Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder star in Mel Brooks’ Oscar winning comedy The Producers. Scoring the Academy award for Best Original Screenplay, this one is a hoot from beginning to end. It also saw Wilder get a nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Mostel stars as Max Bialystock, a producer, who will do anything to make some money. Including sleeping with all of his elderly patrons. His life takes an unexpected turn however, with the arrival of Leo Bloom (Wilder).

Bloom is an accountant, initially timid, who has been brought into review Bialystock’s books. When Bloom makes the comment that a stage flop could potentially make more money than a successful production, Bialystock is intrigued and develops a plan; the pair will produce the most inappropriate musical; they’ll get the money, and it will be forced to close after one performance, and they can walk away with all the investor’s cash and ticket sales.

Now they need a subject… They come across the stage book for Franz Liebkind’s (Kenneth Mars) Springtime for Hitler. And they know they’ve struck gold – a Nazi musical? Bound to be a surefire miss!

They go through all the rigors of casting, including a hip Lorenzo St. DuBois (Dick Shawn) as Hitler, and they prepare for opening night. I mean no one is going to want to see a musical about Hitler… right?

The movie is filled with great moments, but a couple, besides all of Wilder’s moments, stuck with me – the audiences’ reactions to the show, and Ulla (Lee Meredith). Damn this one is fun.

The laughs are brilliant. Wilder is comedic gold, and truly shines here. This was his first film with Brooks, followed by Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, and he’s perfect here. There’s nothing comedic that this man couldn’t do.

And Zostel’s Max occasionally breaks the fourth wall, and just leans into his character so much, that you can’t help but enjoy how far Bialystock is willing to go to make some money. The opening sequence with all of his patrons is brilliant.

Put the two together and you get an absolutely riotous film that entertains from the opening through its final credits. The songs (all written by Brooks) are hilarious, the plot perfect, and the casting is top-notch. It’s no wonder the film has endured. There’s been a remake, and of course, a stage musical. And while I have no doubt the musical is brilliant, it doesn’t have Wilder, and he makes this something to see.

As soon as this one was over, I wanted to watch it again, just to see Wilder do everything all over, and really study his performance. It also makes me want to dig into Saddles and Frankenstein.

Brooks and Wilder were an unstoppable combination, and I can’t believe I hadn’t seen this one before. This one may be a regular rewatch.