The Producers is one of my absolute favourite comedies. It's not perfect, and some parts don't really work (LSD in particular dates the film a bit too much, although his Love Power song is funny), but most of it works, and works at a comedic level that I am in awe of every time I watch it. There's a reason why a comedy legend like Peter Sellers took out an advert in Variety to proclaim the genius of the film.
Springtime For Hitler in particular is one of the funniest things I have ever seen. I completely lost it when they cut to the overhead Busby-Berkley shot.
Zero Mostel is great, but Gene Wilder (an actor that I've never really rated before) really surprised me. Just his performance in that first scene where he is terrorised by Max is one of the most perfectly measured timed and executed pieces of comic brilliance I have ever seen. Mel Brooks really knew how to et great performances out of Gene Wilder.
The stage show is really great (although the varying reports about the movie version have me worried, I'm still looking forward to it). But the thing that surprised me about the show was that the ending was reworked, and worked a lot better. In the orignal film, the characters
But in the stage show
I have a real love-hate relationship with Mel Brooks. Even in his great films (Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein) there is a lot of material that I hate, as well as some really great material that make it worth ploughing through the bad stuff. But The Producers is so close to perfect that even the lesser material never feels like a chore to watch.