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The Producers Overview:

The Producers (1968) was a Comedy - Musical Film directed by Mel Brooks and produced by Joseph E. Levine, Jack Grossberg and Sidney Glazier.

The Producers was inducted into the National Film Registry in 1996.

Academy Awards 1968 --- Ceremony Number 41 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best Supporting ActorGene WilderNominated
Best WritingMel BrooksWon
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The Producers BlogHub Articles:

The Producers (1967): Here's a Funny Story.....

By FlickChick on Oct 18, 2021 From A Person in the Dark

Maybe it's the state of affairs all around us, but I've been in a particularly sensitive mood these days...for so many days, it seems. Almost anything can make me bust out in tears - usually something beautiful; a song, a moment from a film, a memory. And when it comes to comedy, I simply can no lon... Read full article

The Producers (1967)

By Beatrice on Jul 17, 2019 From Flickers in Time

The Producers Directed by Mel Brooks Written by Mel Brooks 1967/US Crossbow Productions/Springtime Productions/U-M Productions Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die Like his later films, Mel Brooks’s film debut is totally over-the-top – and very f... Read full article

CMBA Outlaws Blogathon: The Producers (1967): It's Criminally Joyous

By FlickChick on Nov 15, 2018 From A Person in the Dark

This is my entry in the Classic Movie Blog Association's Outlaws Blogathon. Click here for more outrageous cinematic lawbreakers. Zero + Gene = Love They're adorable, they're hysterical, they're lovable. They're desperate con men and deliberate thieves. They're Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom and t... Read full article

Win Tickets to see “TCM Big Screen Classics: The Producers” (50th Anniversary) (Giveaway runs through May 19)

By Annmarie Gatti on Apr 27, 2018 From Classic Movie Hub Blog

Win tickets to see “The Producers” on the big screen!  In Select Cinemas Nationwide Sun June 3 and Wed June 6! “How could this happen? I was so careful. I picked the wrong play, the wrong director, the wrong cast. Where did I go right?” CMH continues into our 3rd year of ou... Read full article

The Producers (1968)

By 4 Star Film Fan on Sep 26, 2013 From 4 Star Films

... Read full article

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The Producers Quotes:

Franz Liebkind: Hitler... there was a painter! He could paint an entire apartment in ONE afternoon! TWO coats!
Ulla: Goddag på dig!
Leo Bloom: Uh, I beg your pardon?
Ulla: Goddag på dig!
Leo Bloom: Ah, gut da! Max, have you gone mad? A receptionist who can't speak English? What will people say?
Max Bialystock: They'll say, "A wuma wa wa wa wa!"
Max Bialystock: That's exactly why we want to produce this play. To show the world the true Hitler, the Hitler you loved, the Hitler you knew, the Hitler with a song in his heart.
Leo Bloom: [reading the title of the play for the first time] "Springtime for Hitler" a gay romp with Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden... Wow!
Max Bialystock: Max Bialystock is launching himself into little old lady land.
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The Producers Facts
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.
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.
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.

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.
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.
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