Keep it GAY!

[twincityhacker]

So, after a very long time, I went to the video sotre to rent Some Like it Hot. They didn't have it so I left.

Another day, I go to the video store - there's only one in a half hour radius because they drove out the other three stores - to try to rent Casanblanca. After searching for Casablanca, and several other films, I again left, weeping for the soul of Dubois county.

For my third go around I decide that I should really watch the American remake of Godzilla. So I did.
Godzilla, was actually a decent film as long as the ginat radioactive lizard's name is Zilla. Zilla was a perfectly good movie monster and her offspring were vaugly terrifying. But Zilla is just not Godzilla. And Godzilla's offspring should be non-threating.

And then I also found the Producers This has to be one of the funniest films in existance. Everything was so over the top, even when it was unsettling (Mr. Bialystock? Why are you seducing Mr. Bloom with baloons and carosel rides?) it was still funny.

So, while I'm still weeping for the spirt for of the soul of Family Video, I no longer wish to commit arson. But they're still evil.

Comments

[ludditerobot.livejournal.com]

Are we talking The Producers or The Producers? I love the original and haven't yet seen the remake. Of course, it's Mel doing the remake, and you gotta trust him.

XANDER: Matthew Broderick did not kill Godzilla. He killed a big, dumb lizard. That was not the real Godzilla.

And I'm sending you Rick+Ilsa=Lurv thoughts.

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

When I saw the original The Producers when I was 12, it was the funniest film I'd ever seen bar none. It's still one of the funniest films you'll ever see, bar none.

The Springtime for Hitler scene in the original The Producers is the most inspired bit of lunacy ever comitted to the silver screen. What makes it even more inspired is the historical context of the movie itself. Prior to 1968 and Mel Brooks doing it, no one would've ever dared even trying to pull it off. It really caused on hell of a scandal when the movie was first released, not the least of which you had too many people still alive where World War II and the Concentration Camps were fresh memories, and a lot of people, especially people on the east coast of the United States, knew someone that had a tatooed number on their forearm.

Years later, Brooks said he deliberately targeted fascism (as characterized by Naziism) as a way to tear it down to a level so people could see it wasn't just the scary monster in the closet, but a rediculous scary monster in the closet. (Sort of like the bogarts in Harry Potter, now that I think about it.) He's sort of made a career out of it, sometimes expanding it to racism, as in Blazing Saddles (another film you've got to see).

[Side note: Seriously, though. If you can get your hands on Mel Brooks's oevre (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000316/), see everything you can up to 1983's To Be or Not To Be, which I think is a superior remake to the original film that stared Jack Benny. The stuff he's written after that is very hit-and-miss, although his career in front of the camera has still stayed pretty solid. And by the way, can you believe Mel was married to the late, great Mrs. Robinson (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000843/)? Honest to god. They were married for 41 years. *shakes head*]

Admittedly, when I saw the play, I literally fell off my chair because I was laughing so hard, especially during Springtime for Hitler. I thought that number would be absolutely impossible to top, but on stage...oh man, I'm still grinning.

The trivia behind the original movie is also awesome. While it wasn't Gene Wilder's first job, it was his first major role and the one that launched his movie career. Before that, he was a bit-part player in several television shows.

Zero Mostel had been blacklisted from Hollywood for supporting left-wing causes in the U.S. by the House of Un-American Activities (re: McCarthyism, which has most recently been portrayed in Good Night and Good Luck). The Producers was his second film (the film version of the A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum was the first) after his blacklisting in 1955 for refusing to name names.

[Side note: if you ever get a chance, see The Front (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074554/), which also happens to have the insanely talented Mr. Mostel in the cast. I'm not a fan of Woody Allen in general, but this one of of several films of his I like. Even better, he went out of his way to hire actors/writers who were blacklisted by McCarthy and at the end of the film, every single one of those blacklisted people appear on screen with their names and the dates of their blacklisting.]

Also another piece of trivia: Bloom is somewhat based on Mel Brooks himself. One of his first jobs in New York was as an accountant and he did the books for a Zero Mostel-like producer of Broadway plays who also did a lot of romancing of little old ladies to finance his projects. The difference was, the real-life producer was always looking for the next hit and didn't want any flops. Mel, with his twisted mind and in his office, would look at the figures and think, "You know, this guy would actually make money if his plays closed after the first performance."

And that was the genisis of The Producers.

Don't get me wrong. I loooooove the play. But I love the movie just a little bit more because it was such a whack upside the funnybone when I saw it.