Brick heartily endorses renting the DVD version of The Producers — the Lane-Broderick version. (Of course we vouch for the original. How else would you know that Matthew Broderick deliberately imitates Gene Wilder’s voice, inflections and timing when the dialogue is exactly as it was in the original — and that Nathan Lane does not ape Zero Mostel?)
This is a Mel Brooks movie, although someone else directed it (Mel’s up in years and besides the flick needed a dance-staging expert). If you don’t like slapstick, overlapping one-liners, gleeful sexism, merry homophobia and knowing parody, all at once, don’t bother. This movie is for those of us who loved Mel’s almost Silent Movie and will stop channel surfing for only three movies: Singing in the Rain, Casablanca and Young Frankenstein. (Neither Blazing Saddles nor the original Producers is on late-night that often or they’d be on that list.)
Normally, a DVD’s extras are pleasant diversions after the show, background while you and the missus are feeding the cats, putting mugs in the dishwasher and otherwise preparing for bed. The Producers’ bonuses are so fun I went through them again the next night. While most of the outtakes actually are funny, the deleted scenes are what brought me back for another viewing. In them I recognized parodies of movie versions of Fiddler on the Roof, Sound of Music and The Music Man, done more with camera angles and flashes of choreography, nothing so much as even a chord or a rhythm. If I knew musicals better, surely I would have caught many more.
When the price comes down, this might be the first DVD I will purchase. Why own a recording of something you’ll look at maybe once a year? Audio recordings sure, but to sit down and see a movie repeatedly?
What can’t be done well, in writing, is to express the exuberant joy of this movie, to persuade folks to head to the video store for it. Did I mention Uma Thurman? Sure hers is a caricature of a part, but it’s fully the opposite of her one-dimensional Kill Bill role. My baseline for classic drama is that somewhere within such a production it expresses a sense of play — yes, I mean real childlike play — even for just a couple of minutes. Shakespeare did it, August Wilson did it, and Mel does it. -30-
