Wimsey and his valet Bunter are haunted by their recent experiences in France, where they spent too many weeks in the trenches. Other characters are haunted by events that transpired before WWI. The nine tailors are a set of very old and large bells that hang in the tower of a church in East Anglia. Each of the bells was specially cast and each has a name. On high holy days in the Anglican Church, such as the Feast of the Epiphany, the bells are rung by a group of men. Wimsey takes part in the change ringing and it is glorious. Dorothy Sayers was intrigued with Anglican theology, and in her later years she abandoned mystery writing for the study of theology. Every chapter of THE NINE TAILORS is preceded by a quotation involving instructions to clergy, change-ringing, and the like. Each is a clue. I believe Sayers was haunted -- like P.D. James -- by East Anglia, that odd part of England with a long violent history. THE NINE TAILORS is the best mystery I've ever read. It will appeal to those who like a literal case, but it will also appeal to those who sense that life itself is a mystery, and that even the greatest sleuth cannot solve it. I read the book, saw the original dramatization of the story, and then haunted by this incredible story, I traveled in East Anglia searching for the church. It does exist, and it contains one of the most beautifully carved interiors in England. Ultimately, the church provides Wimsey with many of the clues he needs to solve several mysteries. For there are several mysteries involving the theft of priceless jewels, betrayal, and murder. The question as always is whether or not these mysteries are related, and whether or not the same individual is responsible for all the evil deeds. I have been waiting a long time for the DVD and I am so glad ACORN finally is ready to release it.

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