jokes you miss first time round - The Producers (1968) Discussion

i don't get it..(sorry)

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[–] herbertanchovy 18 years ago

the karmann ghia was a small pseudo sports car built on the VW beetle chassis

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during the musical, a little explosion goes off in a potted plant or something, and LSD as Hitler says "They try...man, how they try..."
i learned later this was reference to unsuccessful assasination attempts on Hitler.

Leo Bloom being named after the James Joyce character...the Kafka reference, old Mel's a pretty cultured dude.

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[–] shani-3 17 years ago

I just realized how literally "golden" those chorus girls' hair was!

Yeah, they're dead; they're all messed up...

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[–] dachshundweaver 11 years ago

Hands down my favorite literary reference in the movie is when Bialystock calls Bloom "Prince Myshkin"—that's the main character in the "The Idiot" by Dostoyevsky, a fragile, neurotic, sweet little man.

Edit: Damn, already been mentioned.

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[–] elena-28 11 years ago

There's a stuffed pigeon inside a glass case in Franz's apartment (you get a very, very quick glimpse of it, on Leo's side of the screen).

I always noticed this and liked it: as they walk on Jane street to see Franz, Leo and Max pass by a pretty young girl in a plaid dress. Max takes a very quick, appreciative glance at her. When they leave, complete with the Nazi armbands, the same girl passes by them again, with a young man by her side. Had absolutely nothing to do with anything at all, but the little detail is rather nice, and establishes a certain who-knows-what about the neighborhood and the movie itself.

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[–] jgroub 10 years ago

Just noticed this right now, and came here to post on this myself, and I see it's already listed as a goof. I don't think I would have noticed except that Max checks her out, and then there she is again when they leave.

I don't think it's a detail; I think it's the producers of the movie being too cheap to hire another couple of extras.

I want the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.

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[–] nocomputer1962 17 years ago

I stumbled across the meanings behind "Kharmann Ghia" and "Gregor Samsa" years after my first viewing of The Producers. However, Bialystock's description of Bloom as "Prince Mishkin" was so obscure, that I finally had to google it out of sheer desperation. [For those who are too impatient to google "Prince Mishkin", Bialystock is apparently calling Bloom an idiot.]

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[–] laurence01 17 years ago

Also "Gregor Samsa", and "Prince Mishkin" are both references to "Kafka"

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[–] Berubens 17 years ago

Sorry, Prince Mishkin is a reference to Dostoyevsky (Sp?)
Arkansan

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[–] furthured 16 years ago

Prince Myshkin (from Dostoyevsky's "The Idiot") is not actually an idiot but, rather, a simpleton and completely innocent. That is why Bialystock calls Leo "Prince Myshkin"

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[–] sister-woman 16 years ago

I only just recently found out that Leopold Bloom is the protagonist in James Joyce's "Ulysses".

I guess that's some kind of joke, but I don't get it.

Here's info on the character from "Ulysses" which I found on wikipedia:

Mr Leopold Bloom ate with relish the inner organs of beasts and fowls. He liked thick giblet soup, nutty gizzards, a stuffed roast heart, liverslices fried with crustcrumbs, fried hencods' roes. Most of all he liked grilled mutton kidneys which gave to his palate a fine tang of faintly scented urine.

Yuck.

Es ist mir egal.

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[–] Grammaw_Oddree 11 years ago

This is totally unrelated to the movie, but the Jefferson Airplane did a song that same year (as "The Producers") which reference Joyce's "Ulysses".

The lyrics read:
"Mulligan stew for Bloom, the only Jew in the room.
Saxons put on their holy dregs and are constantly getting throw up on thier legs."

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[–] MovieMaven907 13 years ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Myshkin

Got us a serial killer, love those, always something to look forward to.

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[–] BillyFisher 16 years ago

I've watched the film loads of times, but only noticed the Gregor Samsa/Kafka/Metamorphosis joke for the first time today!

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[–] Bob_Schuka 16 years ago

Liebkind refers to Hitler's supposed talents as a 'painter', i.e. a housepainter.

(The real Hitler tried--unsuccessfully--to become a painter, i.e. an artist.)

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[–] VenomX 16 years ago

I didn't see the irony of casting a very liberal hippy as a fascist dictator the first time around.

Your day could be worse

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[–] leosblueblanket88 16 years ago

When Roger De Bris is describing the women's uniforms, he says to Carmen Ghia, sort of as an aside, "S & M". I didn't catch him saying this the first few times I saw the movie, and when I did hear him say it, it still took me a long time (being the innocent little prude that I am) to figure out what it meant, and why Carmen seemed so delighted about it.

I want...I want...I WANT EVERYTHING I'VE EVER SEEN IN THE MOVIES!

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[–] antybuns 16 years ago

Only just noticed-and Lord knows how many times I ve seen this film-that B n B have a chauffeur called Rodolfo,as in Hold Me Touch Me's fantasy at the beginning.

"Stick with Bialy"

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[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Doug_K 15 years ago

I didn't get it until recently, but when Franz is going on about how much better Hitler was than Churchill and Franz starts imitaiting Churchill's pronounciation of nazis as "Nawww-ziies". I also overlooked for the longest time Bialystock and Bloom (2 Jews) leaving Franz's apartment wearing swazstikas on their arms.

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[–] joisepeterson 15 years ago

During the Heil myself and Springtime for Hitler, Gary Beach mouths "I love you" to the audience.
I thought the whole song with the reich etc was well put together.

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[–] stevem-26 15 years ago

The Trivia section claims that Roger DeBris was based on Ed Wood, that truly wonderful producer and director of fine Z movies in the 50s.

Apart from the cross dressing, does anyone know what other similarities there are?

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[–] puirt-a-beul 15 years ago

I don't think that's correct, in that there aren't any direct links. (The "Trivia" section is as bad as Wikipedia sometimes -- anyone can write anything they imagine, wheyher it's really factual or not.) I think Roger de Bris (and I love the name -- "debris", as in what's left behind after a wreck) was merely a stereotypical no-hoper pretentious director, of which there have always been *a lot*, both in theatre and the movies.

You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.

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[–] hotspurpagg 13 years ago

I just watched it again today and for the first time I noticed how Liebkind always makes sure his medals are pinned to his front - even when he is wrapped head to toe in bandages!

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[–] SepiaLife 13 years ago

I missed LSD's reference to Andy Warhol in wearing the soup can around his neck until today! It seems to make sense considering Warhol's color scheme was generally "trippy."

Optimism: Waiting for a ship to come in when you haven't sent one out.

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[–] Bob_Schuka 12 years ago

Although his name is pronounced "da-BREE" like the word debris, notice that it includes a space--De Bris--perhaps a reference to the Jewish bris?

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[–] jgroub 10 years ago

Knowing Mel, I don't think there's any perhaps about it.

I want the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.

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[–] justgold79 11 years ago

The accountants company has Marx in their name a la Karl Marx and the communist manifesto - taxes are a way of 'sharing' the wealth. Just kidding!

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[–] meallen2727 11 years ago

And then of course, Liebkind's name (whatever it might actually mean in German) translates very literally to "Love Child," in other words, "bastard."

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[–] Dextrousleftie 11 years ago

In the courtroom scene, Max's middle finger is bandaged up in the air, so that he is literally giving the courtroom the finger!

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[–] Bob_Schuka 10 years ago

The accountants company has Marx in their name a la Karl Marx and the communist manifesto...

...or the Marx Brothers.

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[–] GeorgeBailey 8 years ago

LSD wearing a Campbell Soup can necklace during the audition. Andy Warhol jewelry?

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