- Actors: Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Dick Shawn
- Directors: Mel Brooks
- Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC
- Language: English
- Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
- Region: (US and Canada This DVD will probably NOT be viewable in other countries. Read more about DVD formats.)
- Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
- Number of discs: 1
- MPAA Rating:
- Studio: Fox Video
- Release Date: Sep 2 2003
- Run Time: 88 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (111 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B0000CBY1B
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#8,303 in DVD (See Top 100 in DVD)
- #5 in DVD > Comedy > Comedy Stars > Gene Wilder
- #10 in DVD > Comedy > Comedy Directors > Mel Brooks
- #10 in DVD > Comedy > Comedy Stars > Mel Brooks
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Product Description
Additional Features
The Producers makes its long-awaited DVD debut with a great-looking transfer, Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, and both widescreen and full-screen versions on the first side of the disc. There's no Mel Brooks commentary track, but he offers plenty of information in the 64-minute making-of documentary that highlights the second side of the disc. Brooks, Gene Wilder, and other cast and crew members discuss the development of the movie, casting decisions (Peter Sellers and Dustin Hoffman had agreed to play Leo Bloom and Franz Liebkind, respectively), and the creation of "Springtime for Hitler." Somewhat surprisingly, other than one mention by Brooks, the 2002 documentary ignores the 2001 Broadway stage adaptation, though the DVD does have an ad for the cast recording (misidentified as the "soundtrack"). Also on the disc are sketch and photo galleries and an alternate version of the final playhouse scene. --David Horiuchi
Amazon.com essential video
Mel Brooks's directorial debut remains both a career high point and a classic show business farce. Hinging on a crafty plot premise, which in turn unleashes a joyously insane onstage spoof, The Producers is powered by a clutch of over-the-top performances, capped by the odd couple pairing of the late Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder, making his screen debut.
Mostel is Max Bialystock, a gone-to-seed Broadway producer who spends his days wheedling checks from his "investors," elderly women for whom Bialystock is only too willing to provide company. When wide-eyed auditor Leo Bloom (Wilder) comes to check the books, he unwittingly inspires the wild-eyed Max to hatch a sure-fire plan: sell 25,000 percent of his next show, produce a deliberate flop, then abscond with the proceeds. Unfortunately for the producers (but fortunately for us), their candidate for failure is Springtime for Hitler, a Brooksian conceit that envisions what Goebbels might have accomplished with a little help from Busby Berkeley.
Truly startling during its original 1968 release, The Producers does show signs of age in some peripheral scenes that make merry at the expense of gays and women. But the show's nifty cast (notably including the late Dick Shawn as LSD, the space cadet that snags the musical's title role, and Kenneth Mars as the helmeted playwright) clicks throughout, and the sight of Mostel fleecing his marks is irresistibly funny. Add Wilder's literally hysterical Bloom, and it's easy to understand the film's exalted status among late-'60s comedies. --Sam Sutherland
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
mel brooks at his best,
By joe swanson "dave" (everywhere) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Producers (Deluxe Edition) (DVD)
Kenneth Mars is the funniest Nazi you'll ever see.The musical was good but can't touch the original.Well worth the money
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Zero Mostel's Finest Hour Thanks to Mel Brooks!,
By Donato (La Verne, CA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Producers (DVD)
I love this film because it always makes me laugh, but also because it captures the genius of Zero Mostel, a performer who did some of his best work on stage ("Fiddler on the Roof" "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum"). The plot revolves around the New York theatre world and Mostel's down-and-out, has-been producer. And the thought of Mostel (quite the vision in his lounging robe and with his bad comb-over) playing "boy toy" to rich little old ladies in order to raise enough to produce bad show after bad show, rarely fails to get laughs. Add to the mix one of Gene Wilder's best performances, as Leo Bloom, the accountant who wanders into Mostel's world and who gets sucked into a "sure fire" scam, and you have enough laughs to fill ten comedies. I had the pleasure of seeing Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick in the musical version of this film when it opened on Broadway a few years ago, and while that show was fantastic, I still think back fondly to where it all started: with Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder, whose zaniness is forever preserved on film, always there to entertain us.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Still Funny After All These Years,
By
This review is from: The Producers (DVD)
I saw this movie at the cinema when I was in high school...many moons ago...and I laughed until I cried that evening...this movie holds up well with time and it is still hysterically funny...especially the wonderful performance by the Dick Shawn, as "LSD".
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