Trivia for
The Producers (1968)

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• 'Mel Brooks (I)' ' voice is dubbed in for a singer in "Springtime for Hitler".
  
  
• The "Springtime for Hitler" sequences were filmed at Broadway's Playhouse Theater (torn down in 1969), whose marquee can be glimpsed momentarily. However, in the scene where the theater blows up, we see the marquee of the Cort Theater, which stood (and still stands) across 48th Street from the Playhouse.
  
  
• The character played by Gene Wilder is named Leo Bloom. His co-star Zero Mostel became famous for his portrayal of James Joyce's character Leopold Bloom in an off-broadway production of "Ulysses In Nighttown."
  
  

• Because of the "Springtime For Hitler" musical number, the film was banned in Germany. It wasn't shown in that country until it was included in a film festival featuring the works of Jewish filmmakers.
  
  
• 'Mel Brooks (I)' wrote the libretto of a real-life Broadway musical flop, "All American", which starred Ray Bolger and ran for 80 performances in 1962.
  
  
• Adapted as a stage musical by 'Mel Brooks (I)' , which opened in March 2001 with Nathan Lane as Bialystock and Matthew Broderick as Bloom. It won a record-breaking 12 Tony awards in 2001.
  
  
• The musical The Producers opened at the St. James Theater on April 19, 2001 and ran for 2502 performances winning a record-breaking 12 Tonys.
  
  
• Max says, "Gregor Samsa awoke one morning to discover that he had been transformed into a giant cockroach. Nah, it's too good." This is a reference to Franz Kafka's "Metamorphosis". In another 'Mel Brooks (I)' film, Spaceballs (1987), he makes another obscure reference to this story during the "Mega-Maid" scene.
  
  
• The first film directed by 'Mel Brooks (I)' .
  
  
• The name "Bialystock" is taken from a Polish city "Bialystok" from which 'Mel Brooks (I)' 's ancestors come. The city was major Jewish center in Eastern Europe until the Holocaust.
  
  
• May contain the first use of the term "creative accounting".
  
  
• Dustin Hoffman was set to play Franz Liebkind, but declined when he got the part of Benjamin in The Graduate (1967). Brooks only allowed Hoffman the chance to go off to the audition for the film because his wife (Anne Bancroft) was in it, and Brooks was familiar enough with the role of Benjamin to know Hoffman was utterly wrong for it (as written) and would never be cast.
  
  
• 'Mel Brooks (I)' based the character of Max Bialystock on a real Broadway producer he knew who used to seduce little old ladies in exchange for checks that were supposedly to produce his latest play, which would usually be called "Cash."
  
  
• 'Mel Brooks (I)' cannot read music. "Springtime for Hitler" and "Prisoners of Love" (as were all the songs Brooks writes for his films) were hummed into a tape recorder and transcribed by an expert.
  
  
• The reason the film got released at all was due to the intervention of Peter Sellers. After Brooks completed the picture, he was told by Executive Producer Joseph E. Levine that the film, which was then called "Springtime for Hitler", would not be released; Levine thought it was in poor taste and not very funny. While Sellers was in Hollywood making I Love You, Alice B. Toklas! (1968), he liked to have films screened for his friends and himself for entertainment. One night this film was screened and Sellers loved it. When he heard it would not be released he began calling Levine and eventually convinced him to release it, the only compromise being that the title of the film be changed to "The Producers".
  
  
• The original Swedish title for the film was a direct translation of the original title - Producenterna (The Producers). The film didn't arouse much interest from the public. This changed when the title was replaced by "Det våras för Hitler" (Springtime for Hitler). Then the film became an instant smash. All subsequent Mel Brooks films then got Swedish title starting with "Det våras för...." e.g. "Det våras för Fran kenstein" / ..."Sherriffen" / ..."Galningarna" etc.
  
  
• Next to Max Bialystok's office is a door with "Hertzberg Dance School" printed on the glass. Michael Hertzberg was the film's First Assistant Director.
  
  
• The name the "hold me, touch me" lady gives to Bialystock when they are playing "The Contessa and the Chauffer" at the beginning of the film, Rudolfo, is also the name of Bialystock's actual chauffer after he and Bloom raise the money for the play.
  
  
• "God dag, på dig" is Swedish for "Good day to you". Since this is not an expression that any Swedish person would ever actually use as a greeting, it's most likely a so-called literal translation from English.
  
  
• According to an interview with director and Blue Underground owner William Lustig, the original negative was destroyed because the then-owner decided it wasn't necessary to pay for the storage of its negative library.
  
  
• Director Trademark: ['Mel Brooks (I)' ] [the producers] This was Mel Brooks' first movie. All of Mel Brook's future movies make at least one reference to this movie, some with bits of a musical and others by referring to Nazi Germany.
  
  
• Max Bialystock says, "This means wine, women and song... and women." This line was also uttered by Wolf J. Flywheel (Groucho Marx) in The Big Store (1941), 27 years earlier.
  
  
• Bialystock refers to Bloom as "Prince Mishkin" at the beginning. Prince Mishkin is the title character of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's "The Idiot", implying that Bloom is an idiot.
  
  
• Although Peter Sellers was instrumental in the release of this film, 'Mel Brooks (I)' claims to have offered Sellers the role of Leo Bloom (eventually played by Gene Wilder) but turned it down.
  
  
• One of the fictitious "bad plays" that Bialystock rejects as being "too good" parodies Ionesco's Rhinoceros, which Zero Mostel himself had starred in on Broadway.
  
  
• The movie is actually based on a response Brooks gave in an interview with Playboy in 1966:
  • PLAYBOY: What else are you working on?
  • BROOKS: Springtime for Hitler.
  • PLAYBOY: You're putting us on.
  • BROOKS: No, it's the God's honest truth. It's going to be a play within a play, or a play within a film - I haven't decided yet. It's a romp with Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden. There was a whole nice side of Hitler. He was a good dancer - no one knows that. He loved a parakeet named Bob - no one knows that either. It's all brought out in the play.
  
  
  
• The movie's line "We find the defendants incredibly guilty." was voted as the #88 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere in 2007.
  
  
• Premiere voted this movie as one of "The 50 Greatest Comedies Of All Time" in 2006.
  
  
• The movie's line "I'm author. You are the audience. I outrank you!" was voted as the #14 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere in 2007.
  
  
• The date on the copy of Variety announcing the casting call is September 6, 1967.
  
  
• Mel Brooks original title for the film was Springtime for Hitler but the studio wouldn't allow it. They did say that they would allow Springtime for Mussolini. Brooks didn't like it and ended up calling it The Producers.
  
  
• The original screenplay had Franz Liebkind having Max and Leo swearing on The Siegfried Oath, accompanied by "The Ride of the Valkyries" and promising fealty to Siegfried, Wagner, Nietzche, Hindenburg, The Graf Spee, The Blue Max, and Adolph "You know who." This explains Franz's outraged cry when entering Max's office, "You have broken the Siegfried Oath - you must die!" The Oath was restored in the musical version.
  
  
• Gene Wilder said in an interview on TCM that at the first reading of the script he excused himself to leave for a dentist appointment he could not miss when in fact, he had to go to the unemployment office to collect a check for $55 he desperately needed at the time.
  
  

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