The Producers (Special Edition)

Set Contains: 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 Product description 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"