The Producers (2005) Movie Review:


After a string of failures producer Max Bialystock (Lane) has lost every ounce of dignity to the point that he has to romance old ladies to get money to fund his next play. When the bank sends accountant Leo Bloom (Broderick) to check his records, Leo tells him that he would actually make more money having an enormous flop than a hit. This instantly gives Max an idea. He and Leo will produce sure-fire disaster and walk away with two million dollars.

First a movie, then a musical and now a movie again, Mel Brooks’ ‘The Producers’ has transformed from the 1968 original.

The Tony award-winning show comes to the silver screen and takes you back to the heyday of the Hollywood musical. Adapted from his own comedy classic, the genius Mel Brooks has proved that he as gifted at writing songs as he is jokes. Transforming the original Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder starrer into an award winning Broadway musical is no easy task but ‘The Producers’ was already part way there.

With the ‘Springtime for Hitler’ musical as the backbone, Brooks wrote nine more songs to make this the perfect stage musical. After a sell-out run on Broadway, the musical opened around the world to even more critical acclaim and growing audiences, so it was inevitable that it would return to the silver screen.

The two actors that brought all the acclaim to the production return for the big screen adaptation. Nathan Lane steps into Zero Mostel’s big shoes as the down on his luck Broadway producer Max Bialystock who has to sweet talk old ladies to raise funds for his usually disastrous plays. If anyone could breath new life into this classic character it would be Nathan Lane. Already an acclaimed musical performer, it is when Max is at his most sleazy when the character comes alive as old ladies swoon to his every corny line. Mathew Broderick has the unenviable task of taking on a role made famous by one of the greatest comedic actors of all time, Gene Wilder. The panic stricken, security blanket loving accountant was a brilliant Wilder creation and Broderick does his best to make the part his own. He dances and sings superbly but when it comes to having an episode of sheer panic he doesn’t quite have the manic ability of Wilder. It is also hard for Broderick fans to see ‘Ferris Bueller’ acting like a totally uncool accountant with no self-confidence, who can’t face the world.

Supporting the two Broadways stars are two actors new to musical theatre. Uma Thurman makes her first foray into song and dance and she proves again that she is an actress that can turn her talents to anything. As the Swedish secretary Ulla, she is the object of Max and Leo’s lust, who just wants to please. This is a role that you can tell that Uma really enjoyed playing. While we have seen Will Ferrell sing and dance before during his comedic career, it is as Neo-Nazi, Adolf Hitler loving playwright Franz Liebkind that he really gets the chance to shine. This is a role that he really sinks his teeth into, making the character as hilarious as he should be. Add to these two more outstanding performances from Gary Beach and Roger Bart as the overly camp director Roger De Bris and his assistant Carmen Ghia and you have the making of a classic musical.

‘The Producers’ is a complete adaptation of the stage musical and bears more of a resemblance to the musicals of the 40, 50s and 60s and is the better for it. Director Susan Stroman and her creative team makes you feel like you are in a theatre and not a cinema, giving you the chance to see what it was like to see Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick on Broadway. Its old fashioned approach is quite refreshing and makes you hark back to the days of Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye as Lane and Broderick evoke memories of these musical greats.

With some great songs, extremely funny set pieces and brilliant performances from the cast, ‘The Producers’ is the best way to see the stage musical for those of you who haven’t seen chance to see Lane and Broderick on Broadway. The film is also delight for musical aficionados but there will be arguments between fans of the 1968 original and the musical version. This is still a Mel Brooks production nevertheless and however much Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom would like to try, this is not going to be a monster flop.



Jamie Kelwick

Brooks and Stroman take an intriguingly stagy approach to putting this hit Broadway musical (based on Brooks' 1968 classic film) on the big screen. It takes a while to get used to filmmaking like this, but the energy and glee certainly win us over.

Max Bialystock (Lane) is a bad Broadway producer who gets an idea from his nervous accountant Leo Bloom (Broderick): with some creative accounting, they could make more from a flop than a hit. So they find the worst play imaginable (a musical called Springtime for Hitler, written by Ferrell's neo-Nazi nutcase) and the worst director in town (Beach's cross-dressing flouncer). Along the way, they hire leggy Swedish dancer Ulla (Thurman) as their secretary/lust object. And of course it doesn't remotely go as planned.

The filmmaking style is goofy and outrageous, with exactly the sets as on stage, and broad theatrical style acting that eliminates all subtlety. It's so much like watching a play that we want to burst into applause after each outrageously entertaining musical number. At the beginning we wonder if it can ever settle down, as we want more than Broderick's goony face-pulling and Lane's archly manic shouting. But then the characters begin to grow on us, the script's sharp wit begins to grab hold, and we find ourselves helplessly laughing along.

Broderick and Lane really warm up as we get to know them, and the people around them are riotously funny. Thurman and Ferrell are great, showing untapped song and dance skills, while Bart steals the show with the only cinema-style performance (that is, he adds tiny gestures and expressions that wouldn't work on stage). He's flat-out hysterical. And every musical number is a triumph of slapstick, satire and energetic silliness.

Fortunately, the high-energy approach works. The story gets increasingly raucous, the musical numbers get more complicated and the theatre references get sharper. And even if it's too long for a musical comedy, with several extra codas, we never want it to end. So stick around through the credits for even more, including Ferrell's priceless love-theme remix and a final production number.

Rich Cline

What would it be like to see Broadway make its way on to the silver screen in such a way that the screen would be seamless with the stage?

Many of a great director has tried to capture the magic of Broadway onto a flickering movie screen. Many have failed, very few have succeeded.

There are many ways to accomplish such a lofty goal. Some of the more popular ones are to reinvent the play completely for the screen or minimalize the set designs and do a lot of close-cut shots or finally just film the play on stage.

In recent years, especially with the success of “Chicago”, a lot of these concepts have been abandoned with a successful transition between stage and screen by embracing what makes each grand. “Chicago” was the perfect “grand stand” and people loved it.

Now with “The Producers”, we look for another film to step up and continue that trend. Unfortunately it just doesn’t have the allure to make you feel like you are there in the theatre.

The basic story of the film is that an almost bankrupt producer (Nathan Lane) takes in a new protégé (Matthew Broderick) when the protégé, who is also an accountant, comes up with an idea that there is a lot of money to be made when a film goes belly up on Broadway.

The pair set out to find the worst play ever conceived so they can rake in their fortune. The play they pick is “Springtime for Hitler”, a posh neo-nazi musical that glorifies Hitler and his regime.

Will the pair succeed? Who will direct this monstrosity? And who is the hot Swedish blonde who has come to work for them?

Based on the 1968 film of the same name, the musical Broadway production of “The Producers” was a huge success and a multi-Tony award winning show. The show was conceived by legendary comic genius Mel Brooks, who revamped his film for Broadway and now in this new musical film.

I guess one of the reasons I liked “The Producers” was the music. The lyrics, over-the-top performances and strikingly great musical turn in Uma Thurman made this film a delight to watch.

You really have to listen close for the beautiful in jokes in all the songs. Probably my favorite song in the production was “Keep it Gay” because it seemed to have the best rhythm and seemed to be the less forced song in the film. Everyone was having fun and it was executed flawlessly.

The only downside to the film is that it tries way too hard in a lot of circumstances and the ending drags on for an eternity. There were at least 4 or 5 different places it could have ended. It was almost like the movie was trying to punish us because we wanted a happy ending.



So Says the Soothsayer

Dean Kish

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