The first time I saw that spinning human swastika I think my jaw was hanging down to my ankles...and then I laughed till I cried. My mom, who grew up in southern Poland during the war, laughed hysterically, too. Thank you, Mel Brooks.
Interesting Facts about the writer of this scene Mel Brooks 1. He was a soldier in WWII who fought for about a year 2. He participated in the Battle of the Bulge 3. When the war ended, he was on a recon mission in the mountains If There was anyone who earned the right to mock the Nazis, it was Mel Brooks. He fired bullets at them LITERALLY and Grenades! Then he took shots at them the rest of his life in words of movie scripts and plays.
@FreedomMonkeyNews | Controversial I sincerely hope you are a bot trolling me, and not NAZI sympathizer. I have been to the death camps and Auschwitz. I have seen the Berlin Wall. I have read the stories of the gas Chambers, and talk to survivors in their old age. After compiling the real evidence, you cannot objectively tell me there should not have been a war against a tough Hitler and his cronies. The war that should have been fought, that was not, was the war against Joseph Stalin.
Love that Brooks choreographed the audience's horrified reaction as much as he did the dancers. Producers is a work of savage, hilarious genius. 'Talk about bad taste' - yes, baddest and best.
@@nectarinedreams7208 'Cringe'? What is that? You must be one of the newer folk. Or maybe just posh, delicate, or suffering from affectation. Also, I'm guessing your idea of comedy has maybe stalled at the level of the Mickey Mouse Club. The funniest comedy always has some bite to it, and the best bites really deep. Savagely, you might say.
Indeed. It's why the Marx Brothers are still hilarious even decades after they've all passed away. Same for the Three Stooges. It's the personification of the phrase "Timeless Comedy."
@@kirklarson4536 Yeah, nazis and fascists are all about the image of strength and power, so when you make them look pathetic and as something to be laughed at, it’s quite effective
Strangely enough, I never even thought about that aspect. To me, it was an old hilarious movie, I never contemplated that it was so close to the actual end of WW2, it was like a completely different world, where the wounds of the war and the trauma was much fresher and more present. For heaven's sake, it's not much different than 9/11 is to us nowadays. It's not just that Mel Brooks was a total genius for pulling this one off, he's also got massive cojones to even try with such a subject matter.
Based on what I heard, the movie was pretty much what he was out to make. The thing he was forced to change was just the title of the movie. He didn't invent the whole fraud plot to sate a studio.
For what? The murder factory myth is just anti-German/anti-White blood libel racism to demonize an entire race and cover our sins in WW2. Only true hall of cost was Dresden.
Mel was satirizing Broadway's ability to take literally anything and turn it into tacky pageantry. It was bold because in 1968, people who suffered from WW2 were still fairly young and the bad memories were still fresh, but I think most people understood he was making hitler look like a schmuck.
I remember when this came out. Even making it at all was controversial, much less getting it released. And, TBH, only a comedic genius like Mel Brooks who was also Jewish could have ever managed to pull this off.
The movie was banned in Germany at the time for being 'anti-s' Only years later, was Brooks able to show it personally during an Jewish Filmmakers festival in the same Germany.
I love the pretzel pasties. I remember from somewhere that the dancer refused to put swastikas on her nipples, so they compromised on pretzels instead. “We’re marching to a faster pace. Look out, here comes the master race.” This is one of the best movies ever.
Here's a little known fact; we owe "The Producers" not only to Mel Brooks, but Peter Sellers. Sellers was in town and wanted to see a movie, so he and his group went to a local industry screening room. The movie he wanted to see wasn't there, so his people looked to see what was, and they found "The Producers," which had been sitting there while the studio tried to decide what to do with it. Sellers watched it and immediately called the studio and said they had to release it; and the rest is history...
He also took out a full page with his own money, which is amazing as Sellers was a known miser, asking people to go see the movie, calling it a work of genius.
Absolutely. What is silly is how some people try to claim “It is not a remake. It is the film version of the musical” !! It IS a remake no matter how one slices it. Some of the scenes are almost exact copies except for the inferior actors. Will Ferrell was completely miscast and lousy.
@@elizabethcarpenter4313 Let me guess - you saw the remake first and had no idea it was a remake? Then after many years you finally learned there was an original movie but since you're one of those "first-impressions-are-stuck-forever-in-my-mind" kind of people the original became the remake for you. But never mind what you and I think, let's see what the *audience* thinks. First let's see the IMDB rating for the original: 7,6. And for the remake? 6,3. But let's also have a look what the *professional critics* think. On Rottentomatoes the original has a 90% rating (and a 85% audience rating), whereas the remake has a 51% (rotten) rating (63% audience rating). And when it comes to commercial success, well, the remake only made $38,075,318 worldwide from a $45,000,000 budget. Ouch. That spells a flop. So if you loved the 2005 one. Good for you. The Imdb (audience scores), Rottentomatoes (professional critic score) and the commercial flop of the 2005 version all speak against you. If you're even serious to begin with. It's always wise to suspect that somebody who posts something silly only does it for the sake of online littering.
@@jamesshunt5123 I agree that the original is better but why get so offended if somebody likes the remake better? It’s really not that serious, lmao. Let them have their opinion and you can have yours. It’s just a movie, why bring up what _others_ think by showing them the rating? It’s not like it would change their mind once they find out other people didn’t think it was as good. There is no right or wrong when talking about opinions, especially on trivial matters.
The musical number itself is hilarious, but the audience reaction and the one guy wildly applauding might be the most side-splitting thing Mel Brooks has ever done.
@@Sanchewich No, Franz is in the helmet. That is actualy Alan Johnson applauding at the end. He choreographed the whole thing, and Mel thought it would be a great gag to put him in, wildly applauding his own work. And having no one at all agree with him.
The audience response is my favorite. It gets me every. Single. Time. And the actors goose-stepping across the stage. Holy Mary. I cant stop laughing and I've seen it dozens of times. XD
@@jobob47 that person is the one who wrote the play! LOL Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder sought him out. Kenneth Mars is the actor. He’s hilarious and has been in a few of Mel Brooks’ films.
I definitely prefer this to the Nathan Lane/Matthew Broderick version, because the 1968 version just doesn't seem to care if it offends you. The 2005 version pulls some punches, but this version is utterly savage. Just brilliant jet-black satire.
By the time they formed the revolving swastika I was rolling on the floor holding my stomach. This has to be the funniest musical number ever put to screen. Only Mel could be this audacious and this hilarious. My Polish mother who survived WW2 occupation by the Nazis saw this movie and said Mel was right, it's better to mock them than argue with them. RIP to a wise woman.
@Brad Parker Dude what the hell are you talking about? This would be tame by today's standards. Have you ever heard of a movie called Jojo Rabbit? The comedy about a young boy with Hitler for a wacky imaginary friend? Yeah, that got nominated for an Oscar, and it came out in 2019. Not everyone is a twitter snowflake-the majority of people, and in fact the majority of liberals, are more okay with this stuff than you think. In fact, people were WAY more uptight back when this film was made, as evidenced by how controversial it became when today it wouldn't be that controversial at all.
@@Kira1Lawliet Jojo Rabbit only got away with it BECAUSE of comparisons with The Producers. If it had to be made without reference to it, it couldn't have been made by Hollywoke.
@@Aristocles22 I don't think you know what you're talking about. Jojo Rabbit had almost nothing to do with The Producers, and few people were comparing one with the other. Further, you're contradicting your own point. If today's filmmakers were so hypersensitive that a movie like the Producers would never be made today, then how does it makes sense for a movie that, at least in your mind, builds off of something like the Producers and goes even further with that kind of tone, to be not only made but critically and commercially successful? Maybe you're just espousing a rosy view of the past and telling yourself that people are just more sensitive today than they were then. In reality, people then were more sensitive (they actually had and enforced obscenity laws that could land you in jail for using crude language in public settings, which, as much as you might harp against modern social media culture, is nonetheless far more totalitarian than what we have today). The only difference is in what they were sensitive towards. People then were just as sensitive in favor of conservative sensibilities as people today are in favor of liberal ones. The cultural position of the sensitivity has changed, and in terms of it changing by degree, it's actually considerably softer now than it was back then.
I think that he should have expressed the same amount of gratitude for Dick Shawn's performance. Gene Wilder did what was expected. He's in almost every scene, so he had to be good, or this film would have dragged down and flopped, but Dick Shawn is the bright and brilliant light of this film. His way of playing his part was original and hilarious. He showed just the right amount of energy, for an in-the-clouds peace and love counter-culture person. Did not go for slapstick or broad, attention getting comedy. He was brilliant and wonderful, in the audition, and as a counter-culture peace and love Hitler.
@@ceceliaclarke I would also add Kenneth Mars for his hysterical portrayal of the unreformed Nazi playwright Franz Liebkind. The scene where he's comparing Churchill and Hitler is side splitting. It's done very subtly and skillfully by a great character actor. He steals almost every scene he's in.
@@donpietruk1517 Yes. He is a perennial favorite. There is just quite a bit of slapstick and broad comedy to his portrayal. I prefer the more understated approach of Dick Shawn. Zero Mostel is low key, dead-pan and understated like this, and I think that this is why he's so memorably wonderful in this. Gene Wilder is a little over the top with his acting, in my opinion. He does not really give the impression of a mild-mannered, soft-voiced accountant. I do understand your appreciation of Kenneth Mars in this film. Someone in this story had to be frenetic and out of control, to balance Dick Shawn's peace -loving stoner character, and Zero Mostel's jaded, cynical, seen-it-all-before charracter. Kenneth Mars was also very wonderful. Thank you for your comment.
This scene has got to be one of the funniest ever put on film. What makes it so hilarious is the audience reaction. It always makes my stomach and cheeks ache from laughing.
@@FFM0594 I am sorry, but if you have read Primo Levi's "If this is a man" you will realise that there are some things too horrific to be transformed by comedy.
@@dominique2693 I have, he’s wrong. But it is a reasonable thing to think, won’t post a long essay. But will note that Mel himself said that there are things here to which a reasonable person could take offence. Incidentally, Edgar Allan Poe agreed with you. From ‘The Masque of the Red Death”, when the company see the Masque: “There are chords in the hearts of the most reckless which cannot be touched without emotion. Even with the utterly lost, to whom life and death are equally jests, there are matters of which no jest can be made. The whole company, indeed, seemed now deeply to feel that in the costume and bearing of the stranger neither wit nor propriety existed” And the debate goes on.
P.S. In 1942, Ernst Lubitsch released a Jack Benny comedy about the Nazi occupation of Poland. It makes this look tame. I still don’t quite see how the hell he made it work. Called “ To Be or Not to Be”. Mel Brooks tried a remake in 1983. Like calls to like, I guess. Incidentally, the 1983 director was Alan Johnson, who appears in this clip as the only member of the audience at the end who claps.
It's not hyperbolic to this a true milestone in filmmaking. "The Producers" has influenced everyone from John Waters to David Lynch to Quentin Tarantino. It holds up remarkably well, especially when compared to many other "important" movies of the late 60s, which seem painfully dated today. One of the few films worthy of the word classic.
You couldn't make a film like this today. People would say, "Hey, wait a minute, this is just Mel Brooks' acclaimed satirical black comedy _The Producers_ from 1968."
@@gillianbrown8502 yeah it made ok money, covered production and marketing. But I haven't seen anyone that likes it as much as this classic. It may be Waititi's flavor of humor, he's hit or miss for most like truffles or the super downer ending, or confusing ending, or all of eth above. Like are we suppose to feel bad for that kid at the end? Are we humanizing brainwashed germans? ok, he's a dumb kid, we can forgive him. But when a movie leaves you confused emotionally or grossed out and jokes don't even land...why rewatch or recommend? Maybe in time it will be a cult classic, but I never found Waititi funny fully, he has like 1 in 10 jokes I'll chuckle at and 5 that will gross me out: the vomit, the toes, the blood pass.
By the time I was 12, I knew all the words to this song., as well as the words to the "Blazing Saddles" theme.Thanks Dad! This is one of my favourite movies of all time.
Same except my dad was my history teacher at the time and he showed it to the whole class and we were all little middle schoolers who didn’t get it but the song was catchy so off we pranced to recess singing “springtime for hitler.” Boy did my dad get some weird looks
My parents let me watch Blazing Saddles when I was 12 too, with a warning not to use the N word (which I already knew was a particularly bad racial slur).
It was a reference to the June Taylor Dancers, who opened the Jackie Gleason Show in that era and whose routine always included an overhead shot. The number also includes homages to the Ziegfeld Follies and Busby Berkeley (who is also spoofed in the final scene, with Dom DeLuise, of "Blazing Saddles").
@@morganalabeille5004 I bet the people in the nosebleeds could see it. I'm sure there's an analogy in there somewhere. The poor knew what was coming, but the rich were too close to the action to see the big picture.
Susan Strohman directed and choreographed the play and the film. A lady of incredible talent. I agree the 1968 film made me laugh at the top of my lungs.
Didn't care to much for the remake tbh. Though it was cool to see. Matthew Broderick & Nathan Lane. Share screen time again. For the first time since Lion King🙂
@@G6JPG Totally agree with you. Why? Someone thinks they can improve on the original? I thought the same thing when they decided to remake Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. Blasphemous!
@snowy the snowman The fact that there isn't greater co-operation between the UN, NATO and the EU always seemed ridiculous to me. But I guess a lot of people already see the E.U. as some kind of Imperial Government rather than as a trade union, so I guess it makes sense that people would oppose merging all of those things into basically a world government.
@@moonshinei Yeah, the French think they‘re the only ones who are important. Which is ridiculous since Americans know WE are the only ones who are important.
Yes - it is a gem indeed! When I first saw this movie I was simply amazed. Mel Brooks is a great creator of broad film farces, e.g. Blazing Saddles and comedic parodies, e.g. the TV series Get Smart. He was born Melvin Kaminsky on June 28, 1926, in Brooklyn, New York, to Max (1895-1929) and Kate (née Brookman) Kaminsky (1896-1989). His father's family were German Jews from Danzig (present-day Gdańsk, Poland); his mother's family were Jews from Kiev. Mel had real balls to do this scene in 1968. He won an Oscar for Best Screenplay for The Producers: Mel Brooks Wins Original Screenplay: 1969 Oscars - UA-cam
@@jezebeljones659 I like the modern version but this one does such a better job at showing how absolutely offensive the material was and that they almost got away with their plot
I still remember the first time I saw this movie with my Dad and younger brother when it ran late night on our local PBS station. Dad had seen it years before in the theater, and was all, this is funny, you're going to love it. He was right. We all laughed so hard during this scene...and then the audience reactions came 2:22 and 3:16, and we nearly died at those points, especially the first, with the audience aghast, jaws dropped, all except Franz Liebkind.
Priceless. A classic. This is the first of three times I ever lost it in a theater (laughed so hard I had to go out into the lobby out of consideration for the other audience members). Thank you, Mel Brooks.
@@cufflink44 1. The Dexter Lake Club scene in "Animal House." At the end, the fat guy, Dorfman, shouts "The Negroes took our dates!" 2. The scene in "Airplane" where the singing nun kneels before the two black passengers and sings "R-E-S-P-E-C-T" (one of them promptly throws up).
This is my number one favorite movie of all time. As such, I've inflicted it on many people, some of whom love it, some of whom are indifferent to it. But no matter who I show it to, EVERYONE laughs at the ONE GUY who applauds at the end and gets smacked by the rest of the audience.
Probably the greatest comedy movie ever made.. Thank you Mel, saw it when it came out and have watched it dozens of times since. It just never ceases to be funny.
He's the playwright of "Springtime for Hitler". He likes this part but later in the movie, he gets really mad about the way Hitler is portrayed--as a hippy dude.
Honestly I feel like this and Dr. Strnagelove are not only some of the best (if not the best) comedies ever made, but the most important comedies ever made Anybody whose done an iota of research into the horrors commited by the Nazis will realize just how "demonic" the actions of these people are While its always important to remember that these are in fact not the actions of demons, but of man, that committed such horrors as the holocaust, its echo's we still hear today despite the over half a century it has been since then. Its incredibly important for the sake of our species that we show the shear absurd truth of the actions of these people Hitlers war to "save the white race" resulted in the death of many conscripted white children. Hitler was a mad man, an epitome of nihilism. It is not only important to make fun of his actions, but it is necessary that we make fun of the Nazis for what they are. Films like this are immortal and I hope in 20-40 years we are singing "springtime for Putin and Russia" with actors that have heavy Ukrainian influenced accents. Its important that while we learn from the mistakes of pur species that we laugh at it. And thats why this film will be immortal
His run from Producers to Spaceballs is real good. From then on his parodies and satires were spotty. But Producers, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Silent Movie, High Anxiety, History of the World and Spaceballs still stand up as rewatchable multiple times.
Maybe I'm being a pedant here. But I always loved the fact Mel Brooks. Went full throttle. And had the dancers dressed in SS uniforms. Rather then just regular Wehrmacht/Luftwaffe uniform. 😆😂
Seeing lots of "this sort of thing sure couldn't get made today, this humor just isn't allowed anymore" etc, sort of comments and just want to point out that the musical adaptation of "The Producers" that has this number in it is currently touring the country and selling real well.
This movie debuted in 1968. Robert Kennedy and MLK were assassinated and it would be a full year before man got anywhere near landing on the moon. Truly a timeless classic.
Singing "don't be stupid, be a smawtie; come and join the Nazi Pawty" in the most thick, gratuitous, New York Jewish accent always kills me.
It’s not a jewish accent.
@@Teddingtin Well, it is a jew's voice. Specifically Mel Brook's.
😯😲😮😧
@@Teddingtin The Ashkenazi Jews stole it from the Germans
@@Teddingtin what is it?
The fact it was made 23 years after WW2
theHolyToast Show exactly I wonder how people reacted
theHolyToast Show Well, kind of more like making a comedy out of Osama Bin Laden.
Ok
Is that where south park got that joke where you have to wait 23 years for a serious thing to be joked about?
Bitbit I believe so
The first time I saw that spinning human swastika I think my jaw was hanging down to my ankles...and then I laughed till I cried. My mom, who grew up in southern Poland during the war, laughed hysterically, too. Thank you, Mel Brooks.
Unfortunately, they rarely show that sort of Buzby Berkeley dance film these days, so that particular aspect of the parody is fading.
Interestingly, that shot was cut when the BBC transmitted the film during the 1980s and 1990s.
@@gerardjlaw. So, they letting them win!
@@erikbihari3625 It's been shown in its complete form for a long time now.
@@gerardjlaw. So it was never cut out then?
Interesting Facts about the writer of this scene Mel Brooks
1. He was a soldier in WWII who fought for about a year
2. He participated in the Battle of the Bulge
3. When the war ended, he was on a recon mission in the mountains
If There was anyone who earned the right to mock the Nazis, it was Mel Brooks. He fired bullets at them LITERALLY and Grenades! Then he took shots at them the rest of his life in words of movie scripts and plays.
@FreedomMonkeyNews | Controversial I sincerely hope you are a bot trolling me, and not NAZI sympathizer. I have been to the death camps and Auschwitz. I have seen the Berlin Wall. I have read the stories of the gas Chambers, and talk to survivors in their old age.
After compiling the real evidence, you cannot objectively tell me there should not have been a war against a tough Hitler and his cronies.
The war that should have been fought, that was not, was the war against Joseph Stalin.
@realfreedomnews72 He was Jewish you nonce.
Ridicule and laughter is the best way to diminish and undermine evil. Mel Brooks was and is a genius.
Love that Brooks choreographed the audience's horrified reaction as much as he did the dancers. Producers is a work of savage, hilarious genius. 'Talk about bad taste' - yes, baddest and best.
This film "rises below vulgarity!" --Mel Brooks
Alan Johnson was the dance choreographer
What did these people expect from a show called "Springtime for Hitler."
Referring to comedy as "savage" is so fucking cringe
@@nectarinedreams7208 'Cringe'? What is that?
You must be one of the newer folk. Or maybe just posh, delicate, or suffering from affectation.
Also, I'm guessing your idea of comedy has maybe stalled at the level of the Mickey Mouse Club.
The funniest comedy always has some bite to it, and the best bites really deep. Savagely, you might say.
My Dad, a Holocaust survivor loved this film. He watched it over and over; we used to sit up late together, laughing our heads off.
There's six million of those.
Good memories
Wow. Of course Brooks, Wilder, Montel were all Jewish.
And today some college kid who never had a day of hardship in his life would try to have this banned.
@@Dr.TJ_Eckleburgnot true at all 😭 the people trying to have books and other media banned are old fart republicans so try again!
It’s crazy how this is about 50 years old and it’s still hilarious
lmfao yeah it has aged perfectly
Mel Brooks is a genius .
Indeed. It's why the Marx Brothers are still hilarious even decades after they've all passed away. Same for the Three Stooges. It's the personification of the phrase "Timeless Comedy."
No PC cops back then.
@@spliish While the material has aged perfectly I just can't stand this version. Now the more recent version with Lane and Broderick is excellent.
It was brave of Mel to produce such a musical film less than 23 years after the end of the horror, and the success confirmed it
I saw an interview where he said one of the best ways to fight evil is to make it ridiculous.
Mel Brooks had balls the size of Texas grapefruit.
@@kirklarson4536 Yeah, nazis and fascists are all about the image of strength and power, so when you make them look pathetic and as something to be laughed at, it’s quite effective
@@kirklarson4536 And only a Mel Brooks could carry it off. Not only because he is a creative genius, but a Jew and combat veteran of WWII as well.
Strangely enough, I never even thought about that aspect. To me, it was an old hilarious movie, I never contemplated that it was so close to the actual end of WW2, it was like a completely different world, where the wounds of the war and the trauma was much fresher and more present. For heaven's sake, it's not much different than 9/11 is to us nowadays.
It's not just that Mel Brooks was a total genius for pulling this one off, he's also got massive cojones to even try with such a subject matter.
Some of those "horrified" audience members look like they are trying very hard not to laugh. Can't say I blame them.
@@antikid1247 it's a movie the springtime for Hitler musical doesn't actually exist
@@antikid1247 if by shortly you mean 23 years after it ended.
they shot the horrified look thing separately, its not like they were watching the play
The actress to the left hand side of Franz Liebkind (the actor wearing the german helmet) looks like she's trying not to laugh
If you laugh at horrible people, they lose their power over you.
Only works when they are not in power.
How would that have worked in Auschwitz?
Yep.
@@mortallious1234 if you laugh hard enough youll cough up your lungs and then you cant breathe the gas
Doesn’t works, I laugh at my bully and he hit me even harder
Even the themed costumes on the show girls are hysterical, the beer steins, the pretzels, the tabletop skirt.
Don't forget the Krauts
I didn't notice that.
I liked the beer outfit.
Mmmm, pretzels.
The phallic silhouettes kill me.
Mel Brooks actually wanted to make this the movie. But the studios said no. So he came up with The Producers. He's a genius.
Based on what I heard, the movie was pretty much what he was out to make. The thing he was forced to change was just the title of the movie. He didn't invent the whole fraud plot to sate a studio.
Fun story somewhere overseas still used the springtime for Hitler title and even used the naming scheme for most movies
well now that just makes me wanna see the movie he originally wanted to do. but now we'll never get to >:(
Basically what JoJo rabbit is.
@@timewarriorsaga Sweden. Here it’s called “springtime for hitler”, And his other films are named “springtime for Frankenstein”, etc.
Jews making the best song about Nazis is history's way of striking back.
That was Mel Brooks' intention, and gee whizz what a number he did! He has mocked it so well, with perfect theatrical style
For what? The murder factory myth is just anti-German/anti-White blood libel racism to demonize an entire race and cover our sins in WW2. Only true hall of cost was Dresden.
Mel was satirizing Broadway's ability to take literally anything and turn it into tacky pageantry. It was bold because in 1968, people who suffered from WW2 were still fairly young and the bad memories were still fresh, but I think most people understood he was making hitler look like a schmuck.
I remember when this came out. Even making it at all was controversial, much less getting it released. And, TBH, only a comedic genius like Mel Brooks who was also Jewish could have ever managed to pull this off.
One would hope that if nothing else, they could glean that info from the actual context of the entire "The Producers" musical...
This was super controversial even then for that for that reason.
The movie was banned in Germany at the time for being 'anti-s'
Only years later, was Brooks able to show it personally during an Jewish Filmmakers festival in the same Germany.
@@AudieHollandThis only proves that censorship is the most useless effort a government can make to "protect" its citizens.
I love the pretzel pasties. I remember from somewhere that the dancer refused to put swastikas on her nipples, so they compromised on pretzels instead.
“We’re marching to a faster pace. Look out, here comes the master race.”
This is one of the best movies ever.
"We're March" ...ing
= Wehrmacht
@@Fete_Fatale damn! Yes. How did I not hear that all this time?
@@NoahSpurrier Lol ... I suppose it's one of Mel's "hidden in plain sight" jokes.
If it's any consolation, it also took me years to spot it :)
I agree, as soon as I saw the pretzel pastries, I lost it!!!!
Pasties, not pastries
Here's a little known fact; we owe "The Producers" not only to Mel Brooks, but Peter Sellers. Sellers was in town and wanted to see a movie, so he and his group went to a local industry screening room. The movie he wanted to see wasn't there, so his people looked to see what was, and they found "The Producers," which had been sitting there while the studio tried to decide what to do with it. Sellers watched it and immediately called the studio and said they had to release it; and the rest is history...
He also took out a full page with his own money, which is amazing as Sellers was a known miser, asking people to go see the movie, calling it a work of genius.
Props to Sellers, never knew he got it out of limbo.
The original is far superior than the remake. One of the funniest movies ever made.
Absolutely. What is silly is how some people try to claim “It is not a remake. It is the film version of the musical” !! It IS a remake no matter how one slices it. Some of the scenes are almost exact copies except for the inferior actors. Will Ferrell was completely miscast and lousy.
In an interview Mel Brooks said he got the idea for the Zero Mostel character from some of the producers he knew when he started in show business.
I LOVED the 2005 one!!! This one - eh....
@@elizabethcarpenter4313 Let me guess - you saw the remake first and had no idea it was a remake? Then after many years you finally learned there was an original movie but since you're one of those "first-impressions-are-stuck-forever-in-my-mind" kind of people the original became the remake for you. But never mind what you and I think, let's see what the *audience* thinks. First let's see the IMDB rating for the original: 7,6. And for the remake? 6,3. But let's also have a look what the *professional critics* think. On Rottentomatoes the original has a 90% rating (and a 85% audience rating), whereas the remake has a 51% (rotten) rating (63% audience rating).
And when it comes to commercial success, well, the remake only made $38,075,318 worldwide from a $45,000,000 budget. Ouch. That spells a flop.
So if you loved the 2005 one. Good for you. The Imdb (audience scores), Rottentomatoes (professional critic score) and the commercial flop of the 2005 version all speak against you.
If you're even serious to begin with. It's always wise to suspect that somebody who posts something silly only does it for the sake of online littering.
@@jamesshunt5123 I agree that the original is better but why get so offended if somebody likes the remake better? It’s really not that serious, lmao. Let them have their opinion and you can have yours. It’s just a movie, why bring up what _others_ think by showing them the rating? It’s not like it would change their mind once they find out other people didn’t think it was as good.
There is no right or wrong when talking about opinions, especially on trivial matters.
The musical number itself is hilarious, but the audience reaction and the one guy wildly applauding might be the most side-splitting thing Mel Brooks has ever done.
when a bad play as one fan, the fan is normally not assaulted. this is the most severe reaction to a review you disagree with.
The one guy is Franz Liebkind, the writer of the musical.
@@Sanchewich No, Franz is in the helmet.
That is actualy Alan Johnson applauding at the end. He choreographed the whole thing, and Mel thought it would be a great gag to put him in, wildly applauding his own work. And having no one at all agree with him.
@@hoodatdondar2664 The guy in the helmet at 2:22 was silently agreeing with him.
@@SupermarketSweep777 probably!
The audience response is my favorite. It gets me every. Single. Time. And the actors goose-stepping across the stage. Holy Mary. I cant stop laughing and I've seen it dozens of times. XD
Let's not forget those ridiculous costumes the models wear, particulary the one with the pretzels for a bra.
It's pure genius. 🤩🤩😂😂
😮 / 😧 / 😨 / etc.
note the audience member wearing the german army helmet at 2:24 or so.
@@jobob47 that person is the one who wrote the play! LOL Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder sought him out. Kenneth Mars is the actor. He’s hilarious and has been in a few of Mel Brooks’ films.
I definitely prefer this to the Nathan Lane/Matthew Broderick version, because the 1968 version just doesn't seem to care if it offends you. The 2005 version pulls some punches, but this version is utterly savage. Just brilliant jet-black satire.
it was a crime to remove the Dick Shawn character. baby.
I loved the Lane & Broderick version……..
The contrast is especially interesting considering the War was only 23 years in the past in '68.
Mel Brooks…will hands down always be the OG of edgy comedy, nobody will ever do it like he did so successfully
The one Jew who came out of the Holocaust with his sense of Humor intact.
By the time they formed the revolving swastika I was rolling on the floor holding my stomach. This has to be the funniest musical number ever put to screen. Only Mel could be this audacious and this hilarious. My Polish mother who survived WW2 occupation by the Nazis saw this movie and said Mel was right, it's better to mock them than argue with them. RIP to a wise woman.
The balls that this took
Brad Parker it’s like calling Ben Shapiro a nazi
@Brad Parker he barely got away with it then! They had to get Peter Seller's endorsement...like Mel.Brooks and Gene Wilder weren't.Jewish enough!
@Brad Parker Dude what the hell are you talking about? This would be tame by today's standards. Have you ever heard of a movie called Jojo Rabbit? The comedy about a young boy with Hitler for a wacky imaginary friend? Yeah, that got nominated for an Oscar, and it came out in 2019. Not everyone is a twitter snowflake-the majority of people, and in fact the majority of liberals, are more okay with this stuff than you think.
In fact, people were WAY more uptight back when this film was made, as evidenced by how controversial it became when today it wouldn't be that controversial at all.
@@Kira1Lawliet Jojo Rabbit only got away with it BECAUSE of comparisons with The Producers. If it had to be made without reference to it, it couldn't have been made by Hollywoke.
@@Aristocles22 I don't think you know what you're talking about. Jojo Rabbit had almost nothing to do with The Producers, and few people were comparing one with the other. Further, you're contradicting your own point. If today's filmmakers were so hypersensitive that a movie like the Producers would never be made today, then how does it makes sense for a movie that, at least in your mind, builds off of something like the Producers and goes even further with that kind of tone, to be not only made but critically and commercially successful? Maybe you're just espousing a rosy view of the past and telling yourself that people are just more sensitive today than they were then. In reality, people then were more sensitive (they actually had and enforced obscenity laws that could land you in jail for using crude language in public settings, which, as much as you might harp against modern social media culture, is nonetheless far more totalitarian than what we have today). The only difference is in what they were sensitive towards. People then were just as sensitive in favor of conservative sensibilities as people today are in favor of liberal ones. The cultural position of the sensitivity has changed, and in terms of it changing by degree, it's actually considerably softer now than it was back then.
“Winter for Poland and France” gets me every time
Mel won the Oscar for Best Screenplay for this. His acceptance speech was amazing (and hilarious). He thanked Gene Wilder at least three times.
I think that he should have expressed the same amount of gratitude for Dick Shawn's performance. Gene Wilder did what was expected. He's in almost every scene, so he had to be good, or this film would have dragged down and flopped, but Dick Shawn is the bright and brilliant light of this film. His way of playing his part was original and hilarious. He showed just the right amount of energy, for an in-the-clouds peace and love counter-culture person. Did not go for slapstick or broad, attention getting comedy. He was brilliant and wonderful, in the audition, and as a counter-culture peace and love Hitler.
@@ceceliaclarke I would also add Kenneth Mars for his hysterical portrayal of the unreformed Nazi playwright Franz Liebkind. The scene where he's comparing Churchill and Hitler is side splitting. It's done very subtly and skillfully by a great character actor. He steals almost every scene he's in.
@@donpietruk1517 Yes. He is a perennial favorite. There is just quite a bit of slapstick and broad comedy to his portrayal. I prefer the more understated approach of Dick Shawn. Zero Mostel is low key, dead-pan and understated like this, and I think that this is why he's so memorably wonderful in this. Gene Wilder is a little over the top with his acting, in my opinion. He does not really give the impression of a mild-mannered, soft-voiced accountant. I do understand your appreciation of Kenneth Mars in this film. Someone in this story had to be frenetic and out of control, to balance Dick Shawn's peace -loving stoner character, and
Zero Mostel's jaded, cynical, seen-it-all-before charracter. Kenneth Mars was also very wonderful. Thank you for your comment.
@@donpietruk1517Churchill was not a painter! Hitler could paint an entire room in an afternoon!
Possibly the finest piece of political and social satire ever made?! Ever.
Making fun of nazis, a time honored tradition since Charlie Chaplin
Almost certainly 😆
I Couldn't agree with you more
Jewish humor is great.
This scene has got to be one of the funniest ever put on film. What makes it so hilarious is the audience reaction. It always makes my stomach and cheeks ache from laughing.
I was rolling on the floor the first time I saw this.
@@FFM0594 I am sorry, but if you have read Primo Levi's "If this is a man" you will realise that there are some things too horrific to be transformed by comedy.
@@dominique2693 Found the humor nazi.
@@dominique2693 I have, he’s wrong.
But it is a reasonable thing to think, won’t post a long essay. But will note that Mel himself said that there are things here to which a reasonable person could take offence.
Incidentally, Edgar Allan Poe agreed with you. From ‘The Masque of the Red Death”, when the company see the Masque:
“There are chords in the hearts of the most reckless which cannot be touched without emotion. Even with the utterly lost, to whom life and death are equally jests, there are matters of which no jest can be made. The whole company, indeed, seemed now deeply to feel that in the costume and bearing of the stranger neither wit nor propriety existed”
And the debate goes on.
P.S. In 1942, Ernst Lubitsch released a Jack Benny comedy about the Nazi occupation of Poland. It makes this look tame. I still don’t quite see how the hell he made it work. Called “ To Be or Not to Be”.
Mel Brooks tried a remake in 1983. Like calls to like, I guess. Incidentally, the 1983 director was Alan Johnson, who appears in this clip as the only member of the audience at the end who claps.
It's not hyperbolic to this a true milestone in filmmaking. "The Producers" has influenced everyone from John Waters to David Lynch to Quentin Tarantino. It holds up remarkably well, especially when compared to many other "important" movies of the late 60s, which seem painfully dated today. One of the few films worthy of the word classic.
I’ve seen better movies from the 60’s
Dr. Strangelove holds up well as a comedy in the same macabre vein.
You couldn't make a film like this today. People would say, "Hey, wait a minute, this is just Mel Brooks' acclaimed satirical black comedy _The Producers_ from 1968."
What about Jo Jo Rabbit?
@@gillianbrown8502 The joke is you can't make the same film twice
Except when it’s 2005 lol
@@gillianbrown8502 yeah it made ok money, covered production and marketing. But I haven't seen anyone that likes it as much as this classic.
It may be Waititi's flavor of humor, he's hit or miss for most like truffles or the super downer ending, or confusing ending, or all of eth above.
Like are we suppose to feel bad for that kid at the end? Are we humanizing brainwashed germans? ok, he's a dumb kid, we can forgive him.
But when a movie leaves you confused emotionally or grossed out and jokes don't even land...why rewatch or recommend?
Maybe in time it will be a cult classic, but I never found Waititi funny fully, he has like 1 in 10 jokes I'll chuckle at and 5 that will gross me out: the vomit, the toes, the blood pass.
Potentially unintentional, but this joke has Mr Sunday Movies written all over it.
“You are the audience, I am the author, I outrank you!”
🤣
Only a mind like Mel Brooks could come up with this kind of hilarity
Without equal as the most gloriously tasteless musical moment ever committed to film !
By the time I was 12, I knew all the words to this song., as well as the words to the "Blazing Saddles" theme.Thanks Dad! This is one of my favourite movies of all time.
Same here. Blazing Saddles ftw
Same except my dad was my history teacher at the time and he showed it to the whole class and we were all little middle schoolers who didn’t get it but the song was catchy so off we pranced to recess singing “springtime for hitler.” Boy did my dad get some weird looks
You had an awesome father.
My parents let me watch Blazing Saddles when I was 12 too, with a warning not to use the N word (which I already knew was a particularly bad racial slur).
The fucking choreographed synchronized swastika 😂😂😂 I honestly feel bad for laughing at that, but god damn, that’s genius.
It was made to be laughed at.
Funniest part is no one in the audience can actually see it
Don't be stupid, be a smarty...🙉
It was a reference to the June Taylor Dancers, who opened the Jackie Gleason Show in that era and whose routine always included an overhead shot. The number also includes homages to the Ziegfeld Follies and Busby Berkeley (who is also spoofed in the final scene, with Dom DeLuise, of "Blazing Saddles").
@@morganalabeille5004 I bet the people in the nosebleeds could see it. I'm sure there's an analogy in there somewhere.
The poor knew what was coming, but the rich were too close to the action to see the big picture.
" _I waz born in Dusseldorf, und zat iz why zey call me Rolf!_ "
1:18
Dr. Harold Pontiff Coomer Don’t be stupid be a smarty Come and join the nazi party
I voz born in Passau.......
Don't be stupid, be a smartie! Come and join the nazi party!
dont be stupid be a smartie come und join the nazi party
@@amadeodante That line was dubbed by Mel Brooks himself.
Here goes my like. As a german this was hilarious
You're a good sport!!!
And BTW the war was a long time ago. The hatchet is buried. I am a big fan of German culture and music.
How can this be hilarious for you ? 🤦♂️
@@erfannadernezhad190 Some people aren’t so easily offended maybe?
@@bigtony1434 yeah , you're right
I genuinely love the outfits for the older version, the remake has its charm but old Hollywood had the edge.
Susan Strohman directed and choreographed the play and the film. A lady of incredible talent. I agree the 1968 film made me laugh at the top of my lungs.
Didn't care to much for the remake tbh. Though it was cool to see. Matthew Broderick & Nathan Lane. Share screen time again. For the first time since Lion King🙂
I prefer the remake
One of the many films that should have never been remade. This is a masterpiece!
I haven't seen the remake (I'd either forgotten or didn't know there was one), but just can't help wondering: why make one?
@@G6JPG Totally agree with you. Why? Someone thinks they can improve on the original? I thought the same thing when they decided to remake Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. Blasphemous!
Dolphins are returning in Italy
Meanwhile in Poland:
@snowy the snowman that's pretty interesting
@snowy the snowman The fact that there isn't greater co-operation between the UN, NATO and the EU always seemed ridiculous to me. But I guess a lot of people already see the E.U. as some kind of Imperial Government rather than as a trade union, so I guess it makes sense that people would oppose merging all of those things into basically a world government.
@snowy the snowman HANG ON where you implying something there
@snowy the snowman yeah France is nationalist as hell are you surprised lmao
@@moonshinei Yeah, the French think they‘re the only ones who are important. Which is ridiculous since Americans know WE are the only ones who are important.
Yes - it is a gem indeed!
When I first saw this movie I was simply amazed.
Mel Brooks is a great creator of broad film farces, e.g. Blazing Saddles and comedic parodies, e.g. the TV series Get Smart.
He was born Melvin Kaminsky on June 28, 1926, in Brooklyn, New York, to Max (1895-1929) and Kate (née Brookman) Kaminsky (1896-1989).
His father's family were German Jews from Danzig (present-day Gdańsk, Poland); his mother's family were Jews from Kiev.
Mel had real balls to do this scene in 1968.
He won an Oscar for Best Screenplay for The Producers:
Mel Brooks Wins Original Screenplay: 1969 Oscars - UA-cam
I would be the one guy clapping. This is one of the most awesome things I've ever seen in my life. Mel is hilarious.
The modern version is funny. This is so much more hysterically funny. I love Old Hollywood.
The modern version, even though it was made by Mel Brooks himself, couldn't hold a candle to this one.
@@jezebeljones659 I like the modern version but this one does such a better job at showing how absolutely offensive the material was and that they almost got away with their plot
I still remember the first time I saw this movie with my Dad and younger brother when it ran late night on our local PBS station. Dad had seen it years before in the theater, and was all, this is funny, you're going to love it. He was right. We all laughed so hard during this scene...and then the audience reactions came 2:22 and 3:16, and we nearly died at those points, especially the first, with the audience aghast, jaws dropped, all except Franz Liebkind.
I like how the whole audience is aghast except for Franz Liebkind, who is delighted to see his work on stage. LOL
The best defense against tyranny is humour. Without a doubt!
A gem of satire. Mel Brooks is a treasure.
Mel Brooks, Gene Wilder, Zero Mostel, how can you not laugh with these masters?
The best part is that the song is actually good but you absolutely can't sing any of the lyrics out loud
I do just to piss people off
I played it in cod voice chat every one in the lobby left i dont know if ill make it out with my life if i said it in a public park
The tableaux of the three dudes at 3:00 gets me every time.
OMG-- just as hysterically funny as it was over 40 yrs ago.
2:22 Franz Liebkind sitting there smiling in white tie and a stahlhelm 🤣
Beer mug, bretzel and walkyrie. He is a total genius.
Another thing is the "Kitch über alles" tone of the whole scene.
Priceless. A classic. This is the first of three times I ever lost it in a theater (laughed so hard I had to go out into the lobby out of consideration for the other audience members). Thank you, Mel Brooks.
What were the other two?
@@cufflink44 1. The Dexter Lake Club scene in "Animal House." At the end, the fat guy, Dorfman, shouts "The Negroes took our dates!" 2. The scene in "Airplane" where the singing nun kneels before the two black passengers and sings "R-E-S-P-E-C-T" (one of them promptly throws up).
The audience reminded me of seeing Tom Hanks’ reaction when Ricky Gervais made that speech 😂😂
This has to be the funniest shit I've ever seen in my life. I'm not even kidding.
masterpiece
When I first saw this on tv as a kid decades ago, I had a laugh fest. This film is off the wall fun.
Can you imagine being so talented as to think of this and present it so brilliantly and hilariously?! Totally genius!
I enjoy how Zero LOVEs to watch the audience squirm! It's so delicious! This is much better than the new version.
My guy you commented this when i was 7
when you have this song stuck in your head
Это гениально, не зря нашёл этот бриллиант среди старых фильмов, спасибо этой сценке и случайной рекомендации.
Мы тоже веселились, - кино прекрасное, и даже римэйк... Но... Веселились, веселились, а у видели нынешнюю реальность нацизма, и, - прослезились...
2:24 Those two people just living, especially that girl in orange, while everyone else just has their jaws hitting the floor gets me every time.
You know the one in the helmet is Franz Lincoln
The one with the helmet is Franz Liebkind, who wrote the play, and the one in the orange dress is Roger DeBris, a drag queen and the play's director.
when the camera is above the dancers and they're in the shape of a swastika 😂 still cracks me up
The Producers was a masterpiece. This part had me crying with laughter.
This is my number one favorite movie of all time. As such, I've inflicted it on many people, some of whom love it, some of whom are indifferent to it.
But no matter who I show it to, EVERYONE laughs at the ONE GUY who applauds at the end and gets smacked by the rest of the audience.
Probably the greatest comedy movie ever made.. Thank you Mel, saw it when it came out and have watched it dozens of times since. It just never ceases to be funny.
For me, it's a toss-up between this and "Life of Brian."
If you liked this, I would highly recommend JoJo Rabbit. Mel Brooks himself gave a big shout out to the writer/actor Taiki Waititi Loved it.
I love JoJo Rabbit! Even funnier seeing a New Zealand Maori playing Hitler...a comic genius!
"We're marching to a faster pace - look out, here comes the master race" OMG that's good writing.
2:23 dude in the helmet seemed to be enjoying the play.
He's the playwright of "Springtime for Hitler". He likes this part but later in the movie, he gets really mad about the way Hitler is portrayed--as a hippy dude.
WHY? Why does this song live rent-free in my head after so many years?!
You’re moving at a faster pace!
I have this on DVD. A totally funny movie. Gene Wilder, Zero Mostel and Kenneth Mars were awesome.
Big big fan of Kenny Mars. Every other Franz liebken is an amateur compared to him.
Me too! 😂
Tbh, I feel like a member of that audience today watching the "River to the sea" crowd.
Hollywood has never learned that when a movie is perfect to begin with, it doesn’t need to be remade!
Sometimes. After 1941, they never tried to remake “The Maltese Falcon”.
My Dad showed this to my brothers and I when we were young. It was one of our favorite movies! Great memories. :)
This never gets old.
And it never will. This is timeless satire.
This was one of my favorite scenes along with the ones with Dick Shawn. His audition was hysterical.
I am part German and I find it hilarious. And yes, I do like Hasselhorf, I find his self deprecatory wit and casual charm quite refreshing.
It's OK Bruder - can understand your like for Hasselhoff much more than the French lionization of Jerry Lewis.
Which part of you found it funny? The German part or the "other" part.
I'm part German and part Jewish and I find this movie to be one of the most hilarious of all time--I can't stop laughing when I see it
As an Historian I have always loved the sheer irony and utter bravery of Mr B.
And as for 'History of the World Part One'
Utter, utter genius.
Another Mel Brooks movie that is So genius it could never be made today.
Mel Brooks is the only man alive that could deliver the line
"Don't be stupid, be a smarty, come and join the Nazi party" and get a laugh!
Because it doesn't hit the same. The humor could only come in the 60s
This skit is one the greatest choreographic masterpieces!!!
Honestly I feel like this and Dr. Strnagelove are not only some of the best (if not the best) comedies ever made, but the most important comedies ever made
Anybody whose done an iota of research into the horrors commited by the Nazis will realize just how "demonic" the actions of these people are
While its always important to remember that these are in fact not the actions of demons, but of man, that committed such horrors as the holocaust, its echo's we still hear today despite the over half a century it has been since then.
Its incredibly important for the sake of our species that we show the shear absurd truth of the actions of these people
Hitlers war to "save the white race" resulted in the death of many conscripted white children.
Hitler was a mad man, an epitome of nihilism.
It is not only important to make fun of his actions, but it is necessary that we make fun of the Nazis for what they are.
Films like this are immortal and I hope in 20-40 years we are singing "springtime for Putin and Russia" with actors that have heavy Ukrainian influenced accents.
Its important that while we learn from the mistakes of pur species that we laugh at it.
And thats why this film will be immortal
Mel Brooks was absolutely on fire for about 10 years. The Producers and Blazing Saddles are absolutely top notch comedies that are still hilarious.
I’d throw in Young Frankenstein to the list.
History of the World: Part 1
Spaceballs was also pretty amazing. That movie is so quotable.
His run from Producers to Spaceballs is real good. From then on his parodies and satires were spotty. But Producers, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Silent Movie, High Anxiety, History of the World and Spaceballs still stand up as rewatchable multiple times.
Zero & Gene & Mel together makes genius x 3! What’s not to love?! 👌👏👌👏👏
Maybe I'm being a pedant here. But I always loved the fact Mel Brooks. Went full throttle. And had the dancers dressed in SS uniforms. Rather then just regular Wehrmacht/Luftwaffe uniform. 😆😂
Mel Brooks making this after having fought the Nazis is amazing lol
That weird spinning sound you here is Busby Berkley turning over in his grave... And he's probably laughing too!
I was born in Dusseldorf, that is why they call me Rolf. ;-)
Seeing lots of "this sort of thing sure couldn't get made today, this humor just isn't allowed anymore" etc, sort of comments and just want to point out that the musical adaptation of "The Producers" that has this number in it is currently touring the country and selling real well.
If you only made The Producers and Blazing Saddles in your lifetime, you'd die content. Brooks at his very finest, and still hilarious after 50 years.
This is so much more understated than the musical. I'm glad he big bucks off the song versions, but this remains the gold standard.
Brooks is amazing. Couldn't make it today to our shame. Nor Blazing Saddles, my favorite. Sad commentary on our times.
Not gonna last. Piss on all leftist whiners. A new age begins in comedy and movie making.
@@bretthess6376 Obviously a blood relation. See you NT.
The only 'sad' aspect is you and other Fascist scrotes making such comments. The stage version has run for many years.
This movie debuted in 1968.
Robert Kennedy and MLK were assassinated and it would be a full year before man got anywhere near landing on the moon.
Truly a timeless classic.
This clip is better than the entire Disney Star Wars trilogy.
A priceless gem of ridiculous comedy! (And VERY well choreographed!)
There will never be a funnier bit than this ever…it simply cannot be topped
I wasn’t aware there was a version before the one with Nathan Lane.
It was actually a 1967 film(i was around when it was released).
This won the academy award for best screenplay👏👏👏👏
Well! Talk about "Bad Taste!"
Too bad they left. When they found out later it was so funny they probably figured, "Let's get tickets to see the rest of it."
I just love how the music gets soft after the “Join the Nazi Party” as people watch aghast