Transcript: Christian Movie Reviews: The Producers Retro Drive-In Podcast #8

3, 2, 1, 0, 0, and liftoff! Welcome to the Retro Drive-In Podcast with Jason Pastor Jay Locker. Say the secret word and divide $100. It's a common word, something you find around the house. We want to thank all our sponsors for their help in making this podcast possible. My dog is if he gets to go much faster, this thing is going to leave the ground. Don't look now, but it is Jethro, you better get up there and tell that bus driver to slow down Now let's rewind the tape and join Pastor Jay for some retro entertainment talk on the Retro Drive-In Podcast As a laugh, what are you doing here? Greetings, everyone. Thank you for joining me once again on a retro drive-in podcast. Of course, I am Pastor Jay, Jason Lockhart, with you once again. And today we're looking back at a genesis of a film career, if you will. So many know the famous director Mel Brooks. Mel Brooks, we've lost many, many iconic stars and filmmakers and all very, very recently some of the icons. Mel Brooks is still with us. But Mel Brooks is an interesting kind of a guy. Mel Brooks is known for his films making fun of genres, right? Mel Brooks spoofs every kind of genre you can think of. With the thriller Hitchcock-type films, he made High Anxiety. With science fiction, he made Spaceballs. With the western Blazing Saddles. with the dramas, the horror and all. He made Young Frankenstein. With the adventure films, he made Robin Hood, Men in Tights, just so many different films and all. He even spoofed the silent films with silent movie. That seems to be his forte, is making fun of genres of films. And he does a great job with it as far as that goes. He's really, really good. He's a lot of fun, does a lot of good jobs, a lot of good job with that. I mean, he just, he seems to excel at that. Now, for a lot of people, there are some people that would say, well, you know, maybe his films are a little more risque or a little bit more edgy or, you know, Maybe they'd even go as far as to saying dirty. I don't know. I can see where some people are saying that. There are times it can be a little off color or whatever. But it all had to start somewhere. Mel Brooks wanted to get into filmmaking. He wanted to make movies. He wrote a script about a producer. he had a producer and he saw this guy and he saw how he conducted business and he thought, hmm, this would make a good movie so he sat down and he wrote a whole complete script of a movie and pitched it and believe it or not he ended up getting the ability to make the film the film company said hey, go ahead, do it you direct it so he made his directorial debut with the film called The Producers. And wow, what an amazing film it is. The Producers follows a Broadway producer that's kind of a failure of a Broadway producer played by Zero Mastow. Zero Mastow is known probably for that crazy hair of his Zero Mostow kind of balding on top okay He's basically, you know, but he's got hair in the back, right? So what he does is he grows it out real long, and he pulls it up and around, you know? And so you know Zero Mostow from that, from that pull up and kind of wrap around on the top of his head. It's iconic with him. That's his style. That's his thing. I don't know. Hey, whatever gets you over, makes you feel good, whatever. But that was his thing. Now, the other guy is Gene Wilder, and Gene Wilder we know from many Mel Brooks films, as well as many other spoof comedy type films that he was in with Richard Pryor. There's a lot of times Gene Wilder was in films, did a lot of them, and Mel Brooks put these two together. Unbelievable. Now the whole story of the producers is basically Zero Mostow, a Broadway producer that's a failure, and the only way he can get funding for his productions is to play up to rich, well-to-do elderly women. That's as far as we're going to go with that. lovely age for a girl in fact it's a lovely age for a woman of 40 Gene Wilder plays an accountant that's coming in to kind of see things and see how he's doing things and whatever and they kind of begin to have a conversation and Gene Wilder talks to him and says you know what, the way things are going this really could be that if you got enough money and got enough of the money, the fundings from backers for your Broadway produced play, and it failed, you could probably keep most of the money and you'd make a whole lot more money from a Broadway failure than a Broadway success. Bing! That blew Zero Mostel's mind. And he says, huh, I can't believe this. And so he goes into this whole thing of let's do it. And Gene Wilder's like, no, no, no, that's not what I had in mind. That's not what I was saying. I was just saying. I was just saying. And so finally he does enough that he brings him in. Zero Most Out brings him in and says, hey, come on, let's do this. So they finally get out and they start to do this and start to fix this thing. Oh, I'm telling you. Gene Wilder is absolutely crazy in this film he is so emotional in a funny way that it has to be seen to be believed it is absolutely crazy off the wall he has a little blanket and he sits there and he rubs the blanket against his face trying to calm down it's absolutely hilarious it's a hilarious film Now, it is one of, probably it is Mel Brooks, probably one of his funniest, if not the funniest films of all time The idea here is that they produce this play, and they're going to get this play And they got the worst possible play they can find And it is, now get this, okay, it is springtime for Hitler What? You've got to be kidding me That's okay. Well, you want a Broadway flop? Well, there you go, right? There you go. So they produce this play. They get everybody together. They put it in, and then they're producing this play. They get everybody in there. All the audience is in there, and they're watching this play, and they're watching Springtime for Hitler. Well, everybody in the audience, as this is going on, is sitting there jaw wide open. Just shocked at what they're watching here. and Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder's characters say, we got it this is going to be a flop let get out of here before uh you know intermission because they be killing us so they go across uh to to get away from and lo and behold don they realize that when it's all said and done it becomes a smash success there's in lines the problem because they have sold the rights the the shares of the profits to all these people and they've gone like through, what, 300%, 400% profits and, you know, our shares. So now they've got to go well above and beyond. They're never going to get all this money to pay in to all the shares and the parts to the production that they have sold out to people. I mean, how are they going to do it? They can't. So they end up having to go before the courts and before the judge. and wow, it's crazy. It's a crazy film, but it is so much fun. Now, The Producers is actually an amazing film, but what makes this even better is the fact Kino Lorber Studio Classics have released this film on Blu-ray, and I love that cover art. If those of you who are listening to the audio version, well, you can't see the cover art. But definitely check out the cover art. Going to Amazon, search it out. The cover art is amazing. But you can see it is a beautiful cover art for those of you that are watching the video. It is absolutely amazing. And this release here looks absolutely gorgeous. beautiful transfer to Blu-ray here on the Kina Lorber Studio Classics Blu-ray here I mean just a gorgeous, gorgeous Blu-ray release beyond just the film and we don't get just the film no, no, no, not with Kina Lorber, no, no, no we get an audio commentary which is very, very cool You get the making of the producer's featurette, which is unbelievable. You get outtakes from this film, which is so awesome. Sketch gallery. You get a Peter Sellers, yes, Peter Sellers, the amazing comedian, a Peter Sellers statement read, which is unbelievable. You get Radio Spot, which tells you for radio fans that you get the Radio Spot. And you get the theatrical trailer. Just an amazing amount of bonus features here on this release. And I am just so, so excited about this film. To see this on Blu-ray in high definition and the way it looks and how beautiful it looks and how amazing it is put together. Wow. So it is just, and like I said, the artwork on that front cover is just absolutely amazing. It is a great, great release. I have never seen such an amazing release in my life. I've always wanted to see the producers. Now, this was my first time ever seeing the producers. I've always wanted to. They've been on Turner Classic movies in different places before, and I've always meant to watch it. and I never got a chance to do it. I've watched all kinds of Mel Brooks films, all kinds of them, but I've never seen his first film until this time. And wow, what a way to see it is this way from Kino Lorber Studio Classics in high definition and looking absolutely spectacular. The picture quality of this is unbelievable. you're looking for the best possible picture quality and in here we get it it is unbelievable as I sat down I tried not to examine the film because you kind of want to just enjoy it right so I didn't sit down and actually examine the film while I was watching it but I did kind of pay attention and as I looked at this film I saw absolutely no signs of any sort of sort of degradation to the picture any sort of bad specks or spots or anything It was just perfectly crystal clear, in my opinion. The colors are bright and vibrant, especially for the stage production of Springtime for Hitler with all the reds and the blacks. I mean, it just pops. And, I mean, everything is just psychedelic amazing. It really is. Because you do have to take into consideration this film was made in 68. So you had the 60s, you had all those psychedelic colors, you had all that going on. So that's kind of what you're going to get here with this. You have all that going on. And hippies and all that type of stuff going on. So it is just amazing. I love it. um kina lorbert has done one amazing job uh with uh this release and i cannot say enough how amazing it really is it is so so cool what a way for me to see the film for the first time i like i like it i'm just so glad this was my first viewing of this film not on you know an old uh TV from way back in the day or like a VHS version or whatever. No, high definition, unbelievable. Love it. And, you know, just as a little side note, too, as well, just to let you know, this is not the only Mel Brooks film Keenal Order has released here recently. They also released, as you may know, the film Spaceballs, which is another iconic film, one that we talked about earlier on. This is the space version of his spoofing of a genre. And I love this film. This is one of my favorite space, one of my favorite Mel Brooks films. Love this. And to see it in high definition and looking as good as it does, wow. It is so cool. This is on Blu-ray, and it is also on Ultra HD as well. So definitely very, very cool. Well, baby, oh, baby, oh, baby, well, baby, yeah, baby, yeah, baby, well, baby, oh, yeah, oh, yeah, oh, yeah. And we want to remind you to be sure to like, share, and subscribe to these videos. We would love to hear from you your thoughts on these Mel Brooks films. What's your favorite Mel Brooks film? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to go to retroac.blogspot.com. Read articles, reviews, Blu-ray and DVD reviews, videos, watch videos, podcasts, our extensive amount of podcasts, and so much more that is available on retroac.blogspot.com. Again, go to kinolorber.com. Check out all their amazing releases, including these two. See all about them. And until we see you next time with another podcast, this is Pastor Jay, wishing you a blessed day. and remember if you want to see a great film check out a classic and we will see you next time here on the Retro Drive-In Podcast see you next time, bye everybody we want to thank you for joining us today on the Retro Drive-In Podcast with Jason Pastor Jay Lockhart have you heard the latest about McCavish? what's he done now? he's living on the roof why would he be living on the roof? he heard someone say the drinks are on the house the drinks are on the house you don't A little late, so good night, folks. Be sure to subscribe to our channel so that you can be notified when new content goes live. Bam. Out of an ecchi. Thanks again to all our sponsors for their help in making this podcast possible. I'll see you back at the hut. Oh, no, we couldn't leave a poor defenseless girl like you out alone in this jungle. Yeah, you need two defenseless men to protect you. Think for yourself. Remember to join us next time for another retro drive-in podcast with Jason Pastor Jay Lockhart.