The Producers

The Producers. 1968 Avco Embassy Films; owned and distributed to DVD by MGM.
Starring: Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Kenneth Mars, Lee Meredith, Estelle Winwood, Christopher Hewett, Andréas Voutsinas, Dick Shawn, Renée Taylor
Director: Mel Brooks
Available at Amazon.

This was the first film directed by Mel Brooks, who only saw fit to reference it at least once in every other move that he has directed since then!

An aging and failed Broadway producer named Max Bialystock (Mostel) has found himself romancing rich old women in exchange for money for his "next play". A nebbish accountant named Leo Bloom (Wilder) arrives to do the producer's books and finds a two thousand dollar error in the accounts of Bialystock's last play. After being conned into hiding the fraud, Bloom has a revelation while shuffling numbers ("Creative accounting"), and Bialystock immediately puts the idea into action: massively overselling shares in a Broadway production, and then purposely making the play a spectacular bomb. No one would ever audit its books, avoiding a payout, and leaving Bialystock and Bloom free to escape to Rio de Janeiro with the money. Leo is reluctant at first, but eventually changes his mind.

After extensively searching scripts for unproduced plays, they find one that can't fail (or succeed?): Springtime for Hitler: A Gay Romp with Adolf and Eva as Berchtesgaden, which Max describes as a "love letter to Hitler", and it was written in total sincerity by a deranged ex-Nazi Franz Liebkind (Mars), who has since settled in the Big Apple. After convincing Liebkind to sign over the stage rights, promising him that they will show the world the "true Hitler, the Hitler with a song in his heart", Max and Leo hire the worst Broadway director out there, Roger De Bris (Hewett) to stage the play. Apparently, anything De Bris directs closes on the first day of rehearsal. The part of Hitler is given to a charismatic but perpetually stoned hippie named Lorenzo St. Dubois (Shawn), popularly known as LSD, and he wandered into the wrong theater by accident dyring the casting call. Bialystock then fleeces dozens of rich old women, managing to sell 25,000 percent of the play.

Springtime for Hitler turns out to be a cheerfully upbeat, and completely tasteless musical story of the life of Hitler, with an extravagant production number kicking off the play. To the dismay of Leo and Max, and to the outrage of Liebkind, the play is a hit, largely thanks to LSD's portrayal of Hitler. Hilariously, the attempt to sabotage the newest Broadway sensation backfires for Leo, Max, and Liebkind, and they are sent to prison after being found incredibly guilty of bombing the theater. No matter, though. The three of them collaborate on a new play for their fellow convicts called Prisoners of Love, and utilize the same scam as before.

Highly recommended movie!