The Producers (1968) Facts
| Director(s) | Mel Brooks |
| Producer(s) | Joseph E. Levine (uncredited), Jack Grossberg, Sidney Glazier |
| Featured Cast | Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Kenneth Mars, Estelle Winwood, William Hickey |
| Total Facts | 40 |
"Roger De Bris" character is based upon Edward D. Wood Jr..
Bill Macy's movie debut.
Andréas Voutsinas did his own makeup.
Gene Wilder imagined his reactions to the madness throughout the film would be the same as the audience's watching it.
Gene Wilder said in an interview on TCM that at the first reading of the script he excused himself to leave for a dentist appointment he could not miss when in fact, he had to go to the unemployment office to collect a check for $55 he desperately needed at the time.
Gene Wilder wondered if Kenneth Mars really was crazy throughout filming and not just acting because of some of his antics.
Gene Wilder wrote half of Leo's courtroom monologue at the end. Mel Brooks wrote the other half.
Mel Brooks based the character of Max Bialystock on a real Broadway producer he knew who used to seduce little old ladies in exchange for checks that were supposedly to produce his latest play, which would usually be called "Cash."
Mel Brooks cannot read music. "Springtime for Hitler" and "Prisoners of Love" (as were all the songs Brooks writes for his films) were hummed into a tape recorder and transcribed by an expert.
Mel Brooks was so surprised to win the Oscar for Best Screenplay, he collected the award without a speech prepared.
Mel Brooks worked on two real-life Broadway musical flops. He did a rewrite on the failed musical "Shinbone Alley" (1957), and wrote the libretto for "All American", which starred Ray Bolger and ran for 80 performances in 1962.
Mel Brooks' voice is dubbed in for a singer in "Springtime for Hitler". Mel only sings: "Don't be stupid, be a smartee, come and join the Nazi Party" for dancer David Evans.
Mel Brooks's original title for the film was "Springtime for Hitler" but the studio wouldn't allow it. They did say that they would allow "Springtime for Mussolini," but Brooks didn't like that and ended up calling it "The Producers".
Dustin Hoffman was set to play Franz Liebkind, but declined when he got the part of Benjamin in The Graduate. Brooks only allowed Hoffman the chance to go off to the audition for the film because his wife (Anne Bancroft) was in it, and Brooks was familiar enough with the role of Benjamin to know Hoffman was utterly wrong for it (as written) and would never be cast.
According to an interview with director and Blue Underground owner William Lustig, the original negative was destroyed because the then-owner decided it wasn't necessary to pay for the storage of its negative library.
Adapted as a Broadway stage musical by Mel Brooks, "The Producers" opened at the St James Theater in April 2001, with Nathan Lane as Bialystock and Matthew Broderick as Bloom. The renowned musical went on to run for 2502 performances and won a record-breaking 12 Tony awards.
Although Mel Brooks always had Zero Mostel in mind to play Bialystock, they reportedly had clashes of ego on the set and found it hard to get along. Indeed, they never worked together again.
Although Peter Sellers was instrumental in prompting the film's release, Mel Brooks claims he offered Sellers the role of Leo Bloom (eventually played by Gene Wilder, but that he turned it down.
Because of the "Springtime For Hitler" musical number, the film was banned in Germany. It wasn't shown in that country until it was included in a film festival featuring the works of Jewish filmmakers.
May contain the first use of the term "creative accounting".
Next to Max Bialystok's office is a door with "Hertzberg Dance School" printed on the glass. Michael Hertzberg was the film's first assistant director.
One major reason the film ever got released at all was due to the intervention of Peter Sellers. After Brooks completed the picture, at that point entitled "Springtime for Hitler," executive producer Joseph E. Levine told Brooks the film wouldn't be released because he thought it was in poor taste and not very funny. Meanwhile, while Sellers was in Hollywood making I Love You, Alice B. Toklas!, he liked to screen movies for him and his friends' entertainment. One night this film was screened, and Sellers loved it. When he heard it would not be released he began calling Levine, and eventually convinced him to release it - the only compromise being that the title be changed to "The Producers".
One of Roger Ebert's Great Movies.
Premiere voted this movie as one of "The 50 Greatest Comedies Of All Time" in 2006.
The "Springtime For Hitler" number took a whole day to film.
The "Springtime for Hitler" sequences were filmed at Broadway's Playhouse Theater (torn down in 1969), whose marquee can be glimpsed momentarily. However, in the scene where the theater blows up, we see the marquee of the Cort Theater, which stood (and still stands) across 48th Street from the Playhouse.
The character played by Gene Wilder is named Leo Bloom. His co-star Zero Mostel became famous for his portrayal of James Joyce's character Leopold Bloom in an Off-Broadway production of "Ulysses In Nighttown."
The date on the copy of Variety announcing the casting call is September 6, 1967.
The movie is actually based on a response Brooks gave in an interview with Larry Siegel in 'Playboy' in 1966:
- PLAYBOY: What else are you working on?
- BROOKS: Springtime for Hitler.
- PLAYBOY: You're putting us on.
- BROOKS: No, it's the God's honest truth. It's going to be a play within a play, or a play within a film - I haven't decided yet. It's a romp with Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden. There was a whole nice side of Hitler. He was a good dancer - no one knows that. He loved a parakeet named Bob - no one knows that either. It's all brought out in the play.
The movie's line "We find the defendants incredibly guilty." was voted as the #88 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere in 2007. "I'm author. You are the audience. I outrank you!" was #14 in the same.
The name "Bialystock" is taken from the Polish city with the same name, from which Mel Brooks's ancestors had come. Until the Holocaust, Bialystock had been a major Eastern European Jewish city.
The name "Rudolfo" that the "hold me, touch me" lady gives to Bialystock when they are playing "The Contessa and the Chauffeur" at the movie's beginning, is also the name of the chauffeur Bialystock after he and Bloom raise the money for the play.
The name of the character Carmen Ghia (Andréas Voutsinas) comes from the Karmann Ghia, a Volkswagen coupe manufactured from 1955 to 1974.
The original screenplay had Franz Liebkind having Max and Leo swearing on The Siegfried Oath, accompanied by "The Ride of the Valkyries" and promising fealty to Siegfried, Richard Wagner, Friedrich Nietzsche, Paul von Hindenburg, The Graf Spee, The Blue Max, and Adolph "You know who." This explains Franz's outraged cry when entering Max's office, "You have broken the Siegfried Oath - you must die!" The Oath was restored in the musical version.
The original Swedish title for the film was a direct translation of the original title - Producenterna (The Producers). The film didn't arouse much interest from the public. This changed when the title was replaced by "Det våras för Hitler" (Springtime for Hitler). Then the film became an instant smash. All subsequent Mel Brooks films then got Swedish title starting with "Det våras för..." e.g. "Det våras för Frankenstein" (Young Frankenstein)/ ..."Sherriffen" (Blazing Saddles) / ..."Galningarna" (High Anxiety etc. except for Brooks' two last films, which received the Swedish titles "Robin Hood: Karlar i trikåer" (Robin Hood: Men in Tights) and "Dracula - Död men lycklig" (Dracula: Dead and Loving It; literally "Dracula - Dead but Happy").
The scene with Max and Leo outside the fountain at Lincoln Center was the last scene to be filmed. Gene Wilder thought Leo's ecstasy mirrored his own at the time, and was what convinced him to stay with acting.
This is the first film directed by Mel Brooks and scored by John Morris. The two would continue to work together until Life Stinks.
To better get into character, Kenneth Mars slept in his costume every night. It was also Mars's idea to have Liebkind's helmet spattered with pigeon defecation.
When Leo is going hysterical in Max's office, Gene Wilder imagined Zero Mostel was hurting his pet dog to put him in the right frame of mind.
Mel Brooks:
[The Producers]
This was Mel Brooks' first movie. All of Brooks's future movies make at least one reference to this one, some with bits of a musical and others by referring to Nazi Germany.