Product Details

• Actors: Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Christopher Hewett, William Hickey, Anne Ives
• Directors: Mel Brooks
• Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono), English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• DVD Release Date: December 3, 2002
• Run Time: 88 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (217 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005JK45
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #36,291 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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• For more information about "The Producers (Special Edition)" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

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

DVD 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

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Where did I go right?", January 8, 2006

By	Allen Smalling "Constant Reader," (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Producers (Deluxe Edition) (DVD)

This is it! The source, THE PRODUCERS, the 1968 release with screenplay and direction by Mel Brooks, juicy parts by Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Kenneth Mars and others, and a well-deserved reputation as one of the funniest movie comedies ever. Filmed on a pittance (less than $1 million, cheap even by Sixties standards), THE PRODUCERS almost died unrecognized until it became a cult hit in New York, L.A., Chicago and then, everywhere.

SPOILER GRAF: The plot is brilliantly diabolical: a corrupt Broadway producer (Zero Mostel) and his nebbishy accountant assistant (Gene Wilder) deliberately oversell a play with the design to create a flop and keep the proceeds. They hire the worst possible playwright, director, and choreographer and deliberately insult the drama critics. But the play is so hilariously awful it becomes awfully hilarious. The essence of 1960s camp: It's good because it's so bad.

It's hard to overstate just how good Mel Brooks' first movie is. The low budget forced a lot of outside shooting in New York City, and as a result the movie looks fresh, not cosmetized. The premise of a play about "Adolf and Eva in a gay romp at Berchtesgaden" was, if anything, more offensive just 23 years after the end of the Second World War than it is today. A big gamble on Brooks' part, but it played.

This edition is well worth the extra couple of dollars over the "movie only" version. It includes a second CD, apparently put together about the time of the 2001 Broadway musical, and contains stills, bios, and an engaging documentary about the film's making and reception. The last is especially fun since all the principals involved (except the late Zero Mostel) are alive and active and possessed of strong memories of that "kooky" classic-in-the-making.

The 2005 movie with Broadway vets Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick is proving a disappointment to those who remember the original movie or the 2001 Broadway smash. The new movie took the Broadway book and set it in an imagined-and expensive--"indeterminate past" full of late 1950s cars and fashions. Unfortunately, what works on the stage doesn't always translate on film, and despite all the talent and money involved, the new movie comes across as stagey, self-absorbed and at times a bit labored. And LONG: half again as long as this original, which clocks in right at an hour and a half.

The verdict: All versions of THE PRODUCERS are funny, but the 1968 movie is the one to start with. Enjoy it now at a great price.

43 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mel Brooks' First-And Best, December 30, 2002

By	Patrick A. Hayden (Arlington, VA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"The Producers", which has gained newfound fame due to the Musical Comedy that Mel Brooks created based on this, his first movie, is also the best thing Brooks has ever done. "Blazing Saddles" was a gag-a-minute take on the Western, and "Young Frankenstein" was Brooks' spoof on horror, but in "The Producers", Brooks' made something that was entirely his own: a madcap, hilarious, perfectly cast satire of life on the seedier side of Broadway.

The late, great Zero Mostel stars as Max Bilalystock, a former big-time Broadway producer who has been reduced to seducing old ladies for checks to fund flops. Into his sad life comes accountant Leo Bloom(Gene Wilder in the first of several Brooks' collaborations). Bloom is a nebbishly high-strung auditor who offhandedly mentions to Max that a producer could make more money from a flop than a hit. This launches one of the most hilarious movies ever made, as Bloom and Bialystock scheme to find the worst sript, worst director, and worst actors to make the most tasteless and awful play ever.

The humor here is some of Brooks' finest. He expertley skewers Broadway egos, Nazis's, and greed as he tells the tale of the production of "Springtime for Hitler", written by an ex-Nazi who still holds onto the idea that Hitler was a great man. What keeps it from becoming an offensive movie is that the play is so hopelessly miscast and directed that it is just a big joke, and the fact that the audience knows that the Nazi is being taken advantage of steers the film away from the dark aspects of that ideology and makes fun of everything Hitler was trying to create. Wilder shines as Bloom, in his first major role, as he moves from loser to producer to desperate criminal, and Mostel shows his fine gift for broad comedy in his portrayal of the morally bankrupt producer who prizes money above all else. The film's funniest scenes involve bizzare breakdowns from Wilder, the hilarious alegiance to the defunct Third Reich by the playright, played with utter conviction by Kenneth Mars, and of course the play itself. The opening musical number is a sight to behold, and manages to spoof every over the top broadway production ever in the sense that everyone involved in the production, save Wilder and Mostel, take it so damn seriously.

The Producers has finally gotten the DVD release it deserves, and should delight anyone who loves Mel Brooks, and perhaps win a few converts who only know him from his latter day flops(Men in Tights, I'm looking at you). Brooks had 10 great years of moviemaking in him, and he starts it out with a bang in this film.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars WHERE IS THE UNEDITED VERSION OF "THE PRODUCERS" ?, September 6, 2006

By	RELENTLESS "VIDTREKKER" (JUST SOUTH OF OZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Producers (Deluxe Edition) (DVD)

CAUTION: MAJOR SPOILERS CONTAINED HEREIN...I have been a big fan of the original theatrical cut (circa 1968) for nearly 40 years. My biggest disappointment is that there is no video format that has ever kept that original vision intact. This classic comedy had been hacked up on network TV long before commercial video formats ever existed. By the time it was released to laserdisc, two terrific scenes were editied down or out (probably for reasons of pacing and flow). My personal feeling is THOSE SCENES WORKED BETTER left as originally conceived. The "INTERMISSION" sequence actually sets up the original ending for the film. Max buys the drunk at the bar his drink, makes a toast "TO TOAST", then ambles over to the juke-box. Max then invites Leo and the Drunk to sing-along
to "By The Light of the Silvery Moon". The truncated (video) version shows them already in the middle of the tune when the "Springtime" theater patrons rush in. Secondly, in the original version Franz stomps out "THE QUICK FUSE!" before the theater blows up. Perhaps Mel thought the scene played out funnier having the playhouse blow-up after their terrified screams. To me it doesn't. It is way too obvious and cliche. The original vision has Franz wiring the dynamite to the plunger box whereon the drunk from the bar completes the circuit, mistaking it for a shoe shine box. "OKAY BOYS", he declares. "SHINE 'EM UP"...KABOOM!!! This was unexpected and very very funny. I was hoping this new two disc release would restore the original vision of the film. Sadly it does not. I understand there is a deleted scene in this package. But the deleted scene was not deleted from the movie...it has been deleted from the video presentation. I agree with those individuals who balk at FORCED commercials, products or trailers on DVD. This is reprehensible. It ranks right up there with FORCED commercials in multiplex theaters. Last note: "THE PRODUCERS" is truly one of the funniest comedies ever made. If you have not seen it, rent or buy whichever release you can get. I hope the original theatrical presentation will be made available at some point in time for purists who hysterically (and quite literally) fell out of their chairs back in 1968.