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LAFF RIOT

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Mel Brooks (original)

The Producers (1968)

Ebert says that it is one of the funniest films ever made and I have to agree.

It is still funny forty years later. Imagine seeing it in 1968.

It broke rules from beginning to end. It was shocking.

There is no equivalent today to Zero Mostel who was a comic actor.

He rules.

Gene Wilder was new then. His neurotics are amazing.

Kenneth Mars is great as Franz Leibkind, the author of the non-hit hit in question.

A surprise. In a scene in a bar where the producers go to savor their victory there is a barfly. He is the same guy who played Godfather Prizzi in Monday's Best Film. William/Bill Hickey. He got nominated for Prizzi.

This kind of thing knocks me out.

If you have not seen it in awhile you should.

I am not, incidentally, much interested in the musical which I hear flops on the screen.

This is a definite 5 out of Netflix5.

Labels: best films