The once-great Max Bialystock (Mostel) had once been the toast of Broadway, but now he has been reduced to a washed-up, aging, fraudulent, corruptible, and greedy Broadway producer who barely ekes out a hand-to-mouth existence romancing lascivious, wealthy elderly women ("angels" in theatrical terms) in exchange for money for his next play. Accountant Leopold "Leo" Bloom (Wilder), a young man who is highly nervous and prone to hysterics, arrives at Max's office to do his books and discovers a $2,000 discrepancy in the accounts of Max's last play. Max persuades Leo to hide the relatively minor fraud, and while shuffling numbers, Leo has a revelation: a producer could make a lot more money with a flop than a hit by overselling shares in the production, because no one will audit the books of a play presumed to have lost money. Max immediately puts this scheme into action. They will oversell shares on a massive scale and produce a play that will close on opening night, thus avoiding payouts and leaving the duo free to flee to Rio de Janeiro with the profits. Leo is afraid such a criminal venture will fail and they will go to prison, but Max eventually convinces him that his drab existence is no better than prison. Read more on Wikipedia.
MPAA Rating: | PG |
Genre: | Comedy |
Country: | United States |
Produced By: | Sidney Glazier, Joseph E. Levine, Jack Grossberg |
Directed By: | Mel Brooks |
Written By: | Mel Brooks |
Cast: | Ron Charles, Lee Meredith, Andréas Voutsinas, Bill Macy, Mary Loane, Zale Kessler, Diana Eden, John Zoller, Estelle Winwood, John Braden, William Hickey, Lisa Kirk, Josip Elic, Clifton Steere, Bud Truland, Arthur Rubin, Christopher Hewett, David Patch, Anne Ives, Gene Wilder, Robert Paget, Rusty Blitz, Brutus Peck, Dick Shawn, Tucker Smith, Robert Dahdah, Lore Noto, Madelyn Cates, Renée Taylor, Barney Martin, Trent Gough, Nell Harrison, Amelie Barleon, Bernie Allen, Linda Gillen, Shimen Ruskin, Frank Campanella, Mary Love, Hank Garrett, Mel Brooks, Kenneth Mars |
In Theaters: | Nov 10, 1968 |
Runtime: | 1 hour 28 minutes |
Production: | Crossbow Productions, Springtime Productions, U-M Productions |
Box Office: | $111,866 |