14 Facts About Mel Brooks' Comedy Classic Only Major Fans Will Know

Brooks' first film, "The Producers" would be a sign of the career to come. The comedy follows a desperate Broadway producer (Zero Mostel) and his accountant (Gene Wilder), who attempt to scam investors by producing a musical designed to close on opening night, a musical tribute to Adolf Hitler written by a deranged ex-Nazi. As expected, Hollywood studios were hesitant to distribute a film like "The Producers," which paints Hitler in a comic light, but Brooks eventually got financial support from independent financier Sidney Glazier.

Years later, critic Roger Ebert would recount an exchange he witnessed that pretty much summed up Brooks' attitude during this period. Ebert was on an elevator with Brooks and wife Anne Bancroft in New York when a woman got on. Recognizing the filmmaker, she said of "Producers": "I have to tell you, Mr. Brooks, that your movie is vulgar." Brooks replied: "Lady, it rose below vulgarity."

Covering a topic like antisemitism in a comedic satire was ambitious for Brooks, but it was the only way he knew how to tackle such serious subject matter. As he told NPR in 2018, he wasn't interested in debating anti-Semites but that "if you can make fun of [Hitler], if you can have people laugh at him, you win." 

Brooks carried this approach over to his future films, particularly "Blazing Saddles" and its depiction of racism in Hollywood. When the film recently incited retrospective controversy, celebrities like Whoopi Goldberg adamantly defended it. "History of the World: Part I" would be a different beast altogether, as Brooks' film was set to parody religion, foreign cultures, and other potentially controversial historical events. As "History of the World: Part II" collaborator Nick Kroll told the Television Critics Association, "Mel's ultimate goal was to poke fun at those in power."