The Producers

The Producers is a 1968 feature length comedy film set in New York City in which two con-men attempt to cheat theatre "angels" (investors) out of their investment money. Max Bialystock (Zero Mostel) is a failed, aging Broadway producer who encounters nebbish accountant Leo Bloom (Gene Wilder). The film was adapted by its writer/director, Mel Brooks into a Broadway musical in 2001.

Related Topics:
1968 - New York City - Zero Mostel - Gene Wilder - Mel Brooks - Broadway - 2001

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Their plan is to oversell shares in a show and then go bankrupt and keep all the unspent funds. They set out to purposely make a flop, so that no one will ever audit the flop's books. Springtime for Hitler, a musical comedy about Adolf Hitler, is the result. Unfortunately for the con artists, their attempt to make an unwatchable play backfires as the audience finds the inept production so funny that they misinterpret it as an over the top satire on Nazism and hail it as a hit. Franz Liebkind (the writer, played by Kenneth Mars), who really believed they were producing a tribute to Hitler, is insulted by the audience's laughter. He and the producers blow up the theatre to end the production. The producers see it as a final — yet futile — plan to reap their ill-gotten gains. However, the producers end up in prison where they cast a new show amongst the prisoners while running the same scam as before.

Related Topics:
Springtime for Hitler - Adolf Hitler - Nazism - Kenneth Mars

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It won an Academy Award for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen and was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Gene Wilder). The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Related Topics:
Academy Award - Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen - Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Library of Congress - National Film Registry

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