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Awix (3310 KP) rated The Producers (1967) in Movies

Jul 9, 2021

The Producers (1967)

1967 | Classics, Comedy

8.3

(19 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

Relentless knockabout bad-taste farce from Mel Brooks. A corrupt theatrical producer and his accountant embark upon a scheme to fraudulently make a fortune by mounting the worst play in history. Promising idea, and the brilliantly-staged opening number from Springtime for Hitler (all dancing SS officers and goose-stepping showgirls) is inspired, but the rest of the film struggles to meet the same standards.

The movie feels like a frenetic mixture of old-fashioned vaudeville and scatter-gun satire; there was probably something curiously dated about it even fifty-odd years ago. While it does acknowledge the counter-culture of the 60s (there's a hippy beatnik character, amongst other things), it doesn't feel like it was made by or for a young audience. Viewers nowadays may not be troubled by deliberately provocative jokes about Hitler or over-sexed pensioners, but jokes about dumb blondes in bikinis and camp transvestites feel a bit uncomfortable. Passes the time amiably, and worth watching just to see Springtime for Hitler in context, but I'd struggle to call it an actual classic.

Kudos

Awix (3310 KP) rated The Great God Pan in Books

Aug 21, 2019

The Great God Pan

Arthur Machen | 1894 | Fiction & Poetry, Horror, Science Fiction/Fantasy

5.0

(3 Ratings)

Book Rating

Classic of late Victorian horror-fantasy. A misguided scientist performs a surgical procedure on a young woman's brain which leads to her madness and death; but over the years that follow it becomes clear that he is also responsible for unleashing something much, much more disturbing.

It's slightly amusing to consider that this novella was criticised on first release for its decadence and sexual content - by modern standards it is, on the surface at least, very tame. But that's the nature of the beast in this case - this is a horror story where all the disturbing scenes happen off-stage, which is where the monster stays as well. Everything happens through implication, and is left somewhat to the reader's imagination, a trick which Machen pulls off rather more deftly than some writers who hailed him as an influence. I must be honest and say that the lack of a big reveal and a genuine climax wrong-footed me a bit, but the story is on the whole ingeniously structured and well-written, atmospheric and unsettling.