The Producers, written and directed by Mel Brooks - 10 out of 10

The Producers, written and directed by Mel Brooks

10 out of 10

This comedy is so brilliant that the American Film Institute has it at number 11 on its list of 100 Years…100 Laughs, the 100 funniest movies - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFI%27s_100_Years...100_Laughs – and you can find it also on The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list - https://www.listchallenges.com/new-york-times-best-1000-movies-ever-made/list/18

We have had the chance to see it here, during the dark days of Soviet imposed communism, in shadow screenings, with video tapes smuggled in, for at one time, there was nothing in cinemas and on television, except the kind of propaganda you can still see in North Korea, where the man that Trump loves rules as a tyrant – and speaking of that, perhaps very soon that would be the fate of the Republican party of America, in awe with the cult leader they have, and if things move the same way, maybe all over the US they would soon install a Trump Loving Regime, with the idiot installed as the Supreme Leader for life…with the way his phony trial has gone in the Senate, there is nothing to prevent a corrupt lunatic, self-absorbed maniac to appoint himself as president for life…

Zero Mostel – what a name – is grandiose as Max Bialystock a sort of Harvey Weinstein avant la letter – seeing as he hires an assistant that has to dance and presumably entertain the aging, somewhat perverse man, who is not an abuser as Weinstein was, but his manner would not satisfy the feminist movements of the day…the day when they will expose this comedy, as they did with so many others will soon come and in the future, this might be sent to a museum and shown only in rooms where it would be used as an example of the tyranny of men.

Max Bialystock is a failed producer and he has to support himself with the help of a devoted, if decrepit fan base – just like the buffoon that should be convicted in the final vote, tomorrow, on the floor of the Senate, but he will not be, because the senators of his party have become flawed, disgusting beings, perhaps with the exception of Romney and Collins, who have voted for witnesses – the others from that disgraced grouping had not even conceded to that elementary feature of a process of establishing the guilt or innocence of an obvious criminal and longtime con man…

Gene Wilder is marvelous as Leo Bloom, the timid, inconspicuous accountant that has to look at the financial records of the amusing, often hilarious producer, only to be overwhelmed by the magnitude of the hole, the shenanigans that the books reveal – it is fantastic how the recollection of this movie brings again the image of the Orange Supreme Clown, who is also in trouble with the law, his University has been proven to be just another rotten scheme to make money, the charity has also been in court and trump has had to settle, because he was using other people’s money – as always – for nefarious purposes, buying giant portraits of himself among other disgraceful things…

As Leo bloom looks at the sorry figures in the books, he has an idea, somewhat inadvertently and he thinks that if a production is set to be a failure – as presumably most of the endeavors of the Bialystock enterprise have been – that may be the recipe for artistic disaster, but financial bonanza, for Max could presumably raise a capital of $ 1,000,000, for a play that could cost say $ 60,000 and then he would pocket the difference, though that would entail some acrobatic maneuvers and shouts of I love you in the park, with various patrons that are in senectitude or even passed that period.

Max Bialystock is enticing the women from his fan base with fake promises – just like that ridiculous former real estate con artist – telling them that they have his affection for one thing and then raises the stakes and says that each would have important shares in the future profits of this new production that is sure to fire up audiences and have so many runs that the 50%, sometimes even 100% that they owe would bring in so much cash!

In other words, he has already sold 20,000% of the profit, knowing that there would be none and now they just have to find the most catastrophic script and set it on stage, and while they seem to go crazy looking for the sure cataclysm, they find the work of a demented German – the same Trump comes to mind as the new paradigm for the mentally challenged  - who wrote ‘Hitler in Springtime ‘and after they find and convince this specimen to give them the work, they only have to make sure it will all come crushing down, by hiring a preposterous, arrogant, self-obsessed director – this film has echoes of the American Cretin in Chief everywhere – and eventually some ridiculous star.

The problem may be – for the one reader who has reached this far and does not know what happens in the second part, this would be the place for some spoiler alert – that they might eventually create such a preposterous, absurd, unhinged, outrageous production that the version might even be funny, perhaps hilarious and instead of the artistic disaster and financial triumph – ensured presumably with a flaunting bribe for a critic, that should be formidably insulted and thus destroy the first performance, ensuring there is no other – they may have a success on stage and face prison for their fraud and the selling of the 20,000 % of the profits…

The Producers is a fantastic, incredible comedy, re- made many years later, but with much less artistic success, though maybe it will have done better at the box office…