The Original Producers starring Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder was a near perfect movie. It is zany, silly, over the top, and Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel were perfect as the greedy Broadway Producer and the sappy Accountant who wanted more from life-more money that is.
The Producers was really a film of its time-the 1960s. It was only twenty years since the end of World War Two, for many people the Nazis were not a cartoon character in an Indian Jones movie, they were real, live monsters. So the idea of making a musical comedy about Hitler’s Third Reich was wonderfully off the wall. Then there was the campy gay/transvestite director of the play-when being gay was not the out-and-in-the-open norm that it is today. The Hippie playing the part of Adolph Hitler was pure 1968 as well.
But now, it has been 60 years since World War Two and to most of it is just something to watch on the History Channel.. The gay characters are stereotypes and should have been updated. I didn’t watch all this movie, but what I did see made me cringe. One of the show’s big songs is I Want To Be A Producer-with a great big casting couch. There may still be casting couches, but the whole idea of someone sleeping their way to the top seems so outdated Then there was Uma Thurman playing a dumb blond sex object-a role, I am sad to say, she is getting a little long in the tooth to pull off. The cliche and stereotype festival was too much for me.
One of the really odd things about the film was Mathew Broderick doing very bad imitation of Gene Wilder. I love Gene Wilder, but I don’t love Mathew Broderick pretending to be him. Lean Nesum seemed to be impersonating Zero Mostel as well. This is just baffling. There is enough material here for a fresh interipetion of the story-why re-make the movie if it is just going to an expensive knock-off of the orginal film? I wonder if they thought about doing a shot-for-shot remake?
I like Broadway musicals, though I have never actually seen one on Broadway New York . I like the Cast Albums of Broadway plays, and I like most of the movies I have seen. Of course, watching a movie of a Broadway show is not the same as watching a live Braodway show. It’s just that Broadway New York is so far away. I like the music in The Producers, and one or two of the new songs seemed fun.
But all in all, forget this dog and get the Original Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel version of The Producers- made back when Mel Brooks still had some talent and originality in his bones. Movie Notes wasn’t too impressed with this film version of the hit Broadway show either. Linkfilter.net says the original The Producers is his favorite film.
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