The Producers
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The cast is great, the script is swell, but this we're tellin' you, sirs |
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The Producers is a 1968 comedy film directed by Mel Brooks; it stars Zero Mostel as failed Broadway producer Max Bialystock and Gene Wilder as fearful accountant Leo Bloom. The film, now considered a comedy classic, launched Brooks' long film career; several decades later, he adapted it into a Broadway musical starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick (as Bialystock and Bloom, respectively) which won twelve Tony Awards (the most Tonys a Broadway production has ever received). The Broadway adaptation was itself adapted into a film in 2005 (featuring Lane and Broderick in the primary roles), but this adaptation wasn't as well-received as the original film or the Broadway production.
In all versions, the story depicts Bialystock and Bloom meeting for the first time and quickly falling into a get-rich-quick scheme: they'll oversell shares in a Broadway production by a wide margin, then deliberately produce a horrific flop which closes in one night, leaving them free to flee the country with massive profits without the IRS investigating the books.
The two schemers choose as their Broadway bomb Springtime for Hitler, a "love letter" to the German dictator written by unrepentant Nazi Franz Liebkind. In the original film, their chosen director is Roger De Bris, who is wholly untalented and flamboyantly gay, while Hitler is played by Lorenzo St. DuBois ("LSD"), a charismatic but seriously brain-damaged hippie. In the musical, Liebkind is chosen for the role of Hitler, but breaks his leg at the last minute and is replaced by De Bris. Bialystock and Bloom's plan culminates in a production which the opening night audience finds funny, and since the play is announced to be a smash success, things only go downhill for the protagonists from there.
The Producers provides examples of the following tropes:
- Actor Allusion: In the 2005 film, Will Ferrell's character breaks one leg, then later breaks the other. Mustafa, who Will played in Austin Powers 2, had the same misfortune.
- Added Alliterative Appeal: "This crazy Kraut is crackers! He crashed in here and crassly tried to kill us!"
- Adorkable: Apparently there is some division about whether Gene Wilder (who played the intelligent Bernard but the eccentrically awesome Willy Wonka and gunslinging Jim) or Matthew Broderick (who played the huggable David but the eternally cool Ferris and the con man Harold) deserve the trophy for Leo's adorkableness. Some consider Wilder's portrayal of Dr. Frankenstein to be the decisive stroke.
- All Part of the Show: Liebkind's storming onto the stage in an effort to end the production.
- Ambiguously Jewish: Bloom and Bialystock, which tells you how much they're willing to do just to get the play produced. Both of them spit on the Nazi armbands when they throw them away.
- Amusing Injuries / Bandage Mummy: In the original movie, what the protagonists end up suffering at the end; Franz is the mummy, still wearing his Nazi helmet.
- Ascended Extra: In the original movie, Ulla was in roughly two scenes and had only a few lines which were nothing more than a few single words. In the musical and the movie-version of the musical, she's a major character.
- As Long As It Sounds Foreign: Ulla's Swedish. They're all actual Swedish words, but it's completely grammatically incorrect, and 'god dag min vännen' actually means something like 'good day my the friend', whereas 'god dag min vän' would mean the intended 'good day my friend'.
- Another example is from the "Good Luck" song, where Max yells "guten lachen" in his string of good luck yells. Guten lachen roughly translates to "good laughs."
- Batman Gambit: Bialystock and Bloom's entire "creative accounting" scheme.
- Kansas City Shuffle, specifically.
- Berserk Button:
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"My blanket! My blue blanket! Gimme back my blue blanket! AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" |
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- Bilingual Bonus: Ulla answers the phone with, "God dag på dig!" (Swedish for good day to you)
- Blackmail Is Such an Ugly Word: Averted intentionally, as a...
- Bribe Backfire: Actually done on purpose.
- Bungled Suicide: Toward the end Franz Liebkind attempts to shoot himself, but the gun fails to go off. ("Boy, ven things go wrong...")
- In the Czech dub, it was "There were always problems with the munitions..." Historical Bonus?
- Busby Berkeley Number: Springtime For Hitler's opening, complete with the dancers forming a swastika.
- The Cameo: In the 2005 film, Mel Brooks appears at the very end telling the audience to "get out!"
- Both film versions have Brooks' voice dubbed into the "Springtime for Hitler" number (the 2005 movie uses the same line recorded for the 1968 version).
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"Don't be stupid/Be a smarty/Come and join/The Nazi Party!" |
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- Camp Gay: De Bris, his assistant Carman Ghia, and (in the musical movie) the other members of the stage team living with them, save for one just-as-over-the-top Butch Lesbian.
- Cannot Tell a Joke: Roger de Bris.
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Roger: Messieurs Bialystock and Bloom, I presume? Ha! Forgive the pun! |
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"Adolf": Hey, you're German! |
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- Casanova: Bialystock, impressive string of successes, albeit all with women even older than he is.
- Casting Couch: Ulla benefits from it, of course, although it's only because she's attractive--no actual sex occurs.
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Max: There is always a role for the producer's girlfriend! |
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- This scene also lampshades his previous Casanova experiences.
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Max: Just once I'd like to see a woman on that couch that's under 85. |
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- Dawson Casting: Lorenzo St. DuBois seems to be a 50 year old hippie, not recent college graduate. (Of course, that could be the point.)
- Department of Redundancy Department: "This is wine, women, and song. And women."
- Dirty Old Man: Bialystock, although one of the elderly women he romances calls him a "dirty young man."
- Don't You Dare Pity Me: "You have exactly ten seconds to replace that look of disgusting pity with one of enormous respect!"
- Double Entendre: De Bris' song Keep It Gay, which only appears in the play/play-movie.
- Embarrassing Middle Name: Play/play-movie: it is claimed that Hitler's middle name was "Elizabeth."
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"Not many people know zis, but ze Fuhrer vas descended from a long line of English qveens." |
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- De Bris' name is also Elizabeth, but he doesn't seem too embarassed by it. It's more there so Max and Leo can do a double take.
- Europeans Are Kinky: Ulla, in both the original movie and the musical remake.
- Everybody Has Lots of Sex: averted with Bloom. He's treated as a loser for wanting to wait until marriage.
- Executive Meddling: The original film was so offbeat and provocative it almost didn't get released - until Peter Sellers saw an early cut at a private gathering and pressured Avco-Embassy to support it, taking out an ad in Variety. (Ironically, Brooks had initially wanted Sellers for a role in the film but he turned it down.)
- In a looser sense, this is the entire plot of the film--Bialystock and Bloom are meddling with their product, albeit to make it fail rather than succeed.
- Fake Nationality: Franz Liebkind and Ulla, in all the versions.
- Final Love Duet: Subverted with "Till Him," which basically resembles a Final Love Duet, except for the fact that they're Heterosexual Life Partners.
- Fruit of the Loon: Watch for the banana at the end of LSD's audition.
- Fun With Acronyms: "Lorenzo, baby! Lorenzo St. DuBois!"
- Get a Hold of Yourself Man: Amusingly subverted.
- Played straight (with the gay couple) later on.
- "Wow! That hurt!"
- Played straight (with the gay couple) later on.
- Giftedly Bad: Roger de Bris.
- Gone Horribly Right: Perhaps the Trope Codifier.
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Max: How could this happen? I was so careful. I picked the wrong play, the wrong director, the wrong cast. Where did I go right?! |
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- Hair Trigger Temper: In a sense: Leo Bloom has numerous triggers but they cause him to fall non-violently to pieces. He gets better as the movie progresses.
- Hilarious Outtakes: Good lord. The reel on the DVD is a quarter of an hour long and will reduce you to tears. Apparently when Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick are in the same room together they induce chronic Corpsing in each other.
- I Am Becoming Song: 'I Wanna Be a Producer'
- I Am Song: 'I Wanna Be a Producer'
- 'Heil Myself' counts as well, especially with De Bris's Judy Garland monologue
- I Want Song: 'I Wanna Be a Producer'
- Also 'The King of Broadway,' where Max both laments his lost glory and vows to be on top again.
- Ironic Echo: When playing a sex game with "Hold Me, Touch Me", Max pretended to be a naughty chauffeur named "Rudolfo". Later, when Max is rich again, his chauffeur is named Rudolfo.
- Irony: In 2011, a Dutch musical adaptation was made, running only in the largest theatres in the Netherlands. In spite of good reviews, it bombed at the box office and closed after a week. How meta is that?
- Large Ham: Zero Mostel, full stop.
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Max: Bloom, I'm drowning. Other men sail through life, Bialystock has struck a reef. Bloom, I'm going under. I'm condemned by a society that demands success when all I can offer is failure. Bloom, I'm reaching out to you. Don't send me to prison... (screams directly in Leo's ear) HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLP! |
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- And Bloom without his blue blanket.
- Roger De Bris and his entire team, but he gets top props through his portrayal of Hitler
- Loads and Loads of Roles: In the 2005 film, Jim Borstelman plays four roles; Scott the choreographer, Donald Dinsmore ("The Little Wooden Boy"), one of the little old ladies and a bavarian peasant during the Springtime For Hitler number.
- Madness Mantra:
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Leo: No way out. No way out. No way out. No way out. No way out. No way out. No way out. |
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- Medium Awareness: One song in the play has Bialystock summarizing the events of the play up until that point, including an Intermission.
- The play - Ulla: "Why Bloom go so far stage right?"
- The second movie - "Why Bloom go so far camera right?"
- At the start of the play's second act, Ulla says she painted the office white during the intermission. Unfortunately, the joke couldn't translate to film so there she simply skips lunch.
- The Musical: The play, since the film really wasn't. Also, the 2005 remake.
- Nice Hat: Bialystock forbids Bloom to wear his spare black fedora because "that's a Broadway producer's hat, and you don't get to wear the Broadway producer's hat until you're a Broadway producer!"
- Norse By Norsewest: Ulla.
- Officer O Hara: Two of 'em.
- Old Shame / Money Dear Boy: Estelle Winwood.
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"Oh, that dreadful picture. I can't bear to watch it, even on a small television. I must have needed the money - living in Hollywood weakens one's motives. It reminds me of the saying that nobody ever went broke underestimating the American public's taste." |
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- Older Than They Look: "Hold Me, Touch Me" was played by Estelle Winwood, who lied about her age (she was 85 during filming) to get herself cast, and was surprisingly agile during the physical comedy. Considering the woman died at age 101, she was one hearty dame.
- One Scene Wonder: In the original film, William Hickey as the drunken bar patron.
- Overly Long Gag: Yessssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss...sss!
- Estelle Winwood as "Hold Me, Touch Me".
- Perpetual Tourist: Discussed. The most recent version also has Leo Bloom (temporarily) end up somewhere vaguely South American.
- Pokémon Speak: Hold me, touch me!
- Powder Trail: "Ahah! Zis is an example of smartness. I have said zat zis is ze kvick fuse, und zis is ze kvick fuse! ...Ze kvick fuse!?!"
- Pragmatic Adaptation: The role of LSD doesn't translate well in the 21st century, and that, coupled with a society more open about homosexuality, allowed Roger De Bris to get a larger (and funnier) role in the play.
- One critic pointed out that the LSD character could still have worked in the remake, since the story is now set in 1958 and the character in retrospect seems more like a Fifties beatnik than a New Age Retro Hippie.
- Promoted to Love Interest: Ulla
- Punny Name: Roger De Bris, Carmen Ghia.
- Queer People Are Funny
- Raging Stiffie:
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Ula:You like it? |
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- Recursive Adaptation. And how.
- Refuge in Audacity: Both Springtime For Hitler and the original movie itself, especially considering when it was made. the movie was based on a joke Brooks liked to tell where he wanted to make a musical called "Springtime For Hitler." People would stare at him, and then burst into laughter.
- Security Blanket: Leo keeps a bit of his baby blanket on him in his jacket pocket.
- Sexy Secretary: Ulla. And how.
- "Oooh wah weee wah wah wow wowie!"
- Shout Out: Going through a list of potential candidates for the worst play ever written, Bialystock comes across a synopsis for Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis. ("Nah, it's too good.") A Karmann Ghia is a model of Volkswagen. Leopold Bloom is the protagonist of James Joyce's novel Ulysses. At one point Max refers to Leo as "Prince Myshkin"; this is the protagonist of Dostoyevsky's novel The Idiot.
- Leo's line "When's it going to be Bloom's day?" is another reference to Ulysses; in fact, according to Word of God, that particular scene takes place on Bloom's Day. Tom and Mel were very surprised at how many people got the joke.
- When Jason Alexander took over as Bialystock he adlibbed in "Betrayed." Bialystock calls out Intermission and is scripted to sit down for a moment before continuing the show. Instead Jason pulls out a playbill, flipping through it and said to the audience, "He's good, but he's no Lane." (Nathan Lane of course being the original player of Bialystock for the musical.)
- Nathan Lane's understudy did something similar during the original run of the play. During "intermission," he turned to an imaginary companion and said, "I like the other guy better."
- In the 2005 movie, during "I Want To Be A Producer", Leo descends a flight of stairs lit with his name. The lettering and border are identical to the "Spaceballs" logo.
- The "Yiddish" which translates as "Who do you have to fuck to get a break in this town?" comes from a speech given by Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator.
- The Sixties: Lorenzo StDubois in the original version.
- The Fifties: The remake is set in 1958, but there aren't that many blatant period markers and Anachronism Stew abounds (such as when the Village People show up during the "Keep It Gay" number).
- A beautifully-subverted Slow Clap.
- Snake Talk: Yessssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss...sss!
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- Springtime for Hitler: The Trope Namer, obviously. Unique in that The Producers has two of them, with the closing Prisoners Of Love.
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Max: We open in Leavenworth Saturday night! |
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- Stop Helping Me: Max to Leo at the trial (whose "defense" of Max begins with a list of all of Max's faults) in the both movies; Max then says again to the off-key chorus of old ladies at the trial in the musical remake.
- Stupid Crooks: In the original, after Max and Leo pull their Springtime for Hitler, they decide to blow up the theater with a little help from Franz. However, they're not sure if they used the short fuse or the long fuse for their bomb detonator, and their way of testing to find out which one they used is to light the fuse they already primed for the bomb. And then they discuss how the fuse they lit is behaving like the short fuse, which wouldn't have given them enough time to leave the building...
- And just before that: "Don't shoot! It's the dynamite! If you shoot it, it will get mad at us and blow us all up!"
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: In the original film, Franz starts warbling "America the Beautiful" when denying he was a Nazi.
- In the musical:
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Franz: I was never a member of the Nazi Party! I only followed orders! I had nothing to do with the war! I didn't even know there was a war on! We lived at the back, near Switzerland. All we heard was yodelling... yodel le he hoo! Hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo, Yodelay, Yodelay, Yodelay |
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- Take That: From all versions...
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Leo: Actors aren't animals; they're human beings! |
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- The entire concept behind Springtime For Hitler is Mel Brooks' Take That aimed right at Hitler and the Nazis.
- Tap On the Head:
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Stagehand: Hey! What can I do for you? |
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- Terrible Interviewees Montage: All of the rejected would-be Hitlers. Partially subverted, as they are rejected for being too good.
- That Makes Me Feel Angry: "I'm in pain, and I'm wet, and I'm still hysterical!"
- That's All Folks
- Those Wacky Nazis: Franz Liebkind.
- Throw It In: Gene Wilder's "Whom Has He Hurt" speech was completely improvised.
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee: "Now let's get out of here before they kill us!" (cue audience laughter and applause)
- Villain Protagonist: Max and Leo may be funny, but they're both trying to defraud little old ladies.
- Villain Song: The opening number of SFH is a cheerful paean to Nazi Germany attacking the rest of Europe.
- There's also Heil Myself in The Musical. It may be gay and over-the-top, but it still counts as this trope if you consider who's technically singing the song.
- Weirdness Magnet: Max considers himself one. It seems Leo only makes the situation worse.
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Max: They come here, they all come here. How do they find me. |
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Franz: Hitler... there was a painter! He could paint an entire apartment in ONE afternoon! TWO coats! |
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- What Is This Feeling: It's called "happiness," Leo.
- Or an erection.
- It's either that or Malaria.
- There's pills for everything these days, so don't worry.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: Roger DeBris. When we first meet him, he's supposed to be in costume as the Grand Duchess Anastasia. Depending on the version, he claims that he thinks he looks more like either "Tugboat Annie" or "the Chrysler Building."
- World of Ham
- Zany Scheme
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Thanks for coming to read, our friend! |
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